social media in the luxury market

an

case study

Confidential

diptyque Paris, a French luxury fragrance company with a global audience, looked to expand their international presence to the eclectic and selective luxury consumer. While aspiring luxury consumers were certainly welcome, diptyque looked specifically to engage with luxury enthusiasts who were already familiar with diptyque’s history and attuned to its lifestyle aesthetic.

Though diptyque’s social media presence was non-existent at the time, content and conversation coming from their customers presented an opportunity to connect in a personal, unique way for the brand.

Overview

“Luxury products are for the elite, yet social technologies are for everyone.

Luxury brands face a unique conundrum of marrying these 2 worlds.”

- Forrester ResearchChallenges Facing diptyque and other Luxury Brands in Social Media:

Promise of Allure & Exclusivity: It’s difficult for a brand to selectively choose who to interact with via most social networking channels and this segmentation if done incorrectly could cause a major backlash.

Maintaining Integrity of Brand Image: For a luxury brand, image is everything. Many luxury companies are reluctant to experiment with new marketing strategies for fear of distorting their brand image.

Brand Aesthetic: Because a luxury brand needs to maintain the appropriate aesthetics, social media can be a more difficult and more expensive proposition for them.

Brand Recognition: While renowned in France, diptyque’s recognition as a leading scent and fragrance company in the U.S was promising, but overall lacking in volume and voice.

Luxury Social Media Challenges

Confidential

Confidential

diptyque aimed to raise awareness in the U.S. for its brand and products through a low cost, high impact social marketing strategy focused on activating its existing cult following, growing its online community, and driving consumers to its properties both online and in-store.

In addition to increasing brand recognition and “owning” the conversation on fragrance and scent education, diptyque sought to gain leverage that would help launch new initiatives and products in an inventive manner.

Share of Voice – diptyque vs. competitors

Objectives

“It's not cool to be excessive anymore...or being gaudy…It's really about elegance and understatement.”

Tory Burch

Many recognizable luxury brands are having success online by connecting with current customers on Facebook & Twitter by creating communities around sharing and aspirational values.

• Make it easy to find your brand in social media

• Make best use of your brand website• Make use of sharing tools to help enable customers to share content on

company branded sites such as blog posts and product images.

• Create original content for social media & commit to consistent communication

• Follow the 80/20 Rule• Devote 80% of content to inform, inspire, amuse and connect with your fans

around a brand, and 20% of content around product-driven messages.

• Highlight high profile (celebrity) fans• If celebrities and industry tastemakers are using your products and talk

about them, echo it back and highlight from your own efforts.

Confidential

Solution: Redefine Exclusivity & Luxury

Confidential

diptyque created a singular Facebook and Twitter presence that reflected brand ideals.

The diptyque voice focused on candle history and brand education in a witty, approachable, and engaging tone.

The Facebook Page integrated content experiences from the official website adding points of discovery, while Twitter proactively engaged with devotees. In reaching out and making key suggestions as well as initiating conversation, diptyque was able to build a loyal, active following.

An ad spend was executed reaching targeted, desired consumers to get the conversations started.

Singular Presence

Confidential

The brand voice was one of approachability. Content was posted earlier in the day to extend diptyque’s international reach and was highly visual or educational in regards to products, scents, and fragrances.

The brand voice was knowledgeable, warm, and witty, but never over eager or casual. Engagement was limited to customer service and answering questions to allow for the organic celebration of the brand.

Brand VoiceOne of diptyque’s challenges was presenting itself as both accessible and aspirational, staying true to the tenets of being a truly luxury brand.

Confidential

Foremost a French luxury brand (and with many fans based in France), diptyque needed to appeal to an international audience but also stay true to their French heritage.

Page content and experiences were often translated to French and geo-targeted to fans with language preferences set to French. Customers who asked questions in French were often answered in their native language.

Diptyque engaged with US and French influencers on Twitter, building credibility and goodwill internationally among the ‘Twitter elite’.

International Influence

Retailers, Blogs, Magazines, Celebrities

Liberty London36,464 Followers

Saks 5th Avenue77,300 Followers

Harrods56,640 Followers

Habitually Chic13,721 Followers

Models.com64,068 Followers

Chanel Iman92,726 Followers

Molly Sims25,723 Followers

GQ Fashion111,194 Followers

Savoir Flair11,574 Followers

Confidential

To increase awareness of new products and brand history, diptyque created applications to create an engaging visual consumer experience.

Experiences included pages for their Roseros and 34 boulevard Saint-Germain launches, a product overview, and a brief history of the diptyque brand.

Visual Experiences

Confidential

In Fall 2010, diptyque embarked on an Eau Duelle fragrance giveaway. Participants “liked” diptyque’s welcome tab and filled out an address form to receive a free sample of their Eau Duelle fragrance.

The entry gate was open for two days in which time it was picked up by several major influencers and spread virally, resulting in 3,600 new fans in 48 hours.

Foursquare promotions were also executed in store to give away sample products during major sales and product events.

Sample Gifting

Confidential

French tandem of illustrators Kuntzel & Deygas paid homage to the eternal love of Beauty and the Beast.

diptyque’s welcome tab was re-skinned to reflect the beauty of Rose and Eros with a Roseros video, inspiration sketches, and a photo gallery.

Roseros was live throughout the month of February.

The end results were overwhelmingly positive and beneficial in garnering attention, and boosting conversation and page views. Roseros sold out on diptyqueparis.com within a matter of days.

Products Launch

Confidential

To promote awareness of the brand’s new social presence, diptyque hosted Scent Memory events, 5 day Twitter hashtag gifting events displaying fan-submitted scent memories within an elegant and sleek Facebook experience.

Over 750 brand mentions and 400 followers were garnered during the two scent memory events.

Holiday sales of Scent Memory products showed a noticeable spike in sales during the week long promotion.

#ScentMemory

Confidential

Affinitive took over management of the diptyque Facebook page in late 2010. By late 2011, the page had grown by 5,500%.

Diptyqueparis.com traffic from Facebook increased dramatically, boosting sales ‘significantly.’

Among competitors, diptyque grew to become the 3rd most Liked brand on Facebook within their competitive set.

Mille

r Harr

isTocca

Penhaligo

ns

L'Arti

san

Acqua d

i Parm

a

Serge

Lutens

diptyque

Jo M

alone

Bond No 90

20,00040,000

Total Likes

Facebook Results

23,000+

Tocca

Serge

Lutens

Mille

r Harr

is

L'Arti

san

Jo M

alone

Bond No 9

Penhaligo

ns

diptyque

02,0004,000

Twitter Followers*

Confidential

3,700+

@diptyqueparis began Twitter in late 2010. By late 2011, it had surpassed all competitors in followers and influence (highest klout among competitors.)

Jan-11 Feb-11 Mar-11 Apr-11 May-11 Jun-11 Jul-11 Aug-11 Sep-11 Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-110

1,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,000

Total Followers

Total Following

Twitter Results