5.1 Creating an online luxury brand identity
5.1.3.2 Extending the experience
In this section we will analyse ways in which Facebook might function as an extension of the offline luxury brand experience, and at the end sum up the challenges it might pose for a luxury brand.
Kapferer and Bastien state that a luxury brand is first of all a visual that should evoke a desire in the customer: ”love starts with the eyes.” (Kapferer&Bastien 2012: 255). Corbellini and Saviolo (2010) point towards that imaginary is one of the elements when creating a ‘coherent system of excellence’. Skjold agrees saying that luxury brands should maintain a strong visual focus to create a mirror image that the consumers can reflect themselves in (Skjold 2012) i.e. what can be referred to as ‘the customer reflected image’ in the brand identity prism. Arguably, the luxury brand can through the customer reflected image explain what luxury values the users can dream about being a part of. One might say that this leads to the question of how a luxury brand can encode an image with values that signify something from the luxury brand identity.
In our semiotic analysis we tend to see an importance of using images to convey luxury values through codes, whether it is connotations to heritage, a focus on aesthetics and arts, the logo or a symbolic motif of the brand, a brand colour or craftsmanship. The Facebook timeline allows for and encourages the use of images in the communication e.g. through the large cover photo, albums, and space for photos on the timeline itself. Therefore, one might say that Facebook carries some notable advantages considering luxury brands focus on visuals.
The focus on images draws parallels to the traditional media use, which luxury brands arguably have made use of for a long amount of time. Where Facebook differs from traditional media use is through the interactive features offered, such as writing a status update, a story linked to an image, videos and user comments. One might say that by using the interactive features it becomes possible to translate traditional luxury material into Facebook material. Bøilerehauge points out that the material has to be edited to become relevant and luxurious online
(Bøilerehauge 2012), and it might not be enough to copy paste a photo from the campaign archive on Facebook, as the users are becoming more savvy and can see through a poor strategy (Thomsen 2012, Aconis 2012). In the semiotic analysis, some of the material came across as less professional because it presumably had not been produced for Facebook. Acne portrayed an example of using some material that had not been edited for Facebook as it seemed to be generated from their website. One might argue that Acne did not extend the Facebook experience, but on the other hand it might not be their intention with using the social
media platform, considering that the posts were informing and with a focus on products, as mentioned in the semiotic analysis of Acne. Acne’s images though had a strong semiotic foundation.
As mentioned above, Aconis (2012) points out that Facebook provides the possibility to
communicate more in depth and create complex stories about the luxury brand than traditional media allows for, and thereby creating an extended luxury brand experience. However, as seen in the semiotic analysis this ‘possibility’ poses challenges for luxury brands due to their
sometimes conflicting nature with social media. One might say that luxury brands have a hard time implementing interfunctionality because of their long tradition of communicating one-‐way through traditional communication forms.
In our semiotic analysis, Prada provided examples of Facebook brand page posts that arguably did not communicate the core identity. Posts of particular interest in this regard were the images of celebrities on the red carpet at openings nights, premieres and what have we. One might say that the reason why these posts on their Facebook brand page did not create an extended online Prada experience were due to a lack correspondence between the luxury brand and the celebrities. How to make use of celebrities and their roles on a luxury brands Facebook page will be turned to later. One might say that Prada sought to frame these posts by adding texts to the images with information of: Who is photographed, what event, where does it take place, and when? Arguably the information provided to the users does not favour or promote Prada, as it seems overshadowed by information of who the celebrity is, what event the person is attending, what city and so on. As we established previously, images can be useful to convey core values. It does not seem as if Prada’s core values have been conveyed in the celebrity images, as they arguably are images acquired from tabloid agencies. Therefore provided that the text does not say something about Prada and the image does not
communicate Prada’s values, it does not seem to extend Prada’s luxury brand experience on Facebook. What Prada arguably could have done was to seek ways to communicate some of their values like the rich Italian heritage, the innovative spirit and the graphic patterns referring to the world of arts.
Tom Ford provides another example of how a celebrity focus might overshadow the luxury brand values. The image below is the front cover of the magazine ‘People’, which is a gossip magazine sold weekly in America.
Tom Ford Facebook brand page post portraying front cover of People Magazine74
One might argue that the People Magazine’s logo and an image of Britney Spears do not correspond well with the luxury brand Tom Ford. People magazine and Britney Spears create connotations to mass-‐market, which arguably compromises Tom Ford’s exclusive appeal. One could say that the user is left with a glossy magazine experience that could have been bought for a few dollars in the nearest newsstand, instead of providing a Tom Ford experience. The brand Tom Ford tries to convey a story about Justin Timberlake wearing a Tom Ford tuxedo at
74 http://www.facebook.com/tomford?fref=ts
his wedding. One could argue that this initiative gives a solid PR value. However, through our semiotic analysis we though argue that Facebook should be considered as more than a PR bulletin board. The luxury brand could have considered to prioritise creating own material i.e.
Tom Ford taking own photos for Facebook of the wedding or the couple. This would make Tom Ford the communication channel instead of People magazine and could have allowed the luxury brand to communicate on the luxury brand’s own terms i.e. ‘dominate the client’ by Kapferer and Bastien (2012). One could argue that an initiative like this would have created a higher amount of PSI for the luxury brand on Facebook, as it would have been the voice of Tom Ford. In this example one might say People Magazine communicates using Tom Ford’s
Facebook brand page. Arguably it is relevant who paid for exclusive rights to the wedding. In either way the luxury brand should weigh the pros and cons before posting People Magazine’s photos on Facebook to seek an answer to if it provides the extended luxury experience. If the readers of People Magazine and the ‘likers’ of Tom Ford Facebook brand page are the same it could have been a strong move. This stresses the idea of knowing your Facebook audience, which we will turn to in ‘Creating beneficial luxurious relationships on Facebook’.
Aconis (2012) commented on Tom Ford’s use of Facebook in his interview: “You go into the stores, the packaging, the design, the motives, the commercials, everything Tom Ford does is just über exclusive and then you go on his Facebook and it is just absolutely ridiculously pointless. …I think Tom Ford is immensely devaluating their brand.” (Aconis 2012). One could argue that Aconis’ experience of the brand could be a symbol of Tom Ford failing to deliver an extended luxury brand experience and moreover create coherence between offline and online luxury brand experience i.e. media plan integration. Skjold refer to an action like this on Facebook as “… they water down all these core values …” (Skjold 2012). So arguably when a luxury brand does not communicate core characteristics and values in their online
communication they can risk becoming a lower valued imitation of themselves delivered to their Facebook brand page fans -‐ devaluating the dream, the illusion, and the aspirational traits.
This kind of communication might create the risk for luxury brands to fall into the brand image trap by Aaker letting Facebook dictate the content instead of the luxury brand dictating what Facebook can do for them, as Aconis (2012) deemed important. Arguably it could be a
challenge for a luxury brand to consider Facebook as more than a mass-‐media channel that requires mass-‐media content. Instead as Aconis points out: “… the challenge is really how to make Facebook a luxury media for your brand.” (Aconis 2012) as he states Facebook by nature is no luxury media (Aconis 2012).
Skjold insinuates that luxury brands without any heritage can have a disadvantage in terms of extending the luxury experience on Facebook: “…Tom Ford doesn’t have ninety years of a library full of styles and drawings and photos. And he has to do something else.” (Skjold 2012).
Arguably, there are other possibilities on Facebook besides posting from the image archive.
Moreover, it is not enough to have an archive full of photos, it has to be edited (Bøilerehauge 2012). One could argue that not having an archive gives the brand an opportunity to produce one, but one should consider that it could end up making the unfolding of the Facebook experience a bit more expensive. Thomsen (2012) states the importance of creating material for Facebook, as a lack of material and interactions online might send the luxury brand on Facebook’s graveyard. Acne is an example of a brand without heritage or an archive dating back many years. Instead Acne borrows heritage and values from people and art and fuses this heritage into their products i.e. collections and the Facebook communication to create a sophisticated online experience that seeks to extend the offline brand experience.
Burberry posts videos on a continuous basis on their Facebook brand page. An example of this is the image of their video post below. This is a ‘live’ video of Burberry CCO Bailey reporting from the fashion show.
Burberry Facebook brand page post where CCO Bailey reports ‘live’ from their fashion show75
The text connected to the video post describes the content of the video and arguably frames the purpose, by stating that it is the Burberry Prorsum fashion show, the season of the
products, and that it is a video taped this morning in front of the show space. The use of video in this case and arguably in general might give a more interactive experience than images because it shows motions and speech, and moreover it could be said to favour the immediate and ‘live’ nature of Facebook.
75 http://www.facebook.com/burberry?fref=ts
The video analysed in the semiotic analysis portraying the new flagship store on 121 Regent Street
In the semiotic analysis we analysed the video shown above about the new flagship store. The video integrated many of Burberry’s core characteristics, such as craftsmanship, attention to details and heritage, while using trick effects to e.g. communicate the location of the store. To embrace social media and Facebook Burberry seems to be using special camera techniques that emphasises doors opening and “… this connotes the actual store opening and arguably creates a welcoming atmosphere, as it seems as if they are opening the doors for ‘you’.” as we wrote in the semiotic analysis. This arguably underlines the opportunity of videos, namely to extend the experience and make it user-‐centred on the premises of Facebook without neglecting the details a luxury brand consists of. Moreover, one could argue that by creating and posting a video on the Facebook brand page that users can see and share, Burberry anticipates potential UGC videos of the new flagship store and in this way seeks to control online content. In both examples Burberry draws attention to offline events and provides an example of media plan integration i.e. how online communication can create awareness of offline activities.
Therefore one should take the following challenges into consideration when making Facebook a luxury brand extension: