Scott Galloway, the head of L2 a digital think tank for luxury brands, when discussing the “Digital IQ” study released last fall offered very stern advice to those in the jewelry trades at the 2011 International Gemological Symposium.
Ranking prestigious brands based on their adoption and use of online tools; companies in the Watches Jewelry category ranked dead last of any category tracked in the study. Adding this pointed statement, “I hate Facebook,” Galloway went on to say that regardless of one’s personal feeling about social networks, failing to acknowledge that it is an exceptionally viable means for marketing today would just be folly.
With fashion brands topping the list in the “Digital IQ” survey in terms of innovation, Galloway related the fact that many of these firms are run by younger women. While implying that the leaders of the diamond, watches, and jewelry industries have their heads stuck in the 60′s thinking that social networking is done at the country club, he implied that they should maintain their reluctance to embrace Facebook and the new phenomena of social networking at their own peril. “Things are changing,” he said. “Fear is getting in the way of this industry acknowledging reality and just getting on with it.”
Galloway went on to present some very compelling facts about Facebook and other social networking vehicles. First, Facebook eats up around 12% of the total time that a person spends on the internet. Second, the number of Facebook users world-wide is expected to exceed one billion within the next year. Lastly, he presented a case where Facebook becomes the biggest access point to the internet within the next 36 months. Failure to recognize these facts by is to be done so clearly at your own risk.
