Today's major luxury brands are vying with each other to increase their market share, transformed by a triple revolution: the predominance of China (24% of the global luxury market), digitalization and the rejuvenation of consumers.
Prestigious labels need to adapt to the new consumer trends characterizing the luxury sector, in particular by responding to the demands of increasingly young and connected Chinese consumers.
To do this, brands use social networks and influencers, reinventing new customer experiences.
Luxury brands are well aware that children, pre-teens and young adults are a prime target because of their direct influence on the purchases made by their parents. To attract these new consumers, the brands use influencers or muses, replacing models with film or sports personalities such as Kylian Mbappé, who has become a Dior ambassador. Young people are increasingly wealthy thanks to the new professions of influence and the artistic world, as in music and contemporary art. Marketing must therefore reinvent itself: it enriches photos with videos and uses formats popularized by social networks such as TikTok, a veritable goldmine for fashion houses.
Fast fashion, ultra-fast fashion and, more recently, luxury brands such as Prada, are using TikTok to speak to their younger, more connected consumers who are willing to buy online.
In an age of mistrust towards brands, influencers bring real added value: they are sometimes followed by millions of subscribers and have succeeded in creating a relationship of trust with their audience. Indeed, subscribers prefer to follow the advice of people who seem genuine.
Media content is being transformed into art, and illustrations are joining forces with fashion. Artist Kehinde Wiley, for example, recently presented a series of portraits of the former president and other important figures in black American culture, which is being shown by Gucci at the LACMA museum in Los Angeles for the Art+Film Gala festival. Content is diversifying, and garments are becoming veritable works of art, as at the Louis Vuitton Fall-Winter 2021-2022 men's fashion show, where bags were transformed into airplanes.
To generate more sales and interaction, brands are teaming up to become one. Collaborations continue to emerge, with Fendi and Versace giving birth to Fendace in 2021, and Gucci x Balenciaga. We look forward to discovering new associations between luxury brands and young designers in 2022. Established labels could sponsor emerging names... To be continued.
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Flora Di Carlo