Luxury marketing: 5 ways to market prestige brands Wolfgang Schaefer Warc Best Practice July/August 2015

 

 

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Luxury marketing: 5 ways to market prestige brands Wolfgang Schaefer Warc Best Practice July/August 2015

 

Luxury marketing: 5 ways to market prestige brands Wolfgang Schaefer SelectNY To be a prestige brand meant remaining veiled and mysterious – aloof from the digital world. But now the new Ueber-Brands use the digital revolution to marry culture, commerce, content and convenience, without undermining the superior status of the brand. The digital revolution, a more demanding consumerism and many other factors have led to a new way of marketing premium brands and given rise to a new crop of what I have called Ueber-Brands (i.e. brands as networks of meanings, based on highly authentic brand identity and brand behaviour). This can be seen in seven core principles from the must for mission and myth to a newfound balance between exclusion and inclusion and the growing need for truth. One of the most important principles is certainly how Ueber-Brands interact with their constituencies. They mix up traditional marketing mantras in surprising ways to build proximity, while maintaining a certain distance – seduce us instead of just sell to us. The following looks at the main aspects of this unique form of 'unselling', with many examples, from the classically exclusive Chaumet or Bottega Veneta to more modern prestige players such as Aesop or Tesla, and explains how and why these brands mix pride and provocation to project strength and superiority. How they turn classic endorsement strategies on their head and go out of their way to never reveal too much. Or how their traditionally close relations with the world of art have developed into more complex but also more interesting connections than ever. And, not least, why the new content craze is raging particularly in this elevated world, which not long ago had nothing but disdain for anything online and digital.

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1. Of pride and provocation There's an old saying in beauty and fashion: 'With every millimetre the mouth opens (towards a smile), the price point goes down a notch.' Prestige brands don't need to charm us, they must impress us. They have to project an air of strength, showing that they are at the top, not 'bossed' around by anybody, including their consumers. Traditionally, this is done through an unapologetic display of confidence or arrogance – tight-lipped models and haughty sales clerks. Today, Ueber-Brands follow a more calibrated approach, mixing pride with provocation. Being blatantly arrogant doesn't work so well any more among targets raised on entitlement. Neither does provocation for provocation's sake. That's easily seen as cheap in an age where everything goes and has already been done. The trick is to blend both and oscillate in ever-new and intriguing ways. Prove your power, your premier position and your worth through the courage of taking your targets on a ride and our culture forward. Establish codes, disrupt them and put them back together again in new ways as only a true leader can. A great example is 42 Below, the premium vodka from New Zealand. Its success is almost entirely built on an audacious spirit (no pun intended), starting from its politically incorrect print ads to the self-mocking tone in which it keeps building its legend and promotes its brand today. 42 Below turns 'refined' on its head – quite literally with its head-standing kiwi icon. It eschews anything remotely 'cultured' in the conventional sense and goes for outright counterculture, starting its own tradition: proud in its product and provenance, yet unbending in its attitude – iconoclastic and standard-setting at the same time.

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An old brand, which applied this twisted strategy, is Chaumet. Last year at Cannes, the French haute joaillerie house started promoting its Liens line with a campaign starring Marine Vacth, model-turned-actress and It girl of the festival. A mysterious 'double take' telling a story somewhere between narcissism and lesbianism, both subjects that aren't necessarily consensusbuilding. But, done in an ultra-stylish and super-sexy way, it not only confirmed the brand's rightful place in the upper echelons, it propelled it smack into the middle of our culture. A courageous coup, juxtaposing heritage and high-end class with edge and controversy – and letting us enjoy traditional prestige promos in new and fun ways. 2. Who's endorsing whom? Prestige brands crave a good endorsement like the rest of us, perhaps even more so. But they are ultra-careful to not get upstaged while enjoying the uplift. Most don't go as far as Hermès, which shuns celebrity freebies or paid endorsements  altogether, but they usually turn the relationship between brand and endorser around, presenting the celebrity as equal or the one paying tribute rather than the brand in need of someone else's glory. There are various ways to do this. One that has received much airing in the past few years is brand and celebrity partnering for a cause, e.g. the Montblanc campaign for literacy or MAC's Viva Glam lipstick and its slew of famous ambassadors. It's often the only, or much more affordable, way to sign popular A-listers afraid to be seen as selling out. And, of course, it works even better if it happens outside of paid media – even though the 'cause' may be just the brand's purpose itself, as in the case of Tesla, for instance. Similar, but already a bit more brand-serving, is the Mandarin Hotels approach, where the famous faces out themselves as 'fans' (for a modest donation). Even one step further towards reversing the roles are the commercials as mini-movies starring well-known actors – Chanel No. 5 (with Nicole Kidman or now Gisele Bündchen), Dior J'adore (with  Charlize Theron) or Prada (with Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham Carter) spring to mind. The endorsers are most literally integrated in the brand's world, featured and framed by the one who hired (and needed) them. The ultimate in these powerplay strategies, however, is when the brand starts to halo the hero – or even puts him down, as Nespresso does in its longstanding, light-hearted and, thus, mutually beneficial and popular relationship with George Clooney. 3. Avert the overt The late and great artist Keith Haring, who certainly knew a thing or two about culture, commerce and communication, said: "If there's no mystery, there's only propaganda." And that pretty much sums up the third way of building prestige: Ueber-Brands play 'hide and seek' more often than they do a 'show and tell'. Where mass brands make sure their branding and their messages are always loud and clear, modern prestige brands tend to stay veiled, creating an aura without overpromoting themselves. Yes, even Mercedes, for instance, will eventually talk miles per gallon or technology. But it reserves this for more intimate forms of communication, where it feels like an initiation rite, rather than a sales pitch. In public, it prefers to create a world, like the 2014 Mercedes-Benz Super Bowl spot, which launched a new line of cars, but celebrated for the most part all its iconic models of decades past. There are two main reasons for this – apart from the fact that overt selling is far too vulgar to make a superior impression. First, our imagination is much better at creating aspiration than anything else. Prestige brands need to get our right brain engaged and make sure the left stays out of it as much as possible, as critical thinking would only get in the way of making us believe. Compare any high-end cosmetics or fashion brand to its mass counterpart and you'll experience this beautifully. The other, more recent reason: separation. Subtlety, esoteric references and codes are much better equipped to distinguish class from mass in a world where wealth is widespread and logos are copied to death. That's why the most desirable fashion Downloaded from warc.com

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brands have established a wide range of soft assets and codes to brand their products – making them recognisable to the cognoscenti but leaving the rest wondering or puzzled. You will never see a Bottega Veneta product openly branded – yet the weave will immediately signal to those in the know. 4. It's an art There's always been a close connection between prestige brands and the art world. Both deal with products that are creatively inspired and exceptionally crafted. They build their value to a large degree on limited supply and, of course, they share a highly discriminating, and moneyed, audience. Yet, they also complement each other, one supporting the other through deeper pockets, the other validating the one with a sense of sublime and sophistication. This embrace has, over the past few years, become much more intense – so strong, in fact, that many fear the two could strangle or suffocate each other. Just think of the heavily commercialised art circuit parties from Basel to Miami, London to New York to Berlin or Hong Kong. Most interesting in this, however, are not the age-old sponsorship deals or the boom of company museums or foundations (i.e. the new Milan HQ of Fondazione Prada or the Gehry-designed Louis Vuitton museum). What's noteworthy are the innovative and integrative forms of co-operation and communication. There's already been comment about some of the art-house commercials, such as A Therapy by Prada, shot by Roman Polanski; the Chanel No. 5 spots by Baz Luhrmann; or the legend-building Once Upon A Time retro-pic by Karl Lagerfeld himself. This trend has now reached the big screen – and to critical acclaim and success as last year's The Lego Movie showed. On the product side, it has become almost de rigueur for respectable fashion houses to have artist co-created collections since LV landed a super-success in 2001 with its graffiti bags by the late designer-artist Stephen Sprouse. And luxury store designs have increasingly abandoned company-CI adherence and recognisability in favour of unique, locationspecific architectural masterpieces or art destinations. A great example for the latter are the Aesop shops. The Australian highbrow beauty brand has built its brand with very little traditional marketing but spent to a large degree on its outstanding store designs. All reflecting their monastic-puristic brand character but mostly feeling more like individual art installations than commercial outlets. And, indeed, many do act as cultural centres beyond selling soap or shampoo, regularly offering lectures, discussions, film presentations etc. In all this, it's not important if you spend millions as Chanel does, or if you choose to work with much less expensive up-andcoming artists. Actually, depending on the idea you want to project, the latter can be much more beneficial, as the Japanese avantgarde fashion brand Comme des Garçons has shown again and again, or as Aesop does. What does matter is that you  continue to set cultural impulses. Because while it is almost 'verboten' for Ueber-Brands to sell themselves, they certainly must make sure they remain part of the conversation – and cultural cool. Present themselves as cultural arbiters way beyond mere commercial interests. Inspiring and furthering our collective discourse, while, of course, also loosening our purse strings. 5. Walk the talk To finish, let's come back to where we started, but in the most modern of ways: prestige is a quiet thing, as we said earlier, and in that sense it's no surprise that high-end brands have finally come around to see the big opportunities that the digital world can offer. The web allows them to be everywhere and anywhere – without ever seeming over-present. But, more importantly, it lets them become the media they always were, selling themselves without ever seeming to do so. We are talking about the brand as content machine and community magnet. Highly controlled, super-efficient brand experiences and engagements that never seem too eager or too pushy. Downloaded from warc.com

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Two brands who have made this their premier marketing vehicle and styled their brands as media outlets rather than mere product venues are Red Bull and Net-a- Porter. The first may not seem prestige, but it certainly is if you look at its considerable price premium. And it's grown into a veritable media emporium. Red Bull Media House offers anything from events to games to apps to TV to print, largely sourced from the collaborations and sponsorships Red Bull is doing, thus not only being a lighthouse for innovative brand and community building, but also providing great opportunities for secondary usage and income streams. Net-a-Porter, on the other hand, was 'built this way'. It's 'the world's premier online luxury fashion destination' and was from the beginning not just an online shopping site but much more a magazine around fashion and luxury that also allows you to buy things. Luring people in with great editorial content and then allowing them to shop, if they come across something they like. Culture, commerce, content and convenience all fused in perfect symbiosis. And in a way that never undermines the superior standing and status potential of the brand, rather elevating it to cultural icon with omni-power. A true Ueber- Brand, in other words.

About the Author Wolfgang Schaefer is chief strategic officer at SelectNY, a leading premium brand-building network. He has more than 20 years' experience working on brands such as Davidoff, Chopard and Swarovski. [email protected] Rethinking Prestige Branding: Secrets of the Ueber-Brands by Wolfgang Schaefer and JP Kuehlwein is published by Kogan Page

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