A profound transformation of the luxury industry is underway. This was the overarching theme of this year’s Arab Luxury World conference, as business leaders, industry experts and key media players converged to discuss how companies should prepare for this strategic shift.
Mobile, Omnichannel, and Influencers
OMD participated in three panels and one private speaker session, highlighting the need to embrace mobile in the region, presenting insights and igniting the conversation on how best to utilize this in brand strategy, as well as considering the rise and implementation of omnichannel marketing and the ‘good, the bad and the ugly’ world of influencers.
These themes resonated through other speaker panels and breakouts, as the region continues to adapt to the digital shift and what this means for traditional heritage luxury brands. When it comes to mobile, it’s clear that ‘there’s an app for that’ mentality isn’t working. We need to be much more selective in how we communicate, taking a more holistic approach to CX and be part of the consumer story, not enforcing brand presence where it’s not wanted.
The same is true when we consider our approach to omnichannel. Brands have merely adopted eCommerce to keep up with growing hype and need, yet, their strategy remains disconnected from the store presence. And it’s not just the brand and consumer relationship that needs to evolve, but organizations too. Siloed departments between eCommerce and marketing make no sense in today’s omnichannel world; there should be integration between the teams, all striving for one goal.
Companies have felt the need to accelerate their plans inline with growing regional and international trends, in part to ‘keep up’ with the competition, but also to try and anticipate what comes next. This is certainly the case with omnichannel strategy and the same could be said of influencers. While the regulation enforcement will create an even greater divide between the three tiers (celebrity, macro and micro) of influencers, brands will also need to reassess their metrics for success, focusing on a specific objective from the outset.
Though the topics were fairly well trodden, in the sense that we as marketers have explored and debated them for a while, the perspective gleaned from several speakers, brands and clients, yielded a new view on what will come next for the luxury world. Here, we examine the trends to look out for…
To read the full article, go to the OMD MENA blog
