Tag: collaborations

Sophie Shohet Discussion of Influencer Gifting:

Firstly, thank you Sophie Shohet for this blog post idea. She recently asked in a YouTube video to get reactions from her subscribers (myself included) on how they feel about luxury brands gifting products to Influencers.
To watch her video:
Why Luxury Brands Gift Bags to Influencers (it’s really simple.) | MARKETEER REACTS

She starts off the video with more technical terminology for us to learn about the logistics and types of marketing. She goes into explaining celebrity marketing and Influencer marketing and how Influencer marketing is a much lower expense for companies.

Celebrity Advertising, Marketing: Does it still work?

Way back when, as I was growing up I remember that I would buy Seventeen magazines and Vogue magazines just to draw inspiration from and may or may not have caved at a great smelling fragrance. However at the same time, being a child of the 90ties I also recall a lot of celebrity ad campaigns and signature bags/styles. This is the traditional and core way of marketing — having well known celebrities model products for ads in magazines and on television.
Example: Resurgence of the Fendi Baguette and how there’s always an ode to the purple sequin one that Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw) wore with her outfits in Sex in the City.

So does this model of marketing still get used today? Absolutely, although influencers are at the top of the list in terms of cost effectiveness in making an item viral; celebrities still have a huge influence on fashion and beauty trends.

A great example of this would be the K-Pop culture and how that shapes a lot of the asian consumers and what they purchase. BlackPink is a girl group that has blown up over the last couple of years and each artist is contracted to a different luxury brand for marketing purposes. Jennie(Walking Chanel) is signed with Chanel, Lalisa is signed with Celine, Jisoo is signed with Dior and Rose is signed with Yves Saint Laurent.
Example: BlackPink, Jennie, Lalisa, Jisoo & Rose

Influencer Platform, Transformation & Transition

In any of the examples below, no matter the social media outlet, I would say that a lot of the influencers had to spend time to establish trust during their early years. A lot of them had posted photos and such with no ads, no revenue, and no incentive — just for hobby-sake.

YouTube
In my personal opinion, I think that the Influencer Platform dates probably all the way back to 2010 when our favorite makeup muse Michelle Phan essentially became the face of YouTube. With the rise of YouTube and the amount of exposure the platform was getting, it made sense for brands to start to focus on that. However, during that time it was mainly dominated by cosmetic brands and online-only stores. They would often pay YouTubers to feature, try, and push their products.
In the early generation of YouTubers they would often get contracted into the company, but over the years due to the dismantling of this marketing strategy it became very apparent that it was very dark. The contracts could vary from long-term relationships, collaborations in product development, or just long-term adverts.

Since a lot of the falling-outs were figured out by the public, brands have mostly withdrawn this method and instead would rather just send out product and NDAs for try-outs for said products instead. And if the influencer is large enough, they would get paid for their advertisements to help the company reel in more monetary profit or collab in a collection package and discount codes similar to those of monetary affiliates and referrals.

Instagram
Influencers on Instagram started becoming increasingly more popular in the last 5 years. From 2014-2015 a lot of the attention was already shifting from YouTube to Instagram. Instagram allowed viewers to look through heaps and heaps of photos on their way to work — especially on a rough Monday morning. Flip open Instagram to figure out what you will be purchasing on payday. I was definitely not the only person doing this, right? Haha.

However, content moves with time and this definitely applies to myself. As someone who would go by influencers and what they experienced, I often found myself watching someone that shared a single commonality with me. Instagram slowly got bigger and bigger and eventually it became a shopping destination. As an interested consumer, you would search a particular hashtag to see who may own the product, post about the product, or have tried the product and their thoughts. With the incorporation of the ‘swipe up’ function, this became a huge marketing influence simply because you can now see something and buy it at the tip of your fingers.

There was also additionally a shift in content growth, the members that were part of an age group grew up along with their influencers — meaning that the purchasing power switched from buying cosmetic products to skincare/basics to luxury bags and more expensive items.

What Bag Started It All?

On Instagram & YouTube, for as far back as I can think of — I would say that the Chloe Drew Bag started it all. The hype that this bag created on social media was absolutely bonkers. This bag was/is super cute in my opinion, it was the first official move away from totes and duffles and other bigger bags that had been trending for years.

Prior to this, due to celebrities wearing large hobo and duffle bags like the Gucci Boston Bag, the Louis Vuitton Speedys, and the Fendi Spy Bags — all very classic bags that held sale traction in these fashion houses for nearly 5-7 years.

The Chloe Drew bag took the market by a storm because for the first time ever, a small bag was trending on social media, and there were plenty of reviews of this bag on YouTube. I truly believe that many of the folks that reviewed the Chloe Drew bags had purchased it — but I can’t say the same for the next Chloe baby that emerged, the Nile Bag. Now, I don’t mean to sell these bags short by saying that they only gained fame because they were constantly featured on social media — but it definitely helped gain exposure this way. Additionally, during this time, Chloe’s bag shapes, sizes, and design were very ground-breaking and not mainstream.

After witnessing Chloe’s initial influencer success with these two bags, a lot of other brands started to follow suit. Some items that come to memory are the Bulgari Serpenti Bags and Dior Book Tote.

Thoughts on Louis Vuitton Pont9 Marketing:

Louis Vuitton is a brand that mainly sells canvas items as their ‘bread and butter’, but over the years they’ve shifted their brand vision. It may be due to the overwhelming amount of counterfeit bags, over saturation of canvas, or just the fact that they were often viewed as a good starter luxury brand which places them in a lower tier compared to other fashion houses.

Louis Vuitton marketing is never done just on a whim, it is really thought out and the method involves testing a product that is set for success before they try it on other items. There are times when an ‘out of stock’ item may influence the consumer’s caving in for a future launch. For example, prior to the launch of the Multi-Pochette Accessoires, other canvas pieces such as the mini pochette and the pochette accessoires became nearly impossible to purchase new in-store/online.

The Louis Vuitton Multi-Pochette Accessoires was one of the biggest social media pushes that LV has ever done. Without any social media help, a lot of Louis Vuitton lovers already wanted to purchase this bag before it was even launched. However, Louis Vuitton decided to give this bag away like hot cakes to many Instagram/YouTube influencers and caused an even bigger surge and demand for this bag. As if giving out the bag for free to Influencers and many of their clients having unfullfilled pre-orders wasn’t bad enough; Louis Vuitton also raised the prices for all the new potential consumers who wished to purchase the ridiculously popular bag.

Now bring in the infamous fashion jewelry piece, the Louise Hoop Earrings. Similar to those of Fendi, Louis Vuitton took inspiration and decided to develop a new logo. For the longest time, these earrings were completely sold out, for months on end. This showed that despite low-hype, these earrings were a great seller and popular item — now fast forward half a year, slap the revised logo onto the new bag, the LV Pont 9.

Louis Vuitton tried out their influencer marketing technique with a Canvas piece, and then decided to run a test of the logos on fashion jewelry. With such a success story on both of these instances, they decided that it was time to use these successful tactics to push their brand in the long-awaited directional change.

This is the first time that they have pushed so hard for a new leather piece. Although, I do not foresee the same type of success with this leather piece, once revenge buying kicks in, some folks may consider this bag.

The other issue I have with the LV Pont 9, is that it looks identical to the Gucci Arli Bag. Unfortunately, to me the LV Pont 9 is just not unique enough. Looking at this stunning bag, I do not see which hole in my collection this would fulfill. The interior is similar to the Celine Box Bag and the exterior is similar to the Gucci Arli, it just does not feel like it is a ‘ground breaking’ creation for the fashion house.

Is Hermes also part of this Influencer game?

To an extent, Hermes is also taking a part in the influencer game, but in my opinion and this is my opinion only I think Hermes is still doing it differently.

A lot of the more popular/neutral colored Birkins and Kellys are still given to their VIP clients first. Perhaps an influencer that can establish a really good relationship with the manager of the Hermes store will come out of the store with these seemingly rare pieces such as Birkins, Kellys, and Constances but in loads of less desirable colors and finishes. So although they are catering to the influencer by selling them popular bags, it may not be ideal for the general public that are drooling over Hermes pieces.

However, for an influencer who has a closet filled with all sorts of fashionable items, it transforms the less desirable colors/finishes to a more wearable level. By doing so, it gives Hermes a fair share of social media presence in addition to the VIP clients that already have many of the very desirable color combination bags.

Conclusion, So How Do I Feel About Gifted Items?

Over the years my opinion on this question has changed dramatically. If you asked me this question 5 years ago, I would have said that this is a great marketing strategy because I trust the Influencers that I follow. I would expect them to honest product judgement and reviews. However as the years have gone by, I would generally take the recommendation with a grain of salt — and then proceed to do additional research. It is still a great way to bring about products that are new or have been around for a long time that just never got their duration of lime light.

All in all, I do not have an issue with gifted items, as long as it is declared at the time of unboxing or review. If it is being declared properly, it will help me make my decision based on that fact that the item was gifted — and for bigger brands such as Dior and Louis Vuitton, what Influencer wouldn’t want to work with them in the future? So it’s a hard and tricky line to walk, but if transparency is there then I as the consumer will filter the review accordingly.

Lately though, I would say that the gifting is backfiring for consumers like me. Due to the hype and the over-saturation of the product, I almost feel like I no longer want it. A great example of this is the Dior Saddle Bag — when I saw this on the runway I had considered the small one in pink leather. As soon as social media started to become flooded with this bag I no longer wanted it. Same goes for the Louis Vuitton Multi-Pochette Accessoires, and this one was even worse because it was consistently sold out online. So even hardcore Louis Vuitton fans that wanted the bag, were not able to get bag.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Tell me what are your thoughts on this? I feel like it plays such a big role in our lives on a daily basis especially now that we are easing out of quarantine and revenge buying will start soon. Do you feel that social media marketing works? Do you feel that it is fair to the consumer, to the followers, to the subscribers?
Let me know down below.

Disclaimer: Please note that all images unmarked are my own and those marked are credited and not intended for any copyright infringement. All images and links are not affiliated. This post is not sponsored and not paid for, all opinions are my own and always will be.