Conversation with Schanel Bakkouche: Content Marketing for Luxury Fashion

In this episode, “The Role of Content Marketing in Luxury Fashion,” part one of a three part series featuring Schanel Bakkouche, editor and stylist at Vogue International Publications and founder and creative director at the advertising agency, SFB Creative, we discuss the strategies luxury fashion brands employ to engage current customers and to attract a new clientele.

Joshua Williams: Hello, Schanel. It's so wonderful to have you. 

We're talking about content marketing and how it shifted over the past few years, specifically in the luxury space. Content marketing is a buzz word in the marketing world, but what does it actually mean? 

Schanel Bakkouche: First, thank you for having me.

Content marketing or brand related content, is which consumers in all case or luxury consumers, actually choose to engage. So it has a value for the audience first, whether entertainment, information, or other value; and the brands second. Content can live in marketing and media channels; it's not a channel itself, I would say. Content can be a spoke or a hub. It can be distributed through media or part of a destination. Importantly content is a means of engagement with current and prospective customer and give the luxury brands it's own voice. 

Joshua Williams: Very interesting. So, what is the role then of content marketing for luxury brands specifically?

Schanel Bakkouche: For luxury brands, the chief value of content marketing lies in its ability to reel in, persuade and evangelize the most discerning audience in the language and elevated aesthetic that is particular to luxury. 

Joshua Williams: What would be a good starting place for developing luxury content? 

Schanel Bakkouche: Whether a consumer voluntarily comes to a brand, or brand reach out to the consumer, in the world of luxury, the consumer needs to want to engage with the content. So. I would say that in the classic sense of luxury. This means stunning photography, imagery with a super photographer with a keen eye, with high production value, or potentially like a television spot.

And beyond stunning imagery, luxury branded content is often predictable: the brand's history, focus on materials and on prediction or any cultural association. 

Joshua Williams: It's so true. In many cases, luxury marketing, in general, isn't necessarily about surprise and shock. It really is building on a long legacy, history and heritage of a brand. So how do these luxury brands balance creating content with a return on investment? 

Schanel Bakkouche: So I would say that often those engaging with branded content will never shop, you know what I mean, content deployment now, owned versus earned, versus paid media.

I mean, content can live in luxury brand's own channels, the website, you know, the social media channels, imagery, video screen in retail stores; so really different aspects. Oftentimes, like customer specifically visit, the brand world to read blogs and learn about the brand history, and view products.

So I would say that content marketing becomes a high effective tool in breaking down buyer to discover and purchase. However great content can often be a key recruitment mechanism for customer acquisition by deploying content via native advertising, or any paid social, advertising in-display advertising or increasingly social influencers in Instagram feeds today. 

Joshua Williams: I'm so glad you said that, because I think we understand that if a typical 20 year old is looking at Chanel, for example, that they're probably not going to buy. But there is the adage that says that if you're not engaging on social media, in particular, then you don't exist in our world today, in terms of the conversation. So, how do luxury brands best manage content and development engagement, knowing that sometimes this information isn't always going directly to their core consumer, but to the world at large? 

Schanel Bakkouche: Yes, of course. I mean, whether still image our dynamic videos, high quality content with like superior production values has a power to intrigue luxury consumers and draw them into the brand world.

These tactics include display advertising with click through, sharing on social media, or creative blogger links to like achieve search engineering optimization. So new format of content marketing in luxury and fashion, I would say, It's like a new format in general. And content is now evolving even further to encompass, I would say long form video series, elaborate posts multiple times per day, shoppable video and city guide applications, in multiple formats. 

It's interesting to talk about long form of video series. I think that today everyone loves like good stories and luxury consumers is no exception, of course. The new frontier is branded series styled like a Netflix series, I would say, you know, with character and then cliff hangers. So it's very interesting to see those changes. 

Joshua Williams: You're so right. There's such a movement towards more narrative driven content that does take a customer on a journey, not just in terms of hitting them with something beautiful, but taking them through a story.

You did mention a little earlier this idea of the shoppable video. Tell us a little bit about that and why you think that that is particularly important to a successful campaign for luxury brands? 

Schanel Bakkouche: Shoppable videos, we are just at the starting point, of a key turning point in content marketing. This how I see it. We are talking about music videos, short stories, series as per above. I mean video content that is shoppable while enjoying the song or story, the luxury consumer can click on anything from the clothes performers, they're wearing, to any like furniture, jewelry, and, what have you, and instantly like purchase.

So it's very, very interesting because I mean, that's definitely a new world than if you look back at a few years ago, like that was not possible.And we had to like probably go over the press and the magazine to kind of like find out what is trending, who was wearing, what in which series, it could even go to films today, to any kind of visual. So, in a world today where consumers are receiving thousands of brands' message a day and at a time where ad blockers are increasingly being deployed by consumers, brands need to find a way to truly connect with consumers by entertaining them, providing them with insight and information, delivering, like a sense of belonging, I would say. 

Joshua Williams: This reminds me a lot of Armani in the eighties and Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler. They really understood that they had to connect their brand to a bigger story. And in these cases it was music videos and red carpet; things that had never been done in fashion. But this is happening so much faster, but I think one of the key things you're saying here is that it can't just be content for its own [00:08:00] sake. It actually has to be of a particular quality. 

Schanel Bakkouche: Yes, of course. I mean, the quality is a key, you know. Engaging content marketing has a potential to cut through the marketing challenges for customer attention faced by luxury brands, bringing both loyalty and new customers.

So yes, of course like the high quality today is really a key point. And we see that in every kind of content, which is very interesting, you know, it's not just the long videos or the long production,, but now any type of content has a very good quality too. 

Joshua Williams: So fascinating. Right? There's so much information out there that it's really important to create content that cuts through. I think that's a key takeaway. 

Thank you so much Schanel for being with us today. We're going to have you back for a second round to discuss the idea of content snacking. 

Schanel Bakkouche: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.