European brands appear to have a firm, tightening grip on luxury fashion in cyberspace that’s leaving little room for U.S. players.
In an analysis of more than 95 million social-media mentions of luxury brands spanning the globe and covering two years of data through September, Mountain View, Calif.-based social-media analytics firm NetBase Solutions Inc., in its “Brand Passion Report,” ranked no U.S. fashion brands in the top 10 while just one, Coach, made the top 15. Coach did slip five places to number 15, although it fared better among U.S. consumers, moving down a single spot to number 10.
In the global rankings, Louis Vuitton moved up one spot to top the list, Chanel three spots to number three and Burberry one slot to number four (Apple, while not a fashion brand, ranked second). Hermès fell one notch to number five, Gucci was down three to number six, and Rolex, the leader in the 2013 rankings, fell seven spaces to number eight. LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — in mentions separate from those for Vuitton or even Moët Hennessy (number 38) — fell to number nine, while Christian Dior, up three slots, closed out the top 10.
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Prada fell four spots to number 11, London’s Wild Swans skyrocketed to number 13 from 212 a year ago, and Jimmy Choo was up 11 places to number 14. Armani advanced six spots to number 23, helped in part by its ascension to number one in the U.K. from number 35 a year ago.
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The study analyzed the frequency and intensity of mentions online — whether from regular consumers, bloggers or other media sources — without respect to whether the sentiments expressed were positive or negative.
So, while Apple rose seven places to number two and its iPhone jumped five spots to number seven, the general tone of the online conversation about the company moved into negative territory despite its overall perception as a luxury brand and prominence as a social-media conversation topic. Its iPad slipped two spots from the 2013 study but qualified for the number 28 position.
“It’s critical for brands to take part in the social conversations, to understand and measure the social commentary that exists on the company and its products,” said Pernille Bruun-Jensen, chief marketing officer of NetBase, noting that Wild Swans’ ascent could be attributed to the London-based store’s luxury handbag giveaway. Wild Swans focuses on Scandinavian fashion and home furnishings, and its online competition to win a Liebeskind Myrthe handbag qualified as “among the industry’s biggest online conversations in 2013,” according to Bruun-Jensen.
In addition to Coach, U.S.-based fashion brands and retailers making the list of the top 45 luxury brands were Michael Kors (down five spaces to number 16), Tiffany (unchanged at number 19), Neiman Marcus (up 17 to number 36), Saks Fifth Avenue (down nine to number 37) and Barneys New York (up 98 to number 44). Nike fell six spots to number 24.
Beyond Apple, non-fashion brands with U.S. roots on the list were Ford (down three to number 20) and eBay (up 22 to number 27). Ford finished behind Mercedes (12) and BMW (17) but ahead of auto brands such as Nissan (31), Jaguar (33), Acura (34), Honda (39), Toyota (40), Ferrari (41) and Daimler (42).
NetBase emphasized that, in the study, it was left up to the consumer to decide what constituted “luxury” and that, in some markets, a consumer may perceive a brand as being in the luxury category, even if seen otherwise in their home markets or elsewhere.
Fear of bogus merchandise, a subject recently addressed by online merchants Amazon, Alibaba and others, might have played a role in the decline of several brands, such as Rolex. NetBase noted that the word “fake” appeared in more than 5 percent of the brand’s mentions.
If concern about counterfeit merchandise online is high, it clearly parallels the focus on price with respect to luxury goods in general. Based on an analysis of online comments about luxury brands, in both the U.S. and U.K., the top positive reactions were “love,” “best” and “great” and the top negative reactions “not afford” and “stupid.” Among negative reactions, “disappointed” was number seven in the U.S., one spot behind “hate,” and number six in the U.K., one notch below the vernacular “blow.”
Not surprisingly, handbags were among the most prominent terms in the online luxury conversation. The growing appetite of Chinese consumers for these items and others in the luxury sphere — whether bought at home or abroad, online or off — was also a prominent online talking point, NetBase said.
