Luxury Online - Uche Okonkwo Amazon.com - $49.95

Uché Okonkwo, author of Luxury Fashion Branding: Trends, Tactics, Techniques has recently written a new book about luxury brands and their adoption of online marketing. Okonkwo’s book, Luxury Online, examines luxury’s love-hate relationship with the Internet and explains how to make the most of the social web and the art of selling the dream online.

“Brands have been so criticized for lateness, they are overcompensating,” Uché Okonkwo tells WWD. “Social media is a means to an end. Getting it right means first assimilating what it’s about, and that takes time. Brands are smart, which is why it’s so surprising when they go wrong online.”

My Thoughts & Observations

I agree with the premise that luxury brands and retailers are overcompensating. We may be seeing that in the way that so many of them are building their own social networks. After trying out Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to develop broad audiences and online awareness, why are so many of them creating their own social networks?

Are they trying to widdle audiences down into targeted consumer groups more likely to buy their products? Or are they just throwing their social networks out there for the cool factor – trying to tell the world they’re not as far behind as they are?

The answers to these questions remain to be seen.

We all agree that any social strategy has to be well thought-out and developed. In the case of luxury, it’s no different. It’s actually more important that luxury brands think things through.

If the brand’s site is e-commerce equipped, the strategy ultimately comes down to customer acquisition, retention and SALES. There are other factors such as site usability, shopper experience, SEO, and paid search that play into a successful online marketing strategy.

I recently spoke about luxury marketers using social media; during our seminar, we discussed how 48% of wealthy consumers are on Facebook and 14% use Twitter. Clearly, luxury consumers are online. What a brand conveys online has to translate to what that consumer finds offline or in-person.

“Today, the online user is controlling the tools to define their own experience, and they will demand meaning that transcends products, services and brand names. They are more Web site loyal than brand loyal. You can’t be exciting offline and boring online.” – Uche Okonko