Estimated Reading Time 8 minutes

From retail through to travel and automotive, Luxury brands need to understand that digital complacency will eat their business.

In a recent New York Times article, Ralph Lauren, the man behind the iconic clothing brand that carries his name, spoke about the struggles he’s had to get back into the driving seat of the company he started back in 1967, growing up as the son of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in the Bronx.

The luxury brand has had a series of wake-up calls that have seen it take a roller coaster ride due to a series of well publicised miss management and a level of complacency that bordered on the arrogant. Notable points being the closure of their flagship New York 5th Avenue store and the sacking of their recently hired CEO, virtually at the same time as the CEO of another luxury icon, Tiffany & Co. was fired.

This turmoil is not isolated to retail but also at the shifting sands of Real-Estate, Travel and Automotive. Over the next few weeks, I will be looking at all these industry verticals separately and how the lack of digital transformation in these sectors will ultimately come back to haunt those that do nothing. For many, it is already too late.

Luxury buyers are changing habits. A lot of the woes highlighted above, are systematic of consumers changing buying behaviour alongside the shifting sands of the traditional work/life model.

Brand loyalty is being tested beyond measure, with many pundits saying it is a thing of the past. As an increase of available information and options hit buyers, the big shift is mobile.

How did your customer arrive at your site? Search keyword on Google? Social Media post? Both? None?

Google talks about hundreds of real-time, intent-driven micro-moments. Each is a critical opportunity for brands to shape consumer decisions and preferences.

These micro moments are being driven by consumers shift to mobile.

We can clearly see that customers can come to your site from a variety of different sources. These sources can be made up of a vast number of platforms, and in many cases, different marketing and advertising campaigns.

When added together and looking at how best to attribute conversions, converging this data can be quite overwhelming.

For years, combining various data sources has been problematic. However, more recently, a fantastic new tool is at hand, that allows for seamless data integration – Google Data Studio.

Google Data Studio allows you to connect your data and create custom dashboards. This allows you to run off multiple reports on how well your various platforms are performing and where to find efficiencies.

From custom date ranges to refined filters, Google Data Studio is an intelligent way to better understand your analytics and campaign data to create efficiencies in your marketing campaigns.

As the old saying goes, you’re only as good as the advice you’re given. Whether its legal advice on a contractual matter or an accountant on a financial matter, the same is true of customer acquisition and business growth.

Navigating through the choppy digital waters of this brave new economy requires experience, skill and a deep understanding of objectives. It is sometimes best to take an independent view that will help you better plan and evaluate where you are and where you may be looking to go.

This advice may become invaluable as you review your year at the end of 2017.