A new survey from Luxury Interactive and ShopIgniter shows that 63 percent of luxury marketers predict that by 2015 digital marketing will be the most important form of marketing for their brands — more important than traditional print, TV or loyalty programs.

The leading business driver among luxury brand marketers for digital investments like social media is new customer acquisition.

“While acquiring new customers in social media is logical given the demographics it draws, luxury brands need to develop strategies built on extending their brand promise, inviting fans in and providing the exclusivity they expect,” said Marko Muellner, VP marketing at ShopIgniter, in a statement. “Our experience shows that roughly half of a brand’s social fans are not in the house file, which means there is ample opportunity to not only introduce the brand to a new customer, but also find opportunities to drive product discovery, generate new customer insight and move prospects closer to a purchase decision.”

For the current year, the survey of more than 100 marketers at global luxury brands found 85 percent will increase their digital spend and 72 percent will increase spending on social media marketing.

The survey also found:

• Seventy-six percent of respondents say that if they could manage only one social media account, it would be Facebook.
• Ninety-five percent say they actively engage customers on Facebook, compared to 85 percent on Twitter and 60 percent on Pinterest.
• While three-quarters of respondents allocate less than 20 percent of their digital budget to social, 50 percent report that the leading budget line-item is people-oriented, including expenditures for in-house and agency  resources. People and agencies were also reported as the leading mobile budget line-item.
• Posting product imagery (81 percent), using video to engage fans and followers (75 percent) and seeding new product launches (60 percent) were cited as the most relied upon marketing tactics in social media.

8th March 2013

From www.retailwire.com

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