How luxury fashion brands use TikTok as a cost-effective marketing tool
During the past two years, TikTok has afforded many valuable opportunity for luxury brands to connect with younger generations of consumers. Compared to the others app, the video-sharing social network has the highest reach for Millennial and Generation Z, making it a potential sales channel for luxury brands as these two generations will account for 180 percent of luxury markets growth from 2019 to 2025.
1. Virtual events
Luxury designers are now partnering with TikTok to livestream virtual fashion runway, which allows users to be have a part of TikTok fashion front row. Dior, one of the first luxury fashion brands to embrace TikTok, launched its Ready-to-Wear collection by Maria Grazia to TikTok. Dior Spring-Summer 2021 Collection virtual catwalk used the platform to communicate with the young audiences in a real time. Louis Vuitton, JW Anderson and Saint Laurent also joined The TikTok Fashion Month with Dior. Digital fashion shows have become essential to brand survival during the pandemic. Luxury brands are now able to reach new demographics and increase awareness of their new collection in an authentic and community-driven approach. TikTok’s social commerce potential also indicates that luxury brands could gain actual sales from digital show.
2. Unboxing
Unboxing is a concept that began in the 2000s on YouTube, where creators would show off their newly purchased products to their online audience. It quickly became a popular trend among TikTok creators. Since its launch in 2018, the concept has gained over 40 billion views on TikTok. Unboxing allows social media users to get vicarious pleasure through creators. Unlike thrift clothing and fast fashion being focused in hauls video, luxury fashion and products dominate many popular unboxing videos.
Luxury unboxing videos tend to be brands gifting the product rather than paid partnerships with influencers. Unboxing is a low-cost way to gain endorsement from leading social media creators. It creates rich marketing opportunities for luxury brands, particularly in increasing engagement with young consumers on TikTok. High-end luxury unboxing is more appealing to these customers compared to mainstream fashion. They want to learn how a specific product could fit into their life before they buy it. Unboxing helps the brands tell their story in an authentic way that resonates with the audience. Product placement with these stories could increase brand awareness.
A prominent example of the influence of TikTok unboxing is the trend of buying the cheapest thing from designers. It’s about creating a sense of luxury on a budget. The joy of the trend is the luxury packaging and unboxing experience whether it costs $8 or $8000. The #cheapestthing unboxing trend makes luxury brands become more mainstream and compelling to mass-market consumers. Overall, TikTok unboxing is a low-budget, high-returns marketing strategy for luxury brands.
3. Organic marketing
Luxury brands could benefit from TikTok trends and leverage viral engagement if they hop on a trend at the right time. Brands must pay attention to TikTok trends as most of the times these trends blow up organically at first and can boost brand sentiment if the brand itself simply encourages them rather than being heavy-handed.
For example, the infamous Harry Styles’s cardigan had inspired a knitting TikTok trend when Styles wore a JW Anderson rainbow cardigan at a rehearsal for the Today show.
JW Anderson spotted the opportunity and posted the details of the colour pattern as well as a tutorial video on how to create it by yourself. The trend succeeded in gaining over 52 million views, setting the hype for the Women’s Spring Summer 21 Collection of JW Anderson.
References
- Maguire, L. (2022, September 02). TikTok Unboxing: Luxury Fashion’s low-cost marketing tool. Retrieved Septermber 30, 2022, from https://www.voguebusiness.com/fashion/tiktok-unboxing-luxury-fashions-low-cost-marketing-tool
- Depino, F. (2022, September 29). TikTok for Luxury Brands – Opportunities & Examples. Retrieved Septermber 30, 2022, from https://mediaboom.com/news/tiktok-for-luxury-brands/
- Alexis. P. (2021, October 2). How and Why Luxury Brands Should Embrace TikTok. Retrieved Septermber 30, 2022, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/how-and-why-luxury-brands-should-embrace-tiktok/382312
9월 30, 2022, Consumer Psychology에 게시되었습니다. 퍼머링크를 북마크하세요. 1개의 댓글.
Ewha [Brand Communication] 
Tik tok is one of the popular social media platform which is connecting with younger generations of consumers. Including me, I was motivated by the unbox video on TikTok before, so I think It is an effective platform to promote products and stimulate customers to consume.
좋아요Liked by 1명