Luxury brands such as Diesel, Armani, Corneliani and Cartier have started using popular messaging service WhatsApp to promote their products in India. This instant messaging application has become the suitable one for the small and medium scale entrepreneurs as they can communicate with their customers through it. Now, it has become the platform for the luxury brands that deal with premium shoes, jackets, candies and watches to promote, sell and provide after sales services.
Commenting about this, Yashorvardhan Saboo, CEO of Ethos, a retail chain that provides premium watches such as Cartier, Armani, Rado and Rolex claimed that selling luxury products is a kind of providing personalized services and WhatsApp will enable the same. The store managers at Ethos have been encouraged to utilize such platforms extensively.
Also, Reliance Brands that retails products from Diesel, Zegna, Kenneth Cole and Brooks Brothers in India, Nordic Kandie marzipan chocolate store, Corneliani Italian menswear brand and Heel & Buckle multi-brand premium retail store are few marketers that use WhatsApp to keep a direct relationship premium clients by sharing images, videos, brand films and promotional material constantly.
It is claimed by Sumeet Yadav, Business Head of Reliance Brands that WhatsApp helps them to communicate with their clients better despite their location. Also, Thea Tammeleht, Founder and Director of Nordic Kandie revealed that they send price lists and product images both pre and post shipping. To maintain the same, the firm has a dedicated person to reply to the messages that come via clients on WhatsApp. It is claimed that they receive maximum queries on Sundays.
According to Apeksha Harihar, the Editor of Social Samosa, a news portal concentrating on Indian social media, WhatsApp is used by the brands to generate leads and to manage customer service as well. Numerous brands such as Absolute Vodka and Burberry Brit use instant messaging applications aboard.
This year, inIndia, Sony DADC formed three groups on WhatsApp and added 30 members to every group on the first come first serve basis to conduct a contest, she added. Besides brands using the instant messaging service, even consumers use the platform to take decisions. As per Prem Dewan, Retail Head of Italian menswear brand Corneliani claimed that people walk in, try few pieces and share pictures with others before finalizing a deal.
