Launchmetrics releases report entitled Understanding the Digital Luxury Consumer: Key Insights from East to West

Launchmetrics releases report entitled Understanding the Digital Luxury Consumer: Key Insights from East to West, which examines the challenges of globalized marketing strategies, in a millennial world

Industry impact report analyzes the global impact of the top 100 luxury companies in the Chinese, European and North American markets, over the last year, to provide key insights on how brands can adapt their marketing strategies to reach a local customer. 

NEW YORK (November 15, 2018) — Launchmetrics, the leading marketing platform and analytics solution for the Fashion, Luxury and Cosmetic (FLC) industries, today releases a report entitled Understanding the Digital Luxury Consumer: Key Insights from East to West.  This 32-page report covers how the influencer phenomenon is evolving marketing by region, key differences between luxury retail and watches/jewelry as well as the role of traditional media today compared to social media. Additionally, it dissects the Voices generating value in each market and winning strategies brands need to adapt to be successful in each region in today’s evolving consumer market. 

“With the increased digitization of our industry, brands are now not just tasked with adapting their sales & retail strategy to the local market but also, to be successful, developing digital strategies that speak to the global brand positioning while integrating a local sensibility,” explains Michael Jaïs, Chief Executive Officer at Launchmetrics. “Our latest report highlights what the top 100 brands in the market are doing, the Voices they are engaging in each region on each channel and how their marketing strategies differ from East to West, which sheds light on the digital luxury consumer of today.”   

The report breaks down and compares the Voices and tiers of influence which resonate by region, as well as identifies the social media channels on which they create the most impact. From this data, Launchmetrics has derived several key takeaways that demonstrate the varied goals brands seek to achieve through influencer marketing by region, the diverging positioning influencers and Key Opinion Leaders hold in the eyes of consumers in China, and the role social platforms play in each region.

In the race to capture the attention of the digital luxury consumer, there is a great divide between East & West. While both are vying for the attention of the customer, the Western countries are focused on enhancing brand equity through their influencer activations, while in the East, the relationship is much more transactional when it comes to these campaigns, with sales being the #1 focus. With word-of-mouth marketing being one of the most reliable channels for influencing consumer purchases, it’s no wonder brands are looking to leverage celebrities and All-Star Influencer Voices in their day-to-day dealings.

Regarding the positioning of influencers/KOLs, in the East, the level of consumer trust in the media is significantly lower than that of their Western counterparts. As a result, they look to other trusted voices when searching for inspiration for their purchases. Today, Influencers/KOLs have gained popularity worldwide but in China, they are leading the pack in a far superior manner. Locally, cultural trends show how consumers trust the voice of these digital powerhouses over that of any brand and many media outlets. Their unique content coupled with the market’s social commerce sophistication allows these KOLs to put products and brands at the right place, at the right time, to drive the right engagement and sales for a truly winning combination.

Not only do we observe a difference of behavior, but we see a discrepancy in terms of platform use.  The social media landscape in the US & Europe is quite similar, focused on a global value proposition with international players such as Instagram. In China, the game is the exact opposite. The market there is quite local, yet fragmented – there are international, as well as local players (Weibo and WeChat). However, the global number of people using social networking in China is significantly more. 

Lastly, in North America and Europe, there is a growing trend to leverage influencers of all tiers of influence when working towards achieving goals such as awareness, consideration, and engagement. That said, the value applied to these tiers in China is completely different. While 100,000 fans would be a lot in the US for example, in China that is still considered a Micro-Influencer in some ways and targeting top tier KOLs is critical for brand success. Consumers look for their opinions as experts, and those influencers who are smaller are considered less professionalized in China than in the US. Consequently, companies are more reluctant to engage them in their content campaigns.

The data in the report is benchmarked using Launchmetrics’ Media Impact ValueTM to calculate the impact of relevant media placements on all channels (online, social, print), inclusive of paid, owned, earned mediums in order to derive a quantitative number for performance outcomes. Along with the MIV metric, Launchmetrics applies its Voices approach that places an emphasis on the Voices speaking in order to cross-compare performance. It identifies 5 main Voices: traditional media, two Voices from influential individuals (influencers and celebrities) and two Voices coming from entities (partners and owned media). This reflects the real investments and organizational decisions that surround marketing & communications strategy and allows brands to craft the perfect “Voice mix” across various channels, media types, and regions. With the aid and understanding of MIV and Voices, one can have a more realistic and quantifiable comprehension of the digital luxury consumer, by region. 

To read more about the similarities and differences observed, as well as understand how to adapt your global digital marketing strategies, download the full report here.  To learn more about Launchmetrics, please visit launchmetrics.com.

Press Contact:

Katherine KNIGHT
Corporate Communications Director 
Email: Katherine.knight@launchmetrics.com

About Launchmetrics

Launchmetrics is a Marketing Platform and Analytics Solution to help Fashion, Luxury and Cosmetics professionals discover, activate and measure the voices that matter for their brands. It is the most essential and trusted platform in the industry, yielding an unrivalled market penetration to the top seventy fashion and luxury brands worldwide including Dior, Fendi, NET-A-PORTER, Topshop and more.

Founded in NYC with operating headquarters in Paris, and offices in London, Milan, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Madrid, and Girona (Spain) and support in five languages; the company works with over 1,000 brands as well as partners like IMG, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the British Fashion Council, Pitti Immagine, and Google, to accelerate their business and build lasting exposure. The company’s industry communities GPS Radar & Style Coalition bring together over 50,000 influencers, editors, buyers and more to share content, events, news, images and more.