Digital Marketing & Sales Channel Monitor 25 Swiss and 25 international top luxury brands Institute for Marketing, University of St.

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1 Mikko Lemola/fotolia 25 Swiss and 25 international top luxury brands Institute for Marketing,

2 Management Summary: Swiss luxury brands still hesitant regarding the integration of digital media Status of the digital transformation in Switzerland The shows that luxury brands integrate digital media too little into existing marketing and sales channels. Only 64% of international and 8% of Swiss luxury brands offer online shops. Differences across industries only account for part of this lag. Swiss luxury brands offer domestic customers less digital services than their international competitors, e.g. with regards to wish lists or possibilities for direct interaction. Aside from store locators, online-offline integration is generally still on a low level. The comparative study shows three different digital strategies for luxury brands: interaction-, sales- and communication-oriented approaches. Page 1

3 Online shops are primarily found for international fashion labels Online shop CH: 8% Int: 64% Share of luxury brands which offer online shopping for Swiss customers. Online price information CH: 24% Int: 68% Share of luxury brands which list product prices on their website. While 64% of international luxury brands sell their products on their own websites, only 8% of Swiss luxury brands offer an own online shop. The large share of watchmakers can only partly account for this difference. One exception is the Swiss brand Alpina, which not only sells its watches via its proprietary online shop, but also via Facebook store. Page 2

4 Swiss luxury brands are well adapted to mobile customers Mobile website CH: 80% Int: 80% Share of luxury brands with a mobile website. Own app CH: 88% Int: 68% Share of luxury brands with a mobile app. Although the real product experience is of high relevance for luxury brands, customers research more and more frequently online. Therefore, most luxury brands offer mobile websites and additional apps, e.g. Cartier special customer magazines or product catalogues. Page 3

5 Too few Swiss luxury brands offer wish lists and possibilities for direct interaction Wish list on website CH: 40% Int: 60% Customers can rather save their favorites online at international than at Swiss luxury brands. Invitation for direct interaction on website CH: 12% Int: 16% Only few luxury brands offer Swiss customers the possibility to interact directly. Luxury brands can enhance the online customer experience by offering a wish list or direct interaction. The German luxury fashion brand Boss, for example, lets its customers save their favorite products on a wish list and answers questions in a live chat during the opening hours. Page 4

6 High interest in connecting through social media communities Account on Facebook CH: 92% Int: 80% Account on Twitter CH: 80% Int: 68% Account on Pinterest and/or Instagram CH: 80% Int: 68% Account on YouTube CH: 80% Int: 76% Almost all luxury brands are present in social media and have typically integrated links to their profiles directly on the starting pages of their websites. The Swiss watch brand Fredérique Constant, for example, is active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest as well as on Watchuseek but also maintains its own forum and blog. Page 5

7 Online-offline integration is limited to store locator CH: 100% Store locator Int: 96% Product availability CH: 4% Int: 12% Appointment scheduling CH: 20% Int: 4% Exchange in store CH: 4% Int: 16% While store locators are offered as a standard by luxury brands, the general integration of offline channels is at a very low level. One best practice example however is Jaeger-LeCoulture. The Swiss watch manufacturer offers customers the possibility to ask questions for each watch model or to schedule an appointment at the next sales point. Page 6

8 Overview of digital strategies of luxury brands 36% interactionoriented strategy Interaction and exchange with online customers; mainly manufacturers of watches and cosmetics/body care products 26% salesoriented strategy Sell their products in own online shop; mainly fashion and accessory brands 34% communicationoriented strategy Use classical marketing approaches, have no specific digital strategy; players from all industries, many jewellery manufacturers. Page 7

9 Comparing the digital strategies of luxury brands Interactionoriented Salesoriented Communicationoriented Product prices on website 39% 100% 6% Product wish list on website 44% 73% 35% Scheduling for in-store appointment on website 17% 7% 12% Facebook link on home page Products presented on Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube 39% 31% 24% 50% 71% 56% Page 8

10 Methodology Sample: For this study, the digital integration of the strongest luxury brands from the BrandZ Top 100 Index as well as a number of the 100 luxury companies with the highest revenue worldwide (Deloitte 2015) have been analyzed. Analysis: Based on online research on the websites and social as well as mobile media, the degree of digital integration of the selected luxury brands has been recorded and subsequently compared. The present study on luxury brands already represents the second edition of the "" published by the Institute for Marketing at the. The first benchmark study in June 2015 compared Swiss retailers to international competitors ( For the future, regular repetitions of the monitor and gradual expansion to other industries are planned. Page 9

11 Contact Prof. Dr. Marcus Schögel Director at the Institute for Marketing Prof. Dr. Dennis Herhausen Assistant Professor for Marketing Dr. Kirsten Mrkwicka Project Leader at the Institute for Marketing Institute for Marketing Dufourstrasse 40a 9000 St. Gallen Phone: +41 (0) Fax: +41 (0) Page 10