Ladies and Gentleman, a word from the man who designs the worldwide experience in the hospitality industry will be inspiration for our topic today:
- “The power and influence of a brand is directly proportionate to the control that brand has over how it orchestrates all its consumer/guest touch points and experiences”.
Where does your brand meet the customer? How does it engage and interact at various points? Online, by phone, social media, in a store, on the road, at a party? Each of these entry points is part of the experience that your audience is engaging and this is especially true for a hotel or any other immersive experience. A retail store has gone from mere display to an experience much like an amusement park. A movie is no longer just a movie, its a game, a t-shirt, a phone app, a social experience or community gathering around a topic, or story, character or idea. Thus, the idea of a brand itself has changed with the media that delivers its messages at each of its touch points. The media is indeed, the driver of the message. Now, in the other hand….things can go very very wrong, as Ted* points out, below:
- Conversely those either unwilling or incapable of such control are doomed to be perceived as just another product awash in the vast sea of commodities.”
No one wants to be among ‘the huddled masses’ of brands ‘yearning to be free’ of the competition and crowding that so often happens in one sector or another. The idea here is that a brand has to “orchestrate” in precise fashion how it is presented to its buyers. This word is key: An orchestra is made up of many instruments carefully calibrated, tuned and designed to work together in a fashion that is not haphazard, nor random. It is well planned, executed and designed to engage and inspire the customer to make a purchasing decision. From a car, yacht, a hotel room, a designer shoe or a handbag.
Speaking of designer handbags..and the fashion runway…
How many designer handbags can you buy? The experience is still the same: The company presents a collection, you pick one, you pay for it. What would happen if there was a handbag “disruption” of the sales experience that was so revolutionary that the purchase of this handbag, which has been presented in a company store or website, was actually re-tooled to do something entirely different? This would set it apart from other handbags, and make things truly interesting. The fashion runway is literally an age old format, but only Burberry saw its immediate use by using an orchestrated version of digital channels to take away the “one-trick” pony aspect of a runway show. It was brilliant and more companies are beginning to explore how to show their flagship collections through a cross channel marketing approach. This will effect how you audience experiences the collections not only via a fashion show, but via other touch points as well. Fashion and luxury are still behind on digital channels as they have yet to realize that they are the “maestro” of their own symphony that must be integrated at all points for maximizing the power of the runway show throughout their product offerings.
I can’t wait.
ARTIFICE ATELIER is a Branding & Luxury Events Agency. We are also content strategists and digital creators. Our world is fashion, lifestyle, beauty and luxury in Los Angeles and Paris.
- Editor’s Note: Quoted from Linked in Article by Ted Jacobs*, Vice President, Design W Hotels, St. Regis, Le Meridien Worldwide.
Photography: Basil Soda: ARTIFICE VIEW OF COLLECTION FALL 2013 PARIS Evening Wear – permission by Alexander Boulais Communications.
ARTIFICE Atelier 