In the past months I have been in contact with many European luxury brands on the digital topic. Whether they are independent or part of a group, emerging or based on heritage practices, family own or managed by a fund, they are all interested and concerned with the way digital is shaping their market and how it will transform their business plan.

• All have overcome the “WHY?” step. They are aware that digital is reshaping their customer’s way of living and their own business processes and tools.

• They have decided on the “WHEN?” step : it’s NOW for all. It’s happening or boiling up to exist…

• Brands are dealing with the “WHAT FOR?” step : for luxury brands used to an offer posture, it’s kind of new to think about customer experience or expectations.

• As for the “WHAT?” step, it is common thinking that staying true to the brand DNA is the decisive criteria.

• However, brand maturities vary on the “HOW?” and the “WHO?” steps.

Imagining brands on the digital learning curve is interesting:

• First it’s clearly a S-curve (or Sigmoid function),
• All brands are climbing hard on the learning axis (vertical),
• Very few brands are advanced on the experience axis (horizontal).
• None have reached yet the boring plateau step.
• However, I must say I witnessed one brand sliding down the digital learning curve! How sad!

2016

So, at the time of the year when you wish to look only in front and decide on good resolutions, here are my best wishes for luxury brands on digital topics :

Be as fast as runway show

Digital is such a quick evolving world that long decision processes are simply not applicable; agility is key. Enable your teams to test quickly, teach them to leverage their possible failures for future great results…

Use data as if it was a diamond

It’s time to propel data topics to a new era. This incredibly precious source of information needs to be safely stored, analyzed by experts and positioned in full light to reveal it’s incredible shine… Data is not a KPI topic but a brand DNA mutation topic you need to deal with.

Hand stich digital within your retail and marketing strategies

Forget about digital as a stand-alone topic. Digital is a way (amongst other topics which also need your attention) to sustain and grow your business and provide a brand and customer experience to your luxurious standards. Integrate digital in your overall business vision and plans. Use digital to shift to a more client centric approach.

Create the sparkles that attracts millennials

Understand and focus on this new generation of customers to provide them relevant and surprising experiences. Use digital tools to facilitate personalization or disrupt your services. Innovate to lead.

 

I have been a witness of the luxury business digital transformation for the past 15 years.

I wish 2016 to be another

exciting and innovative year

for the luxury industry!