Are luxury brands in the tank for product placement?

Careful product placement in movies, television and music videos can influence brand perception, build awareness and solidify an already-established reputation. Do luxury brands get it?

Having a celebrity wearing, mentioning or driving a luxury item in a blockbuster film or popular music video can put a luxury brand on the map. The association with an adored celebrity can also raise a brand’s prestige status.

“A product placement strategy attempts to remove the appearance of selling while still promoting the product,” said Dalia Strum, founder of Dalia Inc. and SocialFashion.com, New York. “By incorporating the product into a television show or movie based on the type of show and the type of viewer who watches it, the initial appeal is introduced to the consumer.

“This approach aids in the latest trend in advertising to make it less advertorial,” she said. “Our society has become numb to in-your-face ads, therefore product placement has become more prevalent in reaching consumers by inserting the product message inside the show they are watching.

“In doing so, advertisers can promote their products or services to a more clearly defined demographic with similar interests and a loyal following.”

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• Viewing on video
• Tapping TV
• Musical measure
• Potential pitfalls

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

via dailyorange.com

Luxury fashion brands push toward China

Fashion, whether in terms of the consumer or the industry itself, is all about chasing the trends. Most trends are only around for a few seasons or at least until the magazines and bloggers deem them “so last year.”

However, some trends stay because they’ve found a balance between consumer interest and brand interest. Just take a look at the evolution of leopard print, the color black and even social media. The best trends are not just the ones that stay but the ones that change fashion forever.

This is the case for fashion’s latest craze: China.

“China is forecast to become the world’s top buyer of luxury goods by 2015,” according to consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in an article published in The Independent on Sept. 15.

With Western countries still struggling in the recession, luxury brands are now looking toward the East for sales boosts and new brand identities. Designer labels, such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Cartier, are sprouting up retail stores all over China, specifically in its biggest cities: Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing.

The recent emergence of China as a growing fashion empire is definitely seen as new, intimidating territory. Most brands are still behind on incorporating China into their five-year plans.

For one, China has always been known as a country heavily reliant on its export growth and cheap labor. Brands labeled as “Made in China” come with negative connotations and are often seen as fake imitations of the real thing. But with high-end brands moving in, the country is looking to build a more extravagant image for itself. Credibility is slowly being brought back into the hands of the Chinese.

Another concern brands have with China is of course the cultural gap between the East and the West.

“When it comes to attracting China’s new wealth, the challenge for some of the world’s most iconic luxury brands is figuring out how to appeal to a consumer base that is constantly evolving and is, in many ways, very different from traditional markets in the West,” wrote Bettina Wassener in an article published in The New York Times on Nov. 8.

Going back to the longevity of trends in fashion, it’s important for brands to find ways to appeal to consumers. Labels such as Hermes and Louis Vuitton have succeeded in the Chinese market because they have found a common interest: heritage.

“Brands with a long history, like Hermes, particularly appeal to the Chinese ‘self-made man,’ who has worked hard to obtain a higher rank and are educating themselves on the value of what they buy,” according to an article published in The New York Times on Nov. 9.

As a country with so much history, China prides itself on its heritage and is naturally drawn to brands that do the same. This is why old brands like Gucci and Chanel thrive in China and often find lines of wealthy Chinese people waiting to wipe the shelves clean.

After years of backwash, China is finally moving into the frontier of fashion. Luxury labels have been quick to see this trend, and it’s only a matter of time before it trickles down to high-end and low-end department stores. But building interest and awareness is easier said than done, and if a brand struggles to find its place in China, then it should be prepared to get trampled over.

All’s fair in the business of fashion, so either get with the program or wait for extinction.

SOURCE ARTICLE.

Business/ Oscars 2010

Glamour&film: Made for each other

Awards ceremony or commercial show? The red carpet show takes center stage transforming the event into an advertising campaign for fashion brands. The race to determine Hollywood’s best-dressed celebrity is on.

First place for Armani Privé, a favourite amongst women celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Amanda Seyfried and Hilary Swank. Kathryn Bigelow wins the prize for Best Director in Yves Saint Laurent and Sandra Bullock wins Best Actress in Marchesa.
Actors favoured suits by Tom Ford and Armani. Gucci dressed Jeff Bridges, winner of the Oscar for Best Actor.

Interview/ Pietro Maestri- Jwt

• The Oscars are a practically free platform and can be compared to an ad campaign worth 5-10 million euros.
• The visibility lasts 12 months, but brands must make continuous investments throughout the year.

WATCH THE VIDEO, online on fashionillustrated.eu, page #10/ 11.

Microsoft and Partners Bring High Tech
to Haute Couture with Style Star

Official press release
12/01/2010

MILAN and PARIS – January 11, 2010 – At the National Retail Federation’s NRF 99^th Annual Convention & Expo today, Microsoft Corp. in cooperation with Accenture and Avanade, introduced “Style Star” with Marina Garzoni, president and founder of Moda e Tecnologia.  The new offering showcasing Microsoft’s leadership in global retail information technology solutions was first previewed in Italy at the Venice Film Festival and Milan Fashion Week in September.

Style Star offers a new way of selling fashion and luxury goods to consumers by combining interaction with emotion across digital marketing, ecommerce, customer relationship management (CRM) and Web services. Together with its partners, Microsoft developed the Style Star MSN format melding fashion and cinema that directly reaches out to consumers and amplifies the advertising and promotional reach of the fashion and luxury industry’s short film production and promotional efforts.

After 60 years, the fashion and luxury landscape is undergoing significant change. Runway shows no longer seem the only way to promote fashion in the globalized, technological new world of the 21st century, and the fashion and luxury consumer is no longer seen as a target but as an individual demanding participation, exchange and co-creation. Forward-thinking, visionary luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, Prada, Tod’s and Ferragamo are experimenting with new forms of brand communication and promotion for a mix of digital and traditional media, including cinematography and short film vignettes.

Emerging technology has expanded the relationship between the brand experience and the consumer by providing a 360-degree way of communicating through both virtual and real world channels — a truly unique multichannel experience.

“With regards to the collaboration between Moda e Tecnologia and Microsoft, we thought this would be the right time to launch Style Star, a new project that allows us to bring the general public close together with the fashion and cinema world,” said Marina Garzoni, president of Moda e Tecnologia and director of Style Star which was created by her. “We believe that today more than ever, having seen the economic link and the changes that are taking place, there is the need in the fashion and luxury world to explore the potential of the mix of fashion, cinema and technology and the impact it can have on the future of the industry.”

“Catwalks of the future can take advantage of advancements in technology to showcase their brands, drive loyalty and advertise via video and online media,” said Paula Paravecchio, EMEA managing director, Distribution & Services Industry, Microsoft. “This adds a powerful emotional connection with the brands and provides a new level of authenticity that speaks directly to consumers to augment the overall experience.”

Style Star enables retailers in the fashion and other industries to drive brand experience, loyalty, social networking and new channels to reach consumers, seek opinions on new product launches, and gain market insights through real-time and virtual participation.  This one-to-one customer relationship will enable retailers and others to customize their products and meet the needs of those global industries in which the customer is increasingly in control.”

Style Star will bring together and celebrate these short fashion and luxury film vignettes, thereby creating a collaborative and promotional environment involving designers, fashion and luxury companies, production houses and advertising agencies, and well-known and up-and-coming directors. Within the Style Star format, brands and designers will be able to showcase their productions and tell their story in an appropriate and empowering context fueled by the most innovative technologies.

Thanks also to collaboration with Leo Burnett, its official communication agency, and Microsoft MSN, Style Star now will span both the real and the virtual digital worlds.

Together with partners like Accenture and Avanade, Microsoft has created its own integrated Style Star offering for the fashion and luxury world that will enable immediate consumer interaction with the brand and collection — from media release to advertising and viral communication (via the Web or a mobile device).  New collections now are available online or via many channels to promote consumer loyalty and drive cross-sell and up-sell.

Microsoft in Retail

Microsoft is the leading provider of global retail information technology solutions.  Microsoft is #1 in store systems, with 90% market share in retail POS OS (Source: IHL).  Microsoft also is the leader in business intelligence (BI): 100% of retailers use Excel, the #1 decision support tool.  Microsoft also leads in digital marketing as the only end-to-end solutions provider.  Its digital marketing solutions range from the stack (Windows, Windows Server, SQL Server, .NET, Visual Studio) to online (Commerce Server) to mobile (Windows Mobile), and from digital advertising (Bing, AdCenter) to entertainment (Xbox, Xbox LIVE, Zune, Silverlight).  Microsoft delivers connected experiences for stores, commerce and the enterprise via the “three screens” (PC, browser, mobile) for anytime, anywhere on any device access.
Microsoft’s Retail Group provides software that helps retailers thrive in today’s competitive global marketplace by meeting the demand for a highly personalized and connected shopper experience. Microsoft helps retailers deliver a consistent shopping experience through seamless multi-channel integration and via innovative technologies and mobile and new social networking channels. Through a combination of Microsoft- and partner-based solutions, retailers can turn data into insight, ideas into action and change into opportunity. More information about Microsoft’s Retail Group can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/retail.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.