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Luxury Hospitality Giant Shows Love

30-day Challenge – Day 7

     

Today, I am both glad and proud to write about a company, with which I have done business: both as a pre-MBA professional and as a consumer. I have to say that I wasn’t surprised when I came across this article announcing Hilton Worldwide’s initiative to give people around the world better access to the hygiene that can help prevent fatal illnesses such as diarrheal diseases and pneumonia.

In partnership with the Global Soap Project, Hilton Worldwide is leading the charge to help develop a cost-free way for hotels around the world to recycle left-over bars of soap, which are provided to guests during their stays. In the first year of this partnership, Hilton Worldwide expects this investment to result in the donation of more than one million new 4-ounce bars of soap to people in need. Learn how it works here. Continue reading →

Should Luxury Brands Care?

30-Day Challenge – Day 4

Yesterday, I watched a documentary describing the tumultuous experience of workers in the garment manufacturing industry, as they campaigned for better wages and working conditions. Titled Made in LA, the documentary follows “three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops as they embark on a three-year odyssey to win basic labor protections from a trendy clothing retailer” (http://www.madeinla.com). 

While putting aside my political and economic views on the subject of immigration, my mind focused on the theme of responsible business – that is doing business the right way and ensuring that all who partake in commercial activities receive benefits (economic and otherwise) that are in line with their inputs. As this concept continued to stir in my head, I had a moment of pure enlightenment. Rather, it was an unanswered question: do brands (luxury brands in particular) care about the things I care about, specifically responsible business?

As the son of a diplomat, I’ve grown up an advocate of all things fine, unique and exclusive. If you think, I grew up with a silver spoon, then think again. My taste and refinement came as a result of the people and cultures, to which I was exposed. I was raised to understand that anything considered unique, exclusive, rare, and pleasurable had a right to be deemed luxurious. More importantly, I learned about the relativity of luxury – what might be luxury for me may be a staple for you. In third world countries, where ample food and water are especially rare and exclusive to the rich, wouldn’t they be considered luxury items.

So you might ask how does this all relate to a blog about an industry focused on goods that some will say are inaccessible to much of the world’s population? At this point I don’t know, but I intend to find out a little more in the coming posts.

Transforming Social Media to the “Bottom Line”

30-Day Challenge – Day 3

Yesterday, I highlighted one obvious problem brands face when employing social media in their marketing strategies. Today, I’m continuing that post with some focus on possible solutions.

Going Where Your Customers Go

Brands need to understand is that social media can influence the decisions of its consumers, especially in the longer term. Luxury companies should be more interested in it because it allows them to communicate with current and future customers. Rather than developing accounts on all the available platforms, companies can start by figuring out which social media tools are being used by their consumers. This reminds me of Mark Bonchek’s (SVP of Communities & Networks, Sears Holding Company) advice on sociographics.

The fact that social media exposes your brand to an exponential amount of customers (for whom you may not be able to count on for a future purchase) forces luxury brands to see it as a threat. Conventional perspective in the luxe space portends that social media could cheapen brands by exposing them to customers that don’t fit their target psychographics. However, if it is done right, social media can give your brand a connection to the next generation of consumers. It would help to mention Coca Cola and Pepsi at this point because both are such iconic consumer brands. These companies have done well in mining their own business intelligence to determine one of the critical times when beverage consumers are most likely to develop their taste preferences – in their college days. As such, Coke and Pepsi spend a lot of money, competing for the exclusive rights to sell their products on college campuses across the US (and obviously the globe).

In the same vane, social media has an influencing capability where users-turned-brand-advocates (evangelists), can help create brand desire within their networks. There is great opportunity for brands who start to view social media more as a long-term brand builder rather than a click-thru conversion enabler. In his article, Rony Zeidan (of RO New York Inc) says:

Advertising has been traditionally about making products desirable, about infiltrating the minds of people to create needs and fuel desire from one particular source. It communicates with consumers, promotes products, creates brand identity, and generates brand awareness.

Social media is the new tool of advertising, and it could be a better marketing tool than the interruptive conventions advertisers have used. I used the term interruptive because traditional advertisements (TV, billboards, and print) have formats that require your focused attention (away from the show or article you really wanted to watch or read) on what the brand is trying to tell you. Today, social media has the power of creating conversations that are user generated, allowing brands to be part of a more intimate and voluntary relationship with consumers. They may not have control over what people are saying, but brands surely have a more proactive capability to know and affect what the market really thinks about their products.

Social media has the potential to introduce brands – whether they are considered household names or deemed obscure –  to markets that were never accessible. It takes word-of-mouth marketing (the best ever for luxury products) a step further by amplifying the brand message. The only thing that that firms have to actively ensure, is that they are using the right social media tools to reach their target markets. To do that they need to go where the customers go.

I enjoy writing about these topics. Blogging is both cathartic and enlightening at the same time. Let me know if you’ve gained something from my perspective.

Connecting the Dots – Social Media and Luxury Brands

30-Day Challenge – Day 2

On my way to school this morning, I had a conversation with one of my classmates about the thin line bloggers and social media publishers straddle between overuse and underutilization of the social media apparatus. Since starting this blog, my objective has developed from just gaining exposure to the luxury goods and services segments, to making connections with people that have similar interests. I’m not worried about how many followers I have (make no mistake I am thankful for my handful); how many facebook “likes” I get; or how many people choose to comment on my posts. I am more interested in the discovery of other publishers, consumers, and readers who have an iota of perspective on the topics I discuss. Continue reading →

Digital Marketing: “Apping It Up”

30-Day Challenge #1

I said I would have my first post in 24 hours, but I couldn’t hold the excitement of my first entry in the 30-day challenge.

While rummaging through my ever-thinking cerebrum for something to write, I found it difficult to focus on just one particular topic. I am interested in a lot of things, so why should I have to limit my posts to just one story or event in the world of high-end goods and services.

I decided to write on themes that are taking place in the luxury and retail space. Today’s theme is a pretty nebulous one: social media and digital marketing in the luxre (a pun resembling the offspring of luxury and retail; and also the name of my club at W&M ) space. Continue reading →

Taking on the 30-Day Challenge

As someone new to the blog sphere, it has been difficult to maintain some level of consistency in the frequency of my blogs about issues in luxury goods and services. Today, I am taking cue from fellow blogger, Greg Fitz (aka the social media ringmaster) of Create and Consume, and I am signing on to his 30-day challenge. The challenge is basically to blog about something each day for the next 30 days.

The challenge is inspiring because it is an authentic effort at making yourself accountable. It is also an effective way to be more creative because “any creative breakthrough inevitably rests on the shoulders of all that came before it. For a painter, that might mean studying the masters” (from Tony Schwartz on How to Think Creatively). For me, the next 30 days will involve a lot of reading on a wide range of topics in luxury and retail which I believe will be more randomly selected and varying than my current set of posts.

If you have just read this post, thank you. Look out for my first entry in the 30-day challenge in the next 24 hours.

Involvement Equals Committment

Welcome to my blog. My name is Edmund Amoye and I am an MBA student at the Mason School of Business at The College of William and Mary. I describe myself as:

Husband; Entrepreneur-in-Waiting, Luxury Advocate; Business Development Specialist; Pricing and Analytics Strategist; Revenue Generator; Thinker; Doer; Self-starter; MBA student.

I am also the founder and president of the MBA Luxury and Retail Club at William and Mary.

It’s been a challenge getting this up and running just because I didn’t think I could do it. So a couple of months after reading a little about “how to start blogging“, I took the plunge.

I created this blog as a way to “get my thoughts and experiences out” and hopefully create some space to explore my various interest. The blog will also help me gain some practice in developing my social media portfolio, and control my external brand image. After all, no one can take greater interest in managing my personal brand than me.

I’ve always been a person who thinks and does many things at once. So you can think of this as my personal off-site storage closet – you put stuff there so you can acquire more stuff for your home. As the child of diplomats, I have traveled the world and been exposed to people from different cultures. As an MBA, that background has fed a burgeoning interest in the luxury/upscale categories of every product or service. From a business standpoint, I am passionate about brands that differentiate themselves within captive markets, especially by creating unique experiences for consumers. These are brands that derive strong advantages by competing in arenas other than just price. Price will always be a factor in the mind of the potential purchaser, but I strongly believe that price is not the single motivator of the kind of customer I want to attract and serve.

I don’t know what the blog will become, but in the next couple of months, I intend to pour my perspective, knowledge and passion into a business development career for highly visible upscale brands. I am a firm believer of “learning by practice”. I think people become great by practicing, making a lot of mistakes, and staying focused on their ultimate goals. As a reader, I hope you will join me on this journey of growth, discovery and fulfillment. Let me know what you think from time to time.

P.S. I’m a noob (newbie), so go easy…

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