“The death of luxury has been vastly overstated,” Galloway said. “There’s talk about how the next generation doesn’t like to spend money on bling—it’s total rubbish.”
Galloway, a clinical associate professor of marketing at NYU and founder of digital marketing research firm L2, explained that luxury sales were up 10 percent last year and marketing tools transitioning online.
“It seems like corporations are lagging the consumer in terms of marketing spent,” he said. His presentation included information gathered by L2’s Digital IQ Index of the luxury market.
According to the report, 26 percent of media consumption is now on the Internet. “If you’re targeting tomorrow’s consumer and targeting tomorrow’s wealthy consumer, if you’re not on the Internet, you’re missing half of all media consumption.”
Galloway said the study found that 80 percent of people under the age of 30 that make $100,000 a year are on Facebook every day and 40 percent watch TV every day. “Your influence is twice as likely to be on Facebook than on television. It’s dramatic.”
L2’s research indicated that the watch and jewelry business had the lowest digital IQ score. Swarovski, Tiffany, Tag Heuer, Longines, and Hublot scored the highest digital IQs among watches and jewelry by utilizing e-commerce, social networking sites, and an increase in digital brand building.
Rolex, Chopard, and Cartier were ranked the lowest in digital marketing due to lack of social media presence.
“People aren’t spending as much time on RalphLauren.com as they are on Ralph Lauren’s Facebook page,” said Galloway.