ebuzz - Chanel Senses Opportunity

Chanel Senses Opportunity

French couture house and luxury brand Chanel was in the news recently, adding itself to the host of other companies using their Web sites to gather specific information about their customers, ensuring personalization of content, targeting product placement, and tailoring promotional offerings.

Chanel's new-and-improved Web site will be gathering customer information to customize offers and content for its online visitors, but also to better equip its regional salespeople — who will be able to access the resultant analytics from anywhere in the world and tailor their own efforts to local preferences. Demographics (based on ISP location) are part of the information being collected, along with the usual customer preferences and purchasing history.

So why is this news? It's not a particularly new strategy; many of our partner and client companies do the same sort of thing, and have done for years.

Perhaps it is because of the cachet of Chanel that this news item caught our eye. It's a brand with brilliant name recognition, from Coco's "little suits" of the 50s to sultry Catherine Deneuve's visual association with makeup and perfume: Chanel has enjoyed brand recognition for decades, a recognition that associates it with beauty, luxury, Parisian chic, and timeless elegance.

And yet Chanel now apparently needs to take a step back and really give some thought to its e-marketing efforts. Perhaps what we're seeing is the passing of an era. More likely, however, it's the efforts of a marketing dinosaur to stay part of the Information Age.

The reality is that cachet alone — no matter how classic — is no longer enough to bring in sales. Brand recognition alone isn't sufficient for the customer who no longer wants to know what the brand does, but rather what it can do for them. In a world moving at the speed of light, no customer wants to waste time on products or services that aren't relevant to him or her: and no customer wants to have to do the sorting. Show me what I'm likely to buy, and I'm more likely to buy it. Show me a range of products that have no relevance to my lifestyle, and I'm outta here.

It's a different time, a different vocabulary, and different techniques need to be used to reach people. Chanel's acceptance of — and participation in — this marketing paradigm merely reinforces its relevance. If one of the brightest stars in the branding sky is moving with the times, then it's time for everyone to move.

And that's our take on the news today!

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