BRANDED APPS & LUXURY FASHION DECEMBER 2010 1 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi UPDATE INTRODUCTION Part of a series of updates on how brands across major industry sectors are embracing mobile as part of their digital, markeCng or product strategy. We have reviewed over 1000 branded mobile applicaCons and summarized the key findings and trends to give you a snapshot of who is doing what and how. This update focuses on the Luxury Fashion Industry. Other updates for brands will be available for the following industries: • AutomoCve (available now) • Airline (available now) • Luxury Fashion (available now) • Sportswear • Luxury Goods • Retail • Banking & Finance • FMCG • CosmeCcs • Food & Beverage • Alcoholic Beverages • Hospitality To automaCcally receive Exicon’s Branded App Updates, subscribe at hWp://digital.exicon.mobi/reports 2 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi OVERVIEW Luxury fashion brands have tradiIonally been reluctant to embrace new forms of markeIng. However, some of the big fashion houses have made great strides over the past few years. Reluctance stems from concerns about: • EffecCveness of represenCng brand values • Maintaining exclusivity • ProtecCng the overall brand experience Luxury fashion brands have generally played it safe, opCng for simple and elegant mobile applicaCons. Key ObservaIons App Spotlights Conclusion Future Trends Shopping on mobile devices accounted for about 5% of US online sales in November, while last year mobile shopping sales were too insignificant to measure. Coremetrics via New York Times 3 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi KEY OBSERVATIONS 1 4 1000+ branded apps reviewed to date % share by industry More fashion apps than other industries CosmeCcs Airline Hospitality Alcohol Fashion 17% 17% of all the apps reviewed in our study were branded fashion apps, the largest sector to date. The overall fashion category covers luxury and high street apparel brands, sports, shoes and outdoor gear. Luxury fashion brands made up 24% of the overall branded fashion apps. Finance Food & Beverage Luxury Goods Retail AutomoCve FMCG Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi Many more shoppers are using their phones to research items and compare prices before making purchases offline or on computers. KEY OBSERVATIONS 2 5 78% Of Web Video Is Encoded To Play On Apple Devices. The iPhone rules. Techcrunch Apple’s operaCng system is definitely the device of choice among luxury brands. Not surprising considering it is the coveted device among fashionistas and celebriCes alike. Our research for luxury brands in the BlackBerry and Android store were fairly fruitless, the only applicaCons available being 3rd party apps, mostly just wallpapers, icons and some mini games. LV released first set of luxury iPhone cases in July 07. Want to guess prices? The Monogram Canvas case will only set you back a measly US$250. Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi KEY OBSERVATIONS 3 6 Err of the side of cauIon. This comes across in the simplicity of the majority of luxury branded apps. Each generally offers runway photographs and video footage, a slideshow of the current season catalog, a news feed, some background history about the designer and a store locator. Some, like Gucci and Diane Von Furstenberg, include a few novel elements. Most shoppers sCll use their phones for finding nearby stores or looking up reviews and comparing prices which increasingly leads to mobile sales. Forrester Research Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi KEY OBSERVATIONS 4 7 M‐commerce will reach US$119 billion in 2015, that’s about 8% of the total e‐commerce market. A lack of m‐commerce ABI Research Not many luxury brands have a mobile or mobile commerce‐enabled site. The top 3rd party fashion apps are either m‐ commerce enabled or use GPS to locate the nearest store along with an exclusive offer. Mobile sites have proven effecCve at driving traffic and aWendance in‐store, brand awareness, user engagement and customer loyalty. Gilt Groupe has been quick to adopt apps enabling mobile shopping. Their emphasis of limited Cme deals is perfect for the mobile – accounCng for 10% of revenue, increasing to nearly 20% on holidays and weekends. It’s one of Apple’s top 300 apps and is available on BlackBerry and Android. Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi APP SPOTLIGHT Ralph Lauren This is a good example of a typical luxury fashion app. Ralph Lauren’s app includes fantasCc behind‐the‐scenes video and photo montages of the design and casCng processes, archival runway footage and interviews with the designer. Of all the apps, its design is perhaps one of the most elegant. However, without more engaging elements, this app will easily be discarded aner one use. 8 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi APP SPOTLIGHT Ralph Lauren Make Your Own Rugby This Ralph Lauren app targeted to a young adult demographic, integrates social media with fashion design and online shopping – it works well, and is stylish. The designs are rich‐looking and fun, and it gives budding fashion designers and preps a way to exert their creaCvity on some quality apre. 9 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi APP SPOTLIGHT Louis Vui`on ‘100 Legendary Trunks’ This app is essenCally a pure brand building exercise with no hint of commerce. It is a celebraCon of Louis VuiWon’s great adventure and is focused on reinforcing the brand’s values and heritage by showcasing the legendary LV trunk via slick video presentaCons. It’s a ‘one Cme use’ app and would be beWer suited as a mobile site. 10 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi APP SPOTLIGHT Gucci Designed for both iPhone and iPad, this app has a similar look and feel to Gucci’s website, however does include some exclusive features for the iPhone, such ‘sneak peeks’ into new fragrance and children’s collecCon. Uniquely, this app allows you to mix and record your own music and listen to a selecCon of music through the ‘Gucci Music Channel’, a conCnuous 3 hour stream. You can also access a playlist created by Frida Giannini, Gucci’s creaCve director. 11 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi APP SPOTLIGHT Diane Von Furstenberg While many designers with apps remain skepCcal about mobile commerce, DVF's app allows users to shop via a "Looks We Love" secCon or by thumbing through the collecCons, but purchase requests are limited to regular business hours. Unlike other designer apps, DVF offers exclusive DVF products to the app users and connects the app with Facebook sharing and DVF’s twiWerfeed. "We already do so many things from our phones, so shopping is a natural progression.” Diane Von Furstenberg to W Magazine on her app 12 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi FUTURE TRENDS 1 13 “iPad on pace to become one of the most popular mobile devices in history.” iPad Woos Luxury Brands Morgan Stanley The iPad is inspiring marketers to become more ambiCous. With its large interacCve screen, tablets like these are beWer suited to luxury brand markeCng than the smartphone, especially with their affluent, educated, ‘early adopter’ customer profile. Gucci is the first luxury brand to embrace the iPad, with not one but two applicaIons. Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi FUTURE TRENDS 2 14 Embrace Word of Mouth Mobile is a highly interacCve medium used for primarily personal and social purposes. Fashionistas love to share and comment, especially about their favorite brands. Fashion brands need to capitalize on this passion. A few brands like DVF have this feature but the funcConality is cumbersome. Luxury fashion brands are having to learn that embracing dialogue with their consumers can easily emphasize and enhance the brand experience. Though not a Luxury brand, Gap’s Stylemixer is a good fashion app with added community funcCon that allows users to share the custom looks created on the app. Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi CONCLUSION Luxury brands have put their toe in the water and found ways to leverage mobile devices to allow for deep, rich experiences – both in apps as well as online. The concern has tradiConally been that the brand potenCally loses its aura of ‘exclusivity’ in this arena. However, with the rapid expansion of the iPad, marketers are being inspired to develop even more ambiCous, creaCve applicaCons, driving the luxury fashion industry forward. Now that luxury brands have had iniCal success, they need to conCnue integraCng mobile into their broader campaign efforts to add real consumer value by creaCng a truly personalized experience with the right message at the right place. 15 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi WANT TO KNOW MORE? This report was brought to you by Exicon Digital. Exicon Digital is a hub for brand marketers & agencies to get everything they need to build successful integrated mobile campaigns. Find out more at hWp://digital.exicon.mobi Visit our website to download a copy of this report and subscribe to receive other industry reports. hWp://digital.exicon.mobi/reports Other updates for brands will be available soon for the following industries. • AutomoCve (available now) • Airline (available now) • Luxury Fashion (available now) • Sportswear • Luxury Goods • Retail • Banking & Finance • FMCG • CosmeCcs • Food & Beverage • Alcoholic Beverages • Hospitality If you enjoyed this report, then you might be interested in parCcipaCng in The ExpediCon, a series of invitaCon‐only workshops about going mobile. Together with leading local brands, agencies and developers, you’ll hear first‐hand from people who have been in the trenches. You’ll also be able to discuss how to apply the learnings to your brand as well as meet the relevant people who can make it happen. Let us know which ciCes you’d be interested in aWending and we’ll be in touch when we’re in your neck of the woods. Go to hWp://digital.exicon.mobi/new/ expediCon.php 16 Branded Apps & Luxury Fashion www.digital.exicon.mobi