Is Artificial Intelligence Application An Opportunity Or A Threat To The Luxury Industry?

The application of artificial intelligence has penetrated into many industries, and luxury goods are no exception.

We see that some brands are starting to use AI in digital marketing. For brands, the top priority seems to be to adapt to the development of science and technology and quickly adjust strategy, but the application of the technology is not only a one-way street leading to a broad road, but also faces some challenges. It may threaten the history and DNA of those brands that have been passed down for many years.

Challenge - AI may be an emotional killer.

Emotion plays a very important role in the purchase of luxury goods.

From the perfect cuisine of Michelin star restaurants to the delicate smell of high-end perfume, luxury brands can reproduce their sensory experience very well.

Unfortunately, some brands' emotional dependence may be threatened by artificial intelligence and robotics development.

For example, with the emergence of driverless cars in parts of China and Silicon Valley, carmakers are facing major challenges: for luxury car brands like BMW, are they faced with the need to re brand positioning, such as emphasizing the joy of machine driving or the convenience of automatic driving?

SK-II, a Japanese cosmetics company, may have found the answer to the problem: providing emotion through artificial intelligence and helping brands promote further development of sensory exploration.

In the newly opened Shanghai store, the company invites consumers to create their own artworks with the help of artificial intelligence. By posing in front of a large digital wall, users can create their own art.

This is also true.

Alibaba and its tourism platform Fliggy are pursuing the goal. Fliggy released a new robot this month to serve the basic needs of hotel guests, and can complete the task of delivering food or clothing.

Lijuan Chen, general manager of the lab, said robots can "bridge the gap between customer demand and their expected response time."

In other words, the advantage of artificial intelligence is to help customers deal with basic tasks, so that brands can better focus on creating a humanized experience.

Challenge - the art of protecting face-to-face services

Salesperson is an important part of luxury brand marketing strategy.

They are ambassadors of brands, and for many customers, they are the only way to engage in genuine dialogue with brands.

But AI based chat robots can share part of the responsibilities of salesmen in a cheaper and more effective way.

For example, in addition to instantly recording customer information and answering their questions, chat robots can continuously improve their understanding of customers and make real-time decisions based on them.

And the chatting robot with unlimited memory may become a strong opponent of salesmen. What kind of role will the salesperson play in the future?

Cards should be designed through unique creative skills to help store them in the flagship store.

Their roles will be devoted to providing emotional responses, and the rest can be completely manipulate by robots.

For example, a group of artists can present live performances in a brand new series, which will appear before visitors in flagship stores and will be broadcast live through the brand's social media channels.

Challenge - AI threatens customers' trust in luxury brands

Although China is more willing to accept technological innovation than the West in culture, Chinese consumers are increasingly concerned about how brands collect, store and use their private data.

We should expect that China will soon start standardizing how companies collect and use customer data, and customize customized products and services for customers based on this data.

According to a recent report from the world economic forum, personalization will soon become "new".

"Standard" is not a value-added service but a standard.

This is one of the dilemma that the luxury industry will face in the near future: how to collect enough private data to provide more personalized sales and avoid collecting too much information to create a crisis of confidence?

At present, the personalized revolution is still in its infancy.

But it is clear that BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) has become an important part of the luxury brand partners. The brand hopes to fully understand the customer's personal data and purchase behavior through their massive data.

For example, Louis Weedon worked with Baidu to launch its first perfume series in China last year.

Baidu and Louis Weedon have seven celebrities for each perfume, then they invite users to upload Baidu's AI analysis, and match each user with one of the seven celebrities.

stay

The marketing idea is that AI is the most difficult to replace (at least in the current situation).

Artificial intelligence can not be copied and created. The luxury industry has always been the most gifted creative talent in the world.

But will customers welcome the series that is entirely designed by AI? Will the human creativity be taken seriously at that time? The answer to this question may be that the brand will be surprised one day.

R E. miBlanchard is a strategic planner who shares the Chinese digital trend and consumer expertise with well-known luxury brands.