It's official! Luxury brands are embracing social media as a way to engage with customers. Burberry leveraged the success of The Sartorialist to create a platform to share photos of regular people in the iconic trench. The Art of the Trench lets users share and rate images, promoting the brand through word of mouth. WWD had an article today about fashion companies finally coming to terms with the need to embrace social media that highlights Art of the Trench. Continue reading

What if a store did more than just sell to consumers? What if it created an experience...built a fantasy world...enveloped the consumer's senses? Anthropologie does just that. The company has successfully created a transcendent brand experience in each store. Artfully decorated, the stores stimulate the senses, from sight to smell to touch and leave customers with the desire to explore this magical world. What this experience has created is a longer customer commitment to the store. Customers stay in the store on average for 70 minutes! This is clearly not a transaction-based interaction, but real involvement with the brand. What... Continue reading

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Full disclosure - I'm a product junkie. Before business school I worked in the beauty industry so I have a lot of experience with product development, from formula creation to advertising to packaging. Especially in the beauty world, packaging is so important in influencing purchase. In the consumer products world, packaging needs to breakthrough the clutter on the shelf and communicate a clear message. Luxury products are even more important to get right with packaging because they are such an aspirational, emotional purchase. I go to Blue Mercury about once a week to just check out the products and see... Continue reading

Speaking of marketing through new media....My friend Megan is in a film by designer Timo Weiland...A brand message through story, absolutely beautiful. "Lovers kiss, quarrel and kill in this fashion film" A Life Full of Holes from Shal Ngo on Vimeo. Continue reading

A new business that caught my attention recently is "Rent the Runway." RTR borrows from the Netflix and Bag, Borrow, and Steal model and rents by mail high-end dresses to consumers. The company was founded by two Harvard Business School grads, and was recently profiled in the New York TImes. Right now the selection is pretty limited, but the site promises new designers soon. My favorite dress right now... What I like: This business solves a fundamental consumer problem. Dresses are expensive and fashionistas don't want to be seen in the same dress twice. For New Yorkers with lots of... Continue reading

I just got back from Wharton's Marketing Conference and one of the panels on product placement got me thinking about innovative ways that companies are interacting with consumers and promoting their brand message. In an era of TIVO and DVR where it is easy to skip commercials, and more and more consumers are utilizing the web to access content it is necessary for companies to be interactive, disruptive and engaging in their message. Sprint is partnering with Heroes/NBC this season to deliver what I think is a really interesting and effective media campaign. Each Heroes episodes features a short Sprint-sponsored... Continue reading