LVMH The Luxury Goods Giant Will Use Digital Marketing

Recently, reporter Yves Messarovich revealed in his new book.

Bernard Arnott, chairman and CEO of the group, regretted that he did not seize the opportunity to invest in Microsoft Corp, so he paid special attention to the group's action in the Internet field.

The brand has always been very subtle in the face of digital development. They always worry that the Internet will expose the brand too much, so that the high-end image of hard work will be devalued.

However, the current consumers, especially the millennials, are acquiring brand information and choice.

The channel is more and more inclined to digital platform, leading to the luxury industry in the retail and marketing mode has to make corresponding adjustments.

Burberry is the first and most active luxury brand to take the initiative to embrace the Internet.

From the webcast fashion show to the first to use Snapchat to release the brand advertisement, and even the proportion of its digital products used to provide services to guests is much higher than other brands. Tommy Hilfiger is the first brand to communicate with consumers by using Facebook Messenger intelligent chatting robot (Chatbot). Prada has turned the website into a digital museum, and consumers or fans can find all kinds of graphic information from the website to the brand.

Burberry uses the most advanced digital technology in flagship store in Regent Street, London, to provide services for guests online and offline.

In China, Burberry and Coach have settled in Tmall Mall (currently Coach has voluntarily downloaded from Tmall platform), Dior has worked with Tencent to sell Limited package bags at WeChat end, and Chanel, which has been publicly rejecting e-commerce, has chosen to sell the latest "perfume No. five" on WeChat.

Although the testing of these brands in the digital field has caused a lot of controversy, on the whole, the top brands of high quality conform to the change of consumers' buying patterns, and they do get good feedback.

At the end of 2015, in cooperation with luxury department stores in the United States, after the sale of 2016 early spring ladies' shoes on each other's official website, Dior sold limited edition bags on WeChat on 2016.

When Louis Vuiiton held a series of early spring conferences at Palm Springs in Colorado desert, California, in 2015, the front row of Apple Corp was the CEO of Tim Cook, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, which was a carefully arranged meeting by Arnott.

It is learnt that through meeting with these IT giants, Arnott not only invested in Google cautiously, but also included a start-up company called "Return Leo", which mainly introduced some talented foreign technicians to the United States, many of whom were professionals in the digital field.

There is also a young man named Alexander Arnott.

The youngest son of the Arnott family, who was rarely exposed by the media, attended a top science and Technology University in Paris and was also a fanatical technological enthusiast.

Recently, he has entered LVMH group and engaged in investment in digital field.

Alexandre Arnault and Bernard Arnault at Louis Vuitton 2016 early spring dress series

At the Viva Tech Summit last summer, LVMH group revealed more than 40 new projects in different fields, including 3D jewelry printing.

At the same time, Arnott is convinced that he can no longer miss the opportunities given by the Internet age. He appointed Ian Rogers, who was responsible for the Apple Music project, as the chief digital officer of the group. This is the first time that the chief digital officer has appeared in the luxury goods industry.

Rogers will make full use of the Internet and other digital platforms for image promotion and product distribution of many brands under the group.

After taking office, Ian Rogers sees itself as an executive project leader, helping the designers of different brands of the group to understand their respective brands' ongoing or upcoming projects. The chief digital officer believes that luxury brands will eventually be perfectly compatible with the digital age.

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LVMH group chief digital officer Ian Rogers

Rogers's plan for the future is very clear. That is to pform the more than 70 brands of LVMH group digitally: "we need to turn digitalization into a part of these brand life, just like mobile phones are inseparable from modern human life."

Earlier, Rogers said in a French magazine interview that the new criterion for measuring time is "one click": "in the past, when you lived in a small city in Indiana, if you saw a bag of Louis Vuitton, after considering it and decided to buy it, you could only drive for four hours, and buy it in a store in Chicago.

But now, you only need to click lightly on the Internet, and the product will soon be sent to you. So, as a brand, you need to show your products to consumers around the world, but you can't shop all over the world, so the digital platform is the best solution.

But things are not so easy and simple.

For different brands, they need to view this problem correctly according to their market positioning and brand tonality.

For example, LVMH group's C LINE has been keeping a certain distance from the Internet, but this has not weakened women's yearning for their bags and garments.

Similarly, Marco Bizzarri, the current chief executive of Gucci, said in an interview that some brands did not need to put too much effort into the digital field, because at a certain time, they would lose their uniqueness and lose their brand edge and value, and eventually they would be hit hard.

LVMH's Bulgari recently began selling jewelry products on its official website.

The jewellery series, called B zero 1, has achieved great success on the digital platform.

The brand invested millions of dollars in publicity and promotion.

In three months, this series achieved double-digit growth in the income of the electronic business platform.

In this regard, Aldo Magada, the chief executive of Swiss brand Zenith, said that online retail and offline retail are all businesses, but don't forget that online retail procedures are also complex, which means that your investment does not necessarily generate returns.

But it is certain that sales driven by digital platforms will continue to grow in the next few years.