Strategies and Tools of Social Media Marketing In the Luxury Fashion Industry
This study proposes a central concept such as social media marketing, in the luxury sector, must be able to keep up with the evolving technology, must perfect its offer for an increasingly demanding market and must seize digital opportunities and make the most of them. Several studies have highlighted the growing importance of digital in the high end, the need for companies to adopt an increasingly multi channel approach and increasingly diversified by markets. The research question behind the developed work is to demonstrate that a strategy that considers the web is strongly necessary for luxury brands, but at the same time it does not need to look like a mass market strategy, resulting in inconsistency with the main features of luxury brands: exclusivity, uniqueness, rarity, superiority, singularity, prestige. Luxury fashion brands have to deal daily with the balance between safeguarding the exclusivity of the brand on the one hand, an increasing demand in the global market, intensification of distribution methods and the explosion of ecommerce, from the other side that seems to be in contrast with the set of meanings that revolves around luxury brands. The objective of this work will, therefore, be to develop a more in depth understanding of the strategies implemented by the brands operating in the fashion sector with regard to social media marketing and to analyse the effect it has had in businesses highlighting, such as social networks they also give opportunities in this area. Keywords; Digital marketing, luxury brand, luxury fashion, online communication, Social media marketing, social networks. Introduction The digital revolution and the birth of Web 2.0, as well as new consumption habits, have radically changed the current society and this has affected the marketing and communication strategies at the managerial level. In recent years the luxury industry has been strongly influenced by the rapid evolution of digital technology, technology, and the Internet. The use of the internet and new technologies have contributed to the growth of the market and its various sectors, with an advantage for the luxury industry. It was a challenge to adapt to the new process, times have been slow given that this market has always adopted a strategy based on supply and not on demand, because luxury products attribute prestige status and stand out for their excellent quality, the high price, the highly exclusive and symbolic character. Instead, the principles of the Internet are democracy and accessibility that at first glance appear to be in contrast with the characteristics of luxury just exposed. Luxury consumers are highly digital, mobile, social and extremely demanding and are always looking for continuous information, news and dialogue with the brand; they love word of mouth and use different channels and tools to communicate and express their opinions. Through social media they have the opportunity to review and discuss products, events, and ideas on online forums, playing an increasingly influential role in shaping the public perception of luxury fashion brands. The objective of the paper is to clarify the principles of management of luxury brands to become and remain so effectively, from the point of view of digital communication through the use of social media marketing tools. From the comparison between social media and luxury brands, these seem to be incompatible but looking more closely at the tools made available by the web 2.0. they have different aspects that luxury brands can use to their advantage to promote online exclusivity. New technologies are increasingly important among individuals who connect via social networks and mobile. The sociological, economic and marketing literature in recent years has dealt with the study of luxury and social media in greater detail, as this market continues to grow, despite the economic crisis. This work aims to give a complete vision of the new era of Web 2.0 by analysing in a rather broad and literary way, the various innovations that compose it: features, communication tools and the role of users. In particular, we focused on social media marketing and on the relevance of social networks. Then we focused on social media marketing strategies in the luxury fashion sector, with particular attention to content, the customer experience, the creation of dreams and value. After discussing the strategies and explaining why social media can be an opportunity for luxury International Journal of Management Sciences and Business Research, Dec 2018 ISSN (2226 8235) Vol 7, Issue 12 http:/www.ijmsbr.com Page 83 brands, the aspect of tools such as storytelling, blogger influencers, mobile applications and e commerce on the website have been deepened. The need to create valuable content to reinforce brand awareness and to trigger a high level of user engagement was highlighted. The work ends with an analysis of a study carried out in the context of luxury fashion strategies. 1.The social media marketing strategies of luxury brands The first approaches to change in both digital communication and the luxury market date back to 2005 until the radical change from 2012. This type of communication for the brand, for the consumer, for the designer, and for the brand has potential, the digital has gone from "cheap to chic in a click" and in addition to being useful for turnover it is also for the positioning of the product. With the technology you can communicate luxury products while remaining consistent with the company's positioning and communication style, you will have to analyse and develop right touchpoints (points of contact between brand and customer) during communication periods and companies will have to a constantly developing market, transforming the way and communication models of a world with precise rules in order to better respond to change. To set up an effective SMM (social media marketing) strategy, first of all, we need to analyse the initial situation of the brand and define the objectives, then it is necessary to study, plan and develop the campaign and identify the most suitable social media mix. The contents are fundamental for which the next step is to study and create content to be distributed on social media. Once distributed manually, there is the monitoring phase of the latter, the analysis of the results and eventually any updates. As mentioned, digital is useful for positioning and strategies to keep it high without increasing the brand. They have been identified by Logotel, company that accompanies the transformation of companies, in particular, has identified the key points on which to build the digital strategy of the luxury brand. These points are the technology that should be considered a means and not an end, the contents and the customer experience. For content, the concentration falls on the pluses offered by the brand thanks to exclusivity, such as brands that enhance the values narrating stories related to contemporary art including cinema, fashion, music, design by studying the interests and preferences of potential and current consumers. Or brands that have chosen to work on specific projects to enhance their values such as Tiffany, who created whatmakeslovetrue.com, a digital space dedicated to the original approach to love, where couples are recommended, marked by more romantic places New York and collected themed spots designed by the consumers themselves. As for the customer experience, to strengthen the value of the brand, this must learn to produce emotions by "living the product" through for example exclusive communities, for advice and services for the consumer, or as a place of comparison for consumers. To create positioning, the fundamental elements are what is communicated and where it is communicated. In fact, the main difficulty was always that of transmitting in the correct way, the fundamental points of the strategy and the guidelines of luxury products. Unlike mass communication that has the usual function of selling, luxury has different and precise rules to create the dream and recharge the value of the brand on any platform, to engage the consumer and keep their own positioning. The exclusivity, as a distinctive feature of these products, is transmitted with top down communication, combining the ability to generate wishes and expectations in the consumer and visual languages favouring social media and fashion blogging. The communication of the luxury brand is very far upstream from the purchase, speaks of the product and the universe of the brand in a dreamlike way and must be quite vague so that many people can identify and find their own part of the dream. This implies a refined and artistic communication, highly codified (luxury creates social codes) without being too dated, never direct, highly allusive. At this point it is clear how the luxury fashion sector is focused on the construction and narration of the image of the online brand, in the story of the complete and complex history of the brand, to increase its brand awareness. To achieve this, there are three main trends: a "mythological" construction of the brand that finds its roots in the history of the brand, its founders, designers or places of origin and this element emerges both in the descriptions of the information on the social channels and in the creation of dedicated initiatives; a narration linked to the lifestyle, that is the story of products, events and initiatives through the delineation of a lifestyle inspired by the brand by inserting the products in everyday life and creating a real universe, as for example Burberry presents a very broad on social media cantered on its distinctive trait (being English) telling the brand with this type of narration; International Journal of Management Sciences and Business Research, Dec 2018 ISSN (2226 8235) Vol 7, Issue 12 http:/www.ijmsbr.com Page 84 a narration focused on products, which remain the central elem