The 4 E's of Luxury Brands Digital Marketing

Did you ever hear of the 4 Es of digital marketing for luxury brands?

Experience

Exclusivity

Engagement

Emotion

A very interesting article about the 4 E's says that the key challenge for luxury brands is to correctly position their brand online, and the way to do this is through a comprehensive understanding of their digital landscape. This  means they have to know who are their consumers, how do they use digital media and what are the competitors doing.

Once this is set, to effectively reach out to its consumers, brands need to provide an online experience which will rise emotions and engage with consumers. However luxury brands need to be careful. There is a tricky aspect to digital marketing which is the "Exclusivity" part. Because online is often associated with "available everywhere", brands need to be visible online but remain exclusive. One way to do so is to create platforms exclusively for consumers, as a community (eg: Burberry's Art of Trench where customers become part of the Burberry online community, or DFV providing a limited edition product only available through its iPhone app). We could therefore say that digital marketing might offer a great opportunity to control and enhance a brand’s exclusivity. It’s what the article calls“prestige technology.”

A well though digital marketing stratgey is crucial for luxury brands and pays off when it takes into account the 4 E's. For instance Burberry just reported that by switching the majority of its marketing budget to digital experiences, it enjoyed a 29% increase in revenue.

The 4 E's, a great guideline for luxury brands to follow!