Luxury brands can avoid social media, says former Aston Martin director

Luxury brands do not need to jump on to social media sites to as part of their marketing and IT strategy, says Aston Martin's former global marketing director.

Markus Kramer said luxury brands are slow at adopting digital and social media, and tend to steer away from it.

“It’s great for companies if it’s done right,” he said. “But social media is a lot of noise.”

Speaking at the CIO Event in London today, Kramer said he looks at social media as a channel, but admits that other marketers may see it as the latest revolution that will shape everything.

But its concept has been around for much longer. He pointed to the Harley Davidson Owners Group, founded in 1983. “It was one of the most powerful social networks ever created in real life,” said Kramer, who used to conduct marketing for the company. “And technology now enables that to be shared quicker.”

He said luxury brands don’t have to think about jumping on the latest fad. Because most have started as family businesses that craft beautiful products they think much more long term: 10, 20, 50 years. “They give it time and they observe,” he said.

Luxury retailers aim their goods at a select elite few, which is much more about the product, but the inside stories and people behind the product. “If you all of a sudden have everything one click away, you give up everything,” he said.

The Aston Martin Facebook page has over 2.7m likes, but Kramer estimates that 99.9% of these fans don’t own an Aston Martin, and are not instantly going to buy one.