What social media strategy should luxury brands adopt?

How do you promote exceptional products or services on social media? This is the challenge facing luxury brands, which initially target privileged consumers but whose image appeals far beyond this affluent clientele, particularly to younger generations. Therefore, for these unique players—the "luxury brands"—social media communication has emerged as a powerful marketing tool.

Luxury on social media

At first glance, using social media to promote a luxury product might seem contradictory. Indeed, why invest part of your marketing budget in social platforms considered popular when you're targeting an elite group of consumers? Furthermore, communicating on social media can seem out of step with the very values ​​of the sector, namely a strong grounding in tradition, excellence, exclusivity, and refinement.    

And yet, whether we like it or not, the luxury industry cannot escape social media. Thus, in 2019, no less than 93% of its consumers declared that they used them (mainly Facebook and Instagram) and nearly 20% of luxury items were purchased online (Facebook IPSOS MORI study carried out on more than 4,500 luxury consumers in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States). 

Even better, according to the same study, at the time, luxury consumers were 1.2 times more likely to use social media than "traditional" consumers. A trend that has only continued to grow since then.

Based on these observations, luxury companies have clearly understood the benefits they can derive from social media by including it in their marketing strategy. At So Bang, our agency helps brands in this sector reinvent themselves and their customer relationships on social networks. Here's how.

Focus on one or two social media platforms at a time

One of the characteristics of luxury is offering unique experiences. Therefore, to be consistent with what it represents, a luxury brand would be well advised to aim for excellence by focusing on one (or even two) social networks rather than investing in several at once. 

As in real life, scarcity is indeed a key element to leverage on social media to generate interest and desire among consumers. Prioritizing a single platform also allows a luxury brand to avoid revealing too much and to maintain that air of mystery that is so captivating.

Prioritize quality over quantity

Luxury brands that succeed on social media are also those that don't offer an avalanche of products. Again, stay true to your values ​​and think exclusive, premium, etc. By targeting a limited range of products or services, you'll give depth and value to your social media presence. 

Of course, this does not prevent you from creating very varied content around the products you have targeted, but always do so with a qualitative rather than a quantitative focus.

In short, by remaining true to this strategy which they also use in their physical points of sale, luxury brands maintain a relationship of trust and authenticity with their audiences on social networks.

Focus on the experiential approach

Not everyone will easily be able to visit the physical store of a major jeweler or a prestigious car brand. However, thanks to digital technology, everyone can join the social network of a major luxury brand.

Making territories previously reserved for an elite group of consumers accessible to a wider audience is, in fact, the very magic of social media. In doing so, luxury brands must cultivate a welcoming environment for users on social networks by offering unique and memorable browsing and shopping experiences. 

To successfully offer this unforgettable experience to social media users, luxury brands have some compelling advantages to leverage. For example, through storytelling, they can immerse users in the brand's often rich and authentic history. 

They can also offer unique online events (e.g., a fashion show, a preview, a behind-the-scenes tour, etc.) and give everyone the very pleasant feeling of experiencing a rare and privileged moment.    

Offering premium services

To succeed with their social media strategy, luxury brands must also carefully manage the services they offer consumers on these platforms. This notably implies a high level of customer service. Therefore, avoid chatbots and FAQs, which are too impersonal, if possible. 

On social media, to maintain the prestige that has built their reputation, luxury brands have every incentive to offer impeccable, personalized, almost bespoke customer service. Ideally, a luxury brand should have a dedicated person to respond to user inquiries in the most premium manner possible (precise and clear messages, responsiveness, etc.). 

Leveraging the aura of influencers

Luxury brands almost all use brand ambassadors to promote their image or products. So why not do the same on social media by using influencers? With the help of a social media agency, companies in the sector can meticulously select the ideal influencer.  

This is what we do at So Bang with our platform of 30,000 influencers which allows us to find the profiles best suited to each brand, particularly in the luxury sector.  

Using influencers is also a very good way to develop your social selling with very targeted communities such as young people (Generation Z is very present in the online luxury market) or people with potentially high purchasing power.

Finally, like other consumer sectors, let's not forget that today, luxury is a community builder. Brands in this sector therefore have every reason to use social media tools to build a community around themselves and extend their reach far beyond their original clientele.  

So Bang supports luxury brands on social media. Discover our work.