Luxury Goods and Short Films
Luxury Goods and Short Films
In an economy that could do without the wants of luxury goods, what marketing techniques will sell these items? I found an article that was created in 2004 about how short films can be used to sell luxury items. The article, written by Peggy Donahue, was written in 2004 and titled “Short Films: The New Luxury Marketing” (Donahue, 2004). In 2004, this type of marketing may have been able to be considered new to some people, but short films have been around for decades. Marketers know that short films can be used to create emotional appeal with the consumer.
Although I know that short films are not “new” to marketing or luxury marketing for that matter, I still feel that this article is very helpful to marketers trying to sell luxury goods. The example used in the article is the Chanel No. 5 marketing short film. Donahue describes the short film as follows:
“With the television debut of Chanel No. 5’s three-minute “commercial “ mini-movie featuring Nicole Kidman, and directed by Baz Luhrmann, on Nov. 11, the stakes have risen for the way luxury products are marketed, says the Financial Times of London. Chanel’s short “film,” which aired during “ER,” is a quick-cut version of a love story that tells a tale of the most famous woman in the world (Kidman), who flees a horde of paparazzi and jumps into a taxi where she meets a young writer (Brazilian Rodrigo Santoro) so immersed in his own world that he does not know who she is. They share a lost weekend in his garret before she acknowledges her responsibilities and returns to the outside world” (Donahue, 2004).
Donahue said that the perfume was shown at the end of the film and that was the only time it was shown. Marketers created this short film to attract consumers to the short story and hopefully create a sense of emotion in the consumer about the film. The film was created to appeal to women and hopefully make the women get lost in the film themselves. Short films like this are the way that many marketers are reaching audiences today.
Here is the Chanel No. 5 commercial with Kidman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfoMbir_Qd4
References:
Donahue, P.J. (2004). Short films: The new luxury marketing. Retrieved November 28, 2009, from
http://www.professionaljeweler.com/archives/news/2004/111204story.html
