Personal Luxury Goods Marketing During the Pandemic - Food for Thought

I recently was invited to answer questions as part of a thesis submitted to the Munich Business School entitled:

"Consumer Perception of the Social Media Communication of Personal Luxury Goods during the First Wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic."

The topic greatly interested me and I of course found that it was important to highlight certain of my own experiences dealing with clients in this new era of conveying the marketing message across from an industry that has typically relied on more classic means of marketing.

As a consultant under the Bright Creativity framework, I mainly focused on strategy for brands who were struggling with their marketing and communication during the pandemic. I also assisted brands with their social media to encourage building relationships and "speaking" with their audience in a fresh and convincing manner. 

My personal way of helping brands was also by inviting them as guests on my YouTube Channel called 'Luxury with Natalia'. I wanted brands to have a 'face' and talk to the world honestly about what they were going through, how they were in touch with their clients and highlight how they would help their clients through the pandemic in whatever sector they found themselves in.

I invite you to read my thoughts on the questions that were asked for the thesis below and welcome your feedback in the comments below.

1. When the crisis hit, what do you remember were the key factors outside companies that were going to impact personal goods luxury brands (fashion, accessories, jewellery, beauty, watches...)? For example, economic or political actions.

There were two scenarios; some of my clients decided to keep staff by telling them to work from home remotely while others were forced to keep them on partial unemployment (ch?mage partial in French). Many at the start of the confinement decided to keep quiet when it came to making announcements or any brash statements about how they would be continuing with their businesses.

Outlets and factory closed, threats of unemployment due to the pandemic and a more cautious approach to spending money (marketing expenditure heavily cut or downsized), powered by a consistent fear of a potential economical crisis were the main notions to take into account.

Others had to close completely and stayed shut for the remainder of the year. Eg. a luxury 5 star hotel on the French Riviera. A high-end jewellers, part of a global franchise in Monaco, the same, remained shut and in the end let go of a majority of their staff.

While things spread and authorities started taking measures, brands found themselves dealing with the inability to produce and sell their goods, since lockdowns began to shut factories and suppliers in countries like Italy and France.

2. What was your assessment of those factors in terms of the degree that they would or would not impact personal goods luxury brands? For example, the evaluation of customer behaviour, opportunity, Price/Value Relationship.

Luxury brands specifically took a very discreet approach to what was happening but as soon as one decided to pivot into helping to make masks for example out of their stock, others followed and it became very much like a snowball effect of “following the leader” as it were.

If we take the yachting industry, many were silent for a long while as they decided to carefully tread forward with clients. Then they started to communicate more on the benefits of using a yacht to escape from the pandemic, which had a tremendous success in terms of the charter season faring well.

Business aviation had a very positive message coming out to the world saying travel was still possible with a private jet, and numbers staying high.

Many decided to do a direct one to one approach with their clients (via mailings, emails and Zoom calls through their brokers) to be in touch with existing clients and keep them up to speed with the way that their businesses would be operating and the services available.

3.    What aspects of the personal goods luxury brands do you remember were actually impacted by the crisis? 

All were impacted in one way or another – production slowed from what I understood but quickly positive values such as sustainability, green, recycled, good for you messages were being used to help businesses promote themselves as people were figuring out what was happening. 

4.What brand management/ Social Media strategies did you notice during the crisis? (For example investing in innovative communication plans, communicating more about the brand history/ values, etc.) 

Many turned to enhancing themselves on social media, especially Instagram and LinkedIn and TikTok even. Video was high on the agenda as were Zoom conferences, virtual reality tours/meetings/events.

There was a move towards an optimized strategy that would respond well to consumer insights, catering to both their emotional and physical needs. This in turn helped brands maintain relevance and market shares. It strengthened the bond they had with their audiences.

This way, when consumption restarted again after lockdown, and it always does, these companies were the first to get back on track and enjoy the benefits.

Knowing this, luxury brands quickly amended their strategies during the crisis to ensure engagement in consumer-oriented and socially responsible initiatives.

The first step taken by big name companies was to adjust communications channels and try to move as many offline events and campaigns as possible to online.

Extra hygiene and safety measures were taken and, where possible, people coming to shops and boutiques was discouraged to promote online shopping with engaging campaigns that maintained the excitement factor. 

5.    What influence did you notice, if any, did retailers/vendors have on the brands’ strategies? 

People were gauging on what others were doing and a little wave of copying happened in the industries which I was involved with specifically (yachting, business aviation, fashion).

6.    What influence did you notice, if any, did competitive brands have on the brands’ strategies? 

Same as above, very much one trend-setted and the others followed suit in their own way adapting to the situation.

7.    What is your assessment on these strategies? 

It is curious because it took one to start a snowball effect. Many trod cautiously at the start then realised what others were doing to then go ahead in their own manner.

The act of turning to a more “listen to the customer’s needs and respect the current situation with a move to online” showed good business acumen while delivering respect and care for both customers and employees.

For once it seemed that businesses actually started to wake up to listen and adapt their strategies and move away from just promoting a product but actually building on relationships and customer needs.

With everyone having to deal and adapt to the pandemic, people (buyers) began to approach daily activities differently with a change in their behaviours.

8.    Looking back, what would you say were the lessons-learned from that time?

• Increased interests in digital experiences and online content.
• Close and careful assessment of social involvement.
• Luxury was seen as an investment for consumers with medium and medium-high spending powers. 
• Businesses needed to communicate with their stakeholders in a more timely manner.
• Brands involved in socially responsible activities got better results and visibility playing on the “human” side rather than selling side.
• Consumers continue to be inn need so there is constantly a need to carry out necessary activities to maintain brand exposure, even if done differently from the past.
• Direct-to-consumer excellency for better understanding and closer relationships need to be created in order to thrive.
• Brands that looked for potential opportunities and were part of the solution made it stronger through the pandemic and are seeing ROI.

Natalia Langsdale is a consummate luxury professional, and the owner of Bright Creativity; a Marketing and PR consultancy in France. Considered a Luxury Expert in her domaine, Natalia has been handpicked as ambassador to key eclectic brands worldwide and is an active spokesperson for a new generation of thought leaders.

Natalia's professional journey has been a life-long one spent living and gaining wealth of experience abroad and based on the French Riviera for over 28 years.

Having meandered between yachting and business aviation she decided to launch her boutique Marketing, PR & Events agency - Bright Creativity in 2015, catering for a clientele targeting UHNWI such as yacht brokerages, interior designers, business jet manufactures, jewellers and private banks.

From there, the agency added wedding planning services, My Riviera Weddings, to the portfolio catering for high end weddings on the French Riviera and La Vendée regions earning her the title with Madame Figaro France as ‘Preferred Wedding Planner’ on the French Riviera.

To find out more on how Bright Creativity can help your brand in your strategy marketing, I invite you to email me at [email protected] or go to www.bright-creativity.com.

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