Hermès sets the marketing bar haute

Hermès leads the pack in luxury branding both on and offline.

Having recently pushed back against conglomerate LVMH‘s significant stock purchase of the company, Hermès has been pushing further with a marketing strategy that includes digital, retail environments and experiential.

Though the company may be family-run and known for it’s dedication to tradition, digitally the brand is very modern, with great banner ads appearing in The New York Times and The Economist websites. As well as a great Facebook presence, the official website has for years been an exemplar of how to market luxury wares online. One section of the website takes the user to a simple e-commerce section where a range of accessories for both men and women can be purchased, as well as the obligatory store locator, etc. The other half of the site offers a full immersion into the brand. Some permanent sections allow you to print off your own Kelly bag, to cut and make yourself. Recently, for the launch of a new fragrance inspired by India, the brand had a special film made playing on themes of Indian folklore and mythology, made as a play performed with shadow puppets, which some kind soul has since very kindly uploaded to YouTube, here.

In the offline world, aside from an entirely new brand being created for shoppers in China, in the UK the brand has begun advertising outdoors for the first time. While previously print ads and outdoor ads may have been seen for Hermès’ latest perfume, this is the first time Zeitgeist can ever remember seeing an ad for the brand itself adorning two bus stops in South Kensington. In the last week, the brand has also opened its first store on the famed Left Bank of Paris, built as much to accommodate locals as it is those keen Sino-shoppers. Built on the site of an old swimming pool, the site is by no means a facsimile of the Faubourg store, reflecting instead a more edgy identity. Scores of pictures of the new store can be found here.

Speaking of stores and Kelly bags, Selfridge’s, that bastion of capitalism located on London’s Oxford Street, recently unveiled a gigantic Kelly bag. Called the Kellydoscope, it stands at fifteen times the size of a regular bag. It’s a fun experiential installation by playful brand that could otherwise, given its heritage, risk seeming staid. To add to its hip quotient, Hermès over the summer opened a pop-up store in East London, promoting its scarves. The store, J’aime mon carré, has closed now but reopens Friday until December 23rd in the similarly gentrified-but-cool area of Notting Hill. If that weren’t enough, it has thrown in a skateboarding video too.