Luxury Online Styles, Systems, Strategies

by Okonkwo, Uche

• ISBN13: 9780230555365
• ISBN10: 0230555365
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This new book focuses on the analysis of the online strategy and development of the luxury industry, tracing the evolution of the Internet from a means of communication to a trade and distribution channel. The authors provide a comprehensive evaluation and a critical assessment of the tactics required for the management of luxury brands online.

Author Biography

UCHE OKONKWO is one of the pioneer Business Strategy Consultants in the luxury fashion industry. Based in Paris, she is the Executive Director & Co-Founder of Luxe E.t.c., the world's only Business Management Consultancy firm dedicated to the Luxury Goods industry and its affiliated sectors. She has extensive cross-sector experience in consultancy, management and academics. Uche also has an MBA from Brunel University, London and is a Doctorate candidate at Ecole Superieur de Commerce, Rennes, France.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	p. ix
List of Case Analyses	p. xvii
Foreword	p. xviii
Acknowledgments	p. xx
Author's Note	p. xxiii
Introduction: Moving beyond slow motion	p. 1
Getting It!
Is luxury (still) afraid of the Internet?	p. 11
Connected luxury	p. 26
Web 2.0, the social web (or whatever you prefer to call it) is real!	p. 41
Features and functions of the social web	p. 50
The upside of the social web	p. 55
The dark side of the social web	p. 58
Blogging your life away	p. 61
The blogosphere	p. 71
What should luxury brands be doing about blogs?	p. 79
A look at how blogs will evolve	p. 84
The online world of social networks	p. 86
What should luxury brands be doing about social networks?	p. 96
e-communities	p. 102
Virtual immersive worlds	p. 104
Beyond the social web: what will happen after the frenzy?	p. 107
Doing It!
The e-experience: creating more than a luxury website	p. 111
It's not just about having a website	p. 111
Living the luxury e-experience	p. 115
Moving beyond the webmosphere to the luxemosphere	p. 119
Designing the "winning" luxury website	p. 146
Now to the main issue: creating the luxury website	p. 155
The 7-Cs of luxury website creation	p. 155
Let's talk: communicating the luxury message online	p. 182
Giving way to the new communications style	p. 187
The magazine madness	p. 192
Strategies and approaches for online communications	p. 198
Communicating through the luxury brand's own website	p. 202
Communicating through online media websites	p. 206
The social web communications dilemma	p. 208
Doing it well and avoiding the don'ts	p. 213
The art of selling the dream online	p. 215
The 360° e-retail experience	p. 219
Crafting the integrated e-retail strategy	p. 223
Creating the luxury e-boutique	p. 231
The front office	p. 232
The back office	p. 243
The discount dilemma	p. 248
The sample sale syndrome	p. 251
The temporary ownership movement	p. 255
Sellers and counterfeiters	p. 257
e-people are real people	p. 262
A look at the current luxury client	p. 263
Cracking today's luxury client	p. 268
The international luxury client	p. 269
Rewarding the online luxury client	p. 271
From e-people to what people?	p. 273
Beyond the Internet: mobile technology and innovation for luxury	p. 278
The mobile luxury debate	p. 280
Technology and innovation for luxury	p. 291
Creating products through body scanning	p. 292
Extending the product through innovation	p. 295
Re-defining product functionality through materials	p. 298
Store merchandizing through innovation and interactive screening	p. 300
A look at the best and worst practices of luxury online	p. 307
The Watch Avenue challenges the virtual location notion	p. 308
Luxury Culture paves the way for the online luxury experience	p. 313
Viktor & Rolf changes the look of luxury online	p. 318
Learning from the worst practices	p. 323
Epilog: Q & A with Uche	p. 325
Bibliography	p. 331
Glossary of luxury online terms	p. 337
Index	p. 353
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