Unlike consumer goods, the distribution of luxury goods and services
comprises of a one-track direction, making it easily manageable. In addition,
several new distribution opportunities like the Internet provides optimal tools
for enhanced services, long-term customer relationships and improved direct
marketing methods. As noted in earlier chapters, luxury consumers desire
personal attention and customized services and this can be achieved through
online customer services powered by the Internet.
The choice of the appropriate distribution strategy results in increased
sales and profitability, competitive leverage, customer satisfaction and brand
loyalty. Most importantly, it portrays the language of the brand.Promotion
Promotion involves communicating the message of a brand to consumers
through various means. The means of communication include advertising,
personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, sponsorships, cold-calling
and several others. Additional ‘new’ promotional methods are online banner
advertising and pop-ups; e-mail alerts and mobile phone alerts; movies,
music and books; celebrity collaborations; and the recent iPod-casting.
Traditional brand promotion is a one-way process while communications
is a two-way process that emphasizes exchanges with consumers.
Communication with consumers features receiving feedback when brand
messages have been effectively delivered. This is what yields the most bene-
fits for brands. The communications strategy is an offshoot of the branding
strategy.
The communication strategy has the following features:1 The Push Trade promotion, where the brand is promoted to the market. An
example of this is the traditional print advertising.
2 The Pull Customer promotion, where the market is pulled to the brand. An
example is the various Internet promotional methods.
3 The Profile Stakeholder promotion, where the wider market environment
is targeted for the promotion.Luxury brand promotions follow the conventional promotion pathway where
a brand sends a message to the consumer who receives and interprets the
message. The complete process involves the sender (the brand) encoding the
message through a package of images, colours, moods, feelings, sound and
other elements that reflect the underlying message before sending it out. The
receiver (the customer) then processes and decodes the message received
from the brand. This process sounds simple but is oftentimes ineffectively
implemented by several brands. Some of the hitches of effective brand
communications can be found in four broad cases:144
luxury fashion branding