Building a Fashion Brand on Youtube

As the earth becomes more than technologically advanced, the demand for two-mode communication between brand and consumer has become stronger. This written report tried to develop a relationship between the rise in new media and luxury brands by content analyzing Chanel, Dior, and Burberry'south YouTube channels that aims to categorize their video content into the following three categories: musical performances, historical narratives, and backside-the-scenes footage. The report found that as social media becomes more prevalent in today'due south society, these three luxury brands are steering abroad from brand advertisements and now promoting brand entertainment to engage consumers. Companies across all industries can employ these findings to create advertizing content that is entertaining, which will help them better reach their target consumer.

The rise of new media has significantly shaped how social club shares and receives information. Companies are at present looking to social media as a means to engage and communicate with their target consumers. Online applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram, are taking over the social media globe. As the traditional communication tactics of print media and pure word of oral fissure are slowly enfeebled, more and more companies are turning to social media to spread news about their company in an entertaining and engaging format.

This report focused on how luxury fashion brands are utilizing YouTube to communicate with high manner consumers. According to Reyneke (2011), non only practise luxury brands have a unique customer base with a set of specific characteristics, but they are also divers past a unique prepare of features:

"luxury brands evoke exclusivity,"

"they have a well known identity,"

"they enjoy loftier brand sensation and perceived quality,"

"they retain sales levels and customer loyalty" (Reyneke, 2011)

A recent article published in The Wall Street Journal supports the belief that luxury fashion companies are turning to YouTube to market place their brand (Shields, 2014). A study by OpenSlate, a YouTube brand analytics company, revealed that the summit three nearly influential luxury mode brands on YouTube are (1) Chanel, (2) Dior, and (three) Burberry (run into Figure ane). This research examined how the iii brands apply YouTube to engage with consumers. This report discussed what communication strategies these companies are using in terms of brand entertainment to connect with their audiences via YouTube.

Figure 1. OpenSlate Report on Luxury Fashion Brands and YouTube (SlateScore is out of x total points)

To empathize the impact that YouTube has had on how consumers now engage with their favorite brands, an private must consider how drastically the demand for these interactive and entertaining social media platforms has grown over the by decade.

YouTube was started in 2005 with few followers as one of the many websites that introduced video sharing (Burgess & Dark-green, 2009). The creators of YouTube–Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim– aimed to create a video-sharing interface that was extremely user-friendly for consumers with niggling to no technological knowledge. A yr after it was launched, Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion dollars. Co-ordinate to Burgess & Light-green (2009), just three years after its launch, website and data analytics companies deemed YouTube to be i of the top ten virtually consistently visited websites effectually the earth. Today, Yous- Tube is the 2d-almost searched website in the world (Qualman, 2013). According to YouTube's "Statistics" folio, more ane billion users visit YouTube each calendar month ("Statistics").

The popularity of YouTube spread similar wildfire due to its user-friendly interface and its power to spread news in an entertaining format. Considering it is so expensive to run commercials on television, companies rely on YouTube equally a mode to release video content for their target consumers and get people conversing most their brand (Burgess & Light-green, 2009). In terms of luxury brands, YouTube is a platform where companies like Chanel, Dior, and Burberry can post videos nether the advertising strategy of make entertainment that help build a special relationship between the company and the luxury consumer.

The luxury market is now in the maturity stage of the business life bike, according to Kim and Ko (2010). They suggest that this stage is characterized by the power to cater to a wide variety of consumers and a significant increase in the number of consumers. With the combination of platforms such every bit YouTube and the success of the luxury market, these brands have turned to make entertainment to achieve the consumer. This term, which is besides referred to as "Madison and Vine," is divers as "a reference to continually converging advertizing and entertainment coined from the names of two renowned avenues that represent the two industries, respectively," (O'Guinn, Allen, Semenik, & Close, 2012, p. 213). This marketing communications vehicle has resulted in a shift in how brands are choosing to market their product.

The author investigated how Chanel, Dior, and Burberry accept utilized YouTube and make amusement to communicate, engage, and build long-term relationships with their consumers.

Although social media marketing and the luxury consumer have been researched separately, the direct relationship between both was rarely studied, especially between the platform of YouTube and luxury brands. The author examined studies that have examined social media marketing, YouTube/Web 2.0, luxury brands, and the luxury consumer.

A written report performed by Kim & Ko (2010) analyzed the utilize of social media marketing (SMM) and the impact information technology has on luxury consumers and overall brand disinterestedness. They specifically studied Louis Vuitton's social media platforms and measured their content against five split up categories related to social media marketing. The categories included "entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and word of mouth" (Kim & Ko, 2010, p. iii). The written report focused on how SMM affects specifically customer equity and the overall intent to purchase a luxury make product later their social media marketing is viewed.

Through an in-depth written report of Louis Vuitton'southward social media, these ii authors establish that SMM has an extremely positive issue on luxury brands. The results of this report uncover the following:

Luxury brand's SMM entertains customers considering information technology is costless and allows them to choose what information the consumer wants to procedure.

SMM allows for luxury brands to create interactive content that is ofttimes passed on through discussion-ofmouth.

SMM goes deeper than typical marketing as it focuses on making the consumer enlightened of the values of the make and its products.

Luxury brands focus their SMM on more than "hedonic and empirical values that tin exist reached past indirect brand experience" (Kim & Ko, 2010, p.1)

Kim & Ko concluded that a luxury make'due south social communications positively impacts the consumer because information technology attempts to attain the customer in a way that is unique and more personal.

Another study published in the Life Science Journal explained that companies that do non take a social media strategy will non survive in the new, more digitally focused society of today (Saravanakumar & Lakshmi, 2012). The authors stated that this increase in social media has drastically changed how companies communicate with consumers because information technology has immune them to "intensify" their engagement. Unlike Kim & Ko's report (2010), Saravanakumar & Lakshmi (2012) found that while SMM lets the corporation represent with the consumer, it likewise allows for the consumer to communicate with the company. This open form of two-mode advice allows for customers to communicate with the company and vice versa. This has many implications for companies, every bit their SMM strategy must exist consistent with their brand identity.

Thackeray, Neiger, Hanson, and McKenzie (2008) chose to focus on how YouTube is an constructive manner for these brands to communicate and engage with their target audition. This study examined how brands tin can enhance promotional strategies through Web ii.0 and social media. Web 2.0 goes across the 1-style communication of Spider web 1.0, allowing users to engage with the media through commenting, sharing, liking, etc. The study concluded that brands should use Spider web 2.0 to communicate with their consumers for two reasons. The offset is that marketing via social media platforms allows the consumer to engage with the brand instead of passively a company's marketing efforts (Thackeray, Neiger, Hanson, & McKenzie, 2008). This makes consumers feel that they have a more than personal relationship with the company. Second, marketing via Web 2.0 allows for a marketing bulletin to spread more rapidly because information technology sparks give-and-take-of-oral fissure marketing. For example, Chanel published a short video for the No. five fragrance on their YouTube channel, entitled "The One that I Want," starring model Giselle Bündchen. Due to social media marketing and word-of-mouth issue, it had about 4.iii meg hits on YouTube in just over 2 weeks. Although this study focused on applying aspects of Web two.0 to health practitioners, the same idea can exist practical to any brand in any field since information technology can benefit from incorporating social media marketing into its promotional tactics. As the world becomes more technologically advanced, the demand for ii-fashion communication betwixt brand and consumer becomes stronger.

A like study published past Cormode & Krishnamurthy (2008), which compared and contrasted Web one.0 and Web two.0 to identify key differences betwixt the two, showed how marketers can adapt to this new class of ii-way communication. According to them, the consumer solely acted as a passive consumer in Web 1.0, whereas in Web two.0, any individual is able to create, mail, and share content that he or she has created. Effigy 2 depicts the paths in which content travels from the creator to the consumer in Web ii.0. You- Tube is shown as the to the lowest degree intrusive way to distribute macro-content from the content creator to the content consumer.

Figure 2. Paths from content creator to the consumer in Web 2.0

Every bit discussed earlier, luxury brands are divers past beingness exclusive and well known, having high brand awareness, and maintaining consistent loyalty among their customers and high sales levels (Reyneke, 2011). Luxury brands are besides characterized past a need for omnipresence on a global scale. The demand for luxury brand goods is growing steadily as developing countries are becoming more industrialized considering it produces more wealth for consumers to buy luxury goods.

Although luxury brands typically possess a secure sector of the marketplace, marketers must understand how to strategically appoint consumers with their luxury make to maintain luxury brand consistency (Reynke, 2011).

Hader's study examined the coaction of social media marketing, Spider web 2.0, luxury brands, and the luxury consumer. Marketing specifically to the luxury consumer requires consideration of their psychology, habits, and beliefs. Hader (2008) examined habits and desires of those individuals who are classified as luxury customers. The author institute that the scope of the luxury market has widened significantly in the past decade considering wealth has spread, and that the typical luxury consumer has a different gear up of needs and motivations, which has resulted in a restructuring of the luxury market. The article categorized luxury consumers into three master segments: 1) ultra- high net worth (i.e. Pecker Gates), ii) wealthy (i.east. stars, actors, musicians) and 3) aspirational (i.e. typically affluent but non always).

Harder (2008) institute that although luxury consumers are divided into three tiers based on the magnitude of their wealth, they share four different characteristics that influence their use of luxury items. Outset, buying luxury products is about "indulgence and expression." Luxury consumers vary their fashion choices in social club to express their mode equally an individual. Because these individuals are engaging with multiple brands to put together a await, marketers must take this into consideration.

Second, consumers value the luxury "experience" more than the actual product. This is crucial in understanding how to market place to the luxury consumer considering information technology allows the marketer to understand that they don't but desire a surface level advertisement of a new product. These luxury consumers want something that permeates the surface level advertisements and makes them experience as though they were getting an exclusive sneak peak or backside-the-scenes await into a luxury brand.

Third, Hader (2008) pointed out that for a luxury consumer to indulge or splurge, it must be "worth it." Although these consumers are in the upper tier when it comes to money, they still evaluate and counterbalance their purchases in their mind. This feature drives marketers to provide consumers with a reason to buy a luxury product.

Fourth, luxury consumers await an "emotionally rewarding and affirmative experience" (Hader, 2008) with every single interaction they accept with the brand. Marketers are shifting their advertising focus to content that is interactive and allows for the consumer to experience equally though they had a stake in or relationship with the brand itself.

Hader (2008) concluded that sales and loyalty will follow strategic make engagement. The more luxury brands provide a consumer with an experience that elicits emotion, the more successful the company volition be, and the more make-loyal the customer volition remain.

Based on literature review, this report aimed to answer the following questions:Continued on Side by side Page »

• RQ1: What is the overall strategy in which luxury brands communicate with their consumers via You- Tube?
• RQ2: What are the cardinal differences among the 3 luxury brands' execution of these strategies?
• RQ3: Is the brand'due south overall communications/SMM strategy consequent with the brand identity?

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