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How to globalize a luxury branded mobile app

August 9, 2011

Chanel's iPhone app

Just as luxury marketers globalize their Web sites and Facebook pages, it is as important to ensure that their branded mobile applications can appeal to consumers worldwide.

Using rich media such as photos and videos, consumers can avoid language and cultural barriers. Mobile apps are an engaging, connective tool that can be downloaded and enjoyed by luxury consumers who are likely to own smartphones.

“The No. 1 thing that brands that do not have globalized apps are missing out on is not being viewed as relevant,” Glenn Pingul, vice president of products and mobile strategies at Globys, Seattle. “Luxury brands rely not just on offering the highest quality in what they produce or how they deliver it, but also on possessing brand cache.

“The other element global brands miss is the opportunity to have a personal way to connect with their global customers,” he said. “The mobile phone is personal – people don’t share it and they rarely go anywhere without it.

“Not having a mobile strategy means missing the opportunity to connect and dialogue with your customer.”

Rap on app
Mobile apps are engaging, beautiful and are almost always downloaded by brand loyalists.

Therefore, marketers need to build their apps with a specific goal for their customers.

“Think hard about the purpose of the app,” Mr. Pingul said. “Is it designed for existing loyal customers or to seek new ones?

“How will the app drive proactive, relevant messages based on a user’s profile and preferences to drive frequent usage?” he said.

However, there are certain barriers such as cultural and language differences that make this difficult.

Brands should use as little text as possible, and instead videos of behind-the-scenes fashion show footage or watchmaking how-to’s, according to Derek Byrne, managing director at Amoja, London.

“It’s very difficult,” Mr. Byrne said. “But the message needs to be quite simple and universal.”

This includes brands that connect to retail locations via their apps.

Although this could serve as a way to increase in-store traffic, the app does nothing for its global customers.

For instance, Harrods recently released its first app that served as a map and information guide for its store in London (see story).

harrods-departments

Harrods’ app

The app was released in the United States and other parts of Europe, but did not have any use for consumers who did not live in the city.

On the other hand, luxury brands such as Christian Dior and Chanel develop apps with less text and more images and videos of behind-the-scenes slideshows and runway footage to interact and connect with a wider audience.

Apps as a social tool
Consumers in different countries have varying styles, cultures and tastes. Therefore, brands need to ensure that their apps maintain a signature voice, but are able to reach all consumers.

Doing this can build brand loyalists, but also enable consumers to reach and interact with one another.

“Today’s brands are not built solely by ad agencies and product managers,” Globys’ Mr. Pingul said. “They are now built and shaped by the customer.

“Successful apps allow customers to connect with the brand in new ways, as well as with each other,” he said. “It is the social element that apps bring, tied to the brand’s ability to feed their global community with content they then react to, shape the way they want and not just give the brand feedback but each other.”

dior-addict-420

Dior Addict app allows consumers to send one another messages

Since apps also travel through word-of-mouth, connecting consumers with other loyalists will add value to a brand.

“A globalized app strategy will add value in the same way as a globalized marketing strategy,” Amoja’s Mr. Byrne.

“There is certain amount of expectation,” he said. “People expect a high-end Web site to reflect a luxury brand’s image, and at the same time they expect that there will be a high-end app that will provide something extra.”

Final Take
Rachel Lamb, associate reporter on Luxury Daily, New York

Rachel Lamb is an associate reporter on Luxury Daily. Her beats are apparel and accessories, arts and entertainment, education, food and beverage, fragrance and personal care, government, healthcare, home furnishings, jewelry, legal/privacy and nonprofits. Reach her at rachel@napean.com.