Luxury has always been cyclical. During the last five years it’s been ‘territorial’. But the sector’s amazing growth in South East Asia and especially China has now slowed considerably.*

Emerging markets’ rising incomes fuelled strong demand for luxury goods to migrate east. But many factors have caused maturing Asian consumers to rein in their spending.

The good news is that developed countries are set to be the main beneficiaries of these changes.

So now it’s airports, directly operated concessions within department stores and, increasingly, online sales that are all helping the sector to bounce back.

But an even bigger change is underway. Accord-ing to Boston Consulting Group’s survey of more than 10,000 customers, social media and, the explosive rise in smartphone usage, is responsible for more than half of total luxury purchases.**

Living in the ‘conversation economy’, as we all do now, we’ve taken a look at how luxury brands can exploit the increasing growth in social media to enhance their online presence and build upon their reputation.

IN A WORLD OF SHARING…

…luxury brands need to adapt. Like everyone else, they can no longer resist the greater openness and accessi-bility expected from consumers.

The new world's dynamism, volatility and complexity no longer offers luxury brands the luxury of choice when it comes to whether or not they should change their traditional marketing values and practices.

CONTROL AND WHAT WE CALL 'UN-CONTROL'

The increased focus on Western markets brings a new challenge: more developed societies’ brands are now controlled and shaped by consumers. Being part of these social and digital conversations is critical for brand success.

But we believe it is not just about joining these conversations. We believe that to create brand impact you need to change the conversation.

Brands want customers to follow them. To engage with them. Be hungry for information about them. Which they can pass on to their friends.

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE IS NOW DRIVING LUXURY BUSINESS

In their turn, customers are more than happy to engage with brands. All brands have to do, therefore, is be interesting. Meet customers on their level. Talk in their language. Our snapshot of the chattering, moneyed, classes who are your customers demon-strates their willingness to be actively involved and seriously engaged on social media.

This means luxury brands really have to accept that they can 'let themselves go' a bit. Just a bit – no need for cartwheels! And then they can reap the rewards of consequent customer un-control. Because that's what customers like and it’s what they’re doing: sharing and commenting and passing an opinion on…well, everything!

Glenfiddich 38 Year Old Ultimate

LUXURY BRANDS AS ‘PUBLISHERS’

With Glenfiddich, and our other clients, success is based upon keeping customers' interests foremost. At all times.

We know their preferences, their needs, their desire for continuing, quality, useful and enter-taining content. So we tell engaging stories.

We know you’re not in the publishing business...

...so please don’t get alarmed. But the analogy is relevant: just as publishers know they have to keep their readers interested, so too must brands if they are going to achieve a position of value and trust in their customers' minds. But in their own way.

So all of your heritage, craftsmanship, artisanal values, provenance and authenticity is invaluable content. And is SHOUTING to be shared.

It's what we do for Glenfiddich. But with style and respect and some dignity!

Take Facebook, as an example: luxury brands probably stand to benefit most from timeline as

INTELLIGENT ADAPTATION RATHER THAN BRUTAL CHANGE

We know you'll be aware of all this. But it may be that you need some extra help. We've put together a short presentation on how we can support your aims to build a greater online presence but without diluting or losing any of your precious brand equity.

We'd love to share all of this over a cup of coffee with you. And swap some anecdotes, perhaps, too!

If you'd like to see some further examples of how we help Glenfiddich make news (and sell more whisky) around the world, you might care to click on the following:

bit.ly/1m8AAbChuff.to/1fAZcMAdailym.ai/K5AANN

* Head of luxury goods research at Exane, BNP Paribas** BCG: Shock of the New Chic

their image is normally built on a historical legacy of quality products and good service. We checked to see which brands might be taking advantage of this opportunity. As we can share with you if we meet, the results are quite underwhelming!

The key for luxury is to understand the consum-er; who they are, what they think, why they talk and where they do it – the difference here is that we do this in their native habitat – the social web – using our bespoke approach to social listening.

We'd love to demonstrate this for you.