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Consumer data capture is entering a new era. Luxury brands are turning from first and third-party cookies to zero-party data — information that a customer freely provides.
American fashion designer Telfar Clemens is taking back ownership of how consumers interact with his brand. His new marketing tool is Telfar TV, a public access channel that serves as a springboard for storytelling and commerce. Consumers who want to buy a Telfar bag need to watch for a broadcast QR code on the channel that takes them directly to a web link to make the purchase.
Drip is replacing drop. The idea, according to Telfar, is to slowly drip product to fans who are truly invested in the label, rather than drop lots of merchandise through e-commerce, where bots have been known to buy hundreds of Telfar totes at a time. The channel also gives the designer an opportunity to involve customers in his creative orbit — anyone can upload their own videos featuring Telfar products for consideration by scanning a QR code and selecting a category such as “funny”, “sexy” or “voyeur”. The designer can also share storytelling and messaging directly from the brand.
This is a world away from physical stores (Telfar doesn’t have one) and traditional digital marketing. Telfar’s bid to own the relationship with its customers comes at a time when, post-lockdown, shopping habits are changing rapidly while the touchpoints to capture consumers are shorter and fewer than before, says Nicole Penn, president of US ad agency EGC Group.
The Telfar approach to community building is also timely — the rules of the game are changing and the cost of CPMs (based on impressions) has surged, making the digital marketing space a more competitive environment, Penn notes.
Until recently, the third-party cookie was king. Brands used these cookies to track website visitors and collect data that enabled them to target ads to the right audience — but third-party cookies are no longer so prized. The EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) restricts the transfer of personal data. Consumers are pushing for greater transparency and, in response, tech giants are phasing out third-party cookies. Companies have to navigate new ways to own the customer relationship and acquire data legally, marketers say.
New strategies emerge
Telfar is not the only name seeking to rethink its brand exposure online. Bottega Veneta this year shut down its social media accounts, wiping all content from platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Weibo. The brand is relying more on its community or “fans” to market its products, explained François-Henri Pinault, chief executive officer of Kering, Bottega Veneta’s parent company, speaking at Kering’s annual results presentation last February.
Bottega Veneta’s strategy is to reduce its reliance on mass advertising, sources say. The luxury house is investing in local efforts such as out-of-home advertising or community events, such as the upcoming salon show taking place in October in Detroit — an important city for the brand given its close association with the music world.
Bottega Veneta is investing in out-of-home ads and marketing initiatives that focus on local community building.
© Bottega Veneta
Major mainstream apparel retailers, including Nike and Uniqlo, are also prioritising localised stores and community engagement to build direct-to-consumer relationships. “Brands want to have direct relationships with their customer base and it’s all related to zero-party data,” says analyst Stephanie Liu from research firm Forrester.
The next step for luxury brands is to draw closer to their most devoted customers, offering more personalised experiences. “Too often, luxury brands just buy media and achieve low value customer acquisition through a big advertising campaign. They’re not thinking enough about granular consumer segmentation which leads to precision targeting, better retention and higher value customer acquisition,” says Ana Andjelic, brand strategist and author of The Business of Aspiration.
