Chanel, Gucci rank highest luxury brands on social: NetBase

New rankings from NetBase assessed Gucci as the most-discussed luxury brand on social media, but Tiffany & Co. and Louis Vuitton elicit stronger feelings and Chanel sees greater passion.

NetBase’s Retail Brands Industry Report reveals that passion and sentiment for luxury brands are mostly driven by the search for authenticity. However, as a whole, the luxury retail sector only drove a 10 percent share of mention volume.

“Being successful on social media isn’t just about volume, audience size or a specific content strategy, it’s about creating a meaningful authentic connection to your customers," said Elvis Lieban, director of social media intelligence at NetBase, New York.

"While the top 10 is made up of big household names like Amazon, Nike and Victoria’s Secret, smaller brands like Warby Parker, ranked second on our list for passion, can still win at social media by focusing on fostering a real connection with their audience,” he said.

Brands on social
While the luxury sector has only a 10 percent mention share on NetBase’s report, the findings did show that luxury is the top industry in sentiment. Luxury retail saw 72 percent positive net sentiment.

These findings are reflective of the luxury retail industry as whole, since the sector values exclusivity but elicits passion from its consumers.

The clothing industry as a whole beat out luxury in terms of passion intensity on social media with 82 percent and luxury at 79 percent. In terms of brand passion, the luxury segment saw 65 percent.

While Amazon has been a bulldozer in all things retail and digital, Nike has dethroned the retail giant in NetBase’s rankings. This shows the giant can be beaten.

Chanel is the highest ranked luxury brand, but it has slipped three spots this year. Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Gucci and Nordstrom also occupy spots within the top 20.

This is Gucci’s first appearance within the high rankings, but Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Nordstrom have all dropped spots similar to Chanel.

Gucci saw more than 42 percent of mention share regarding luxury brands on social media, which is almost twice as many as Chanel. But, as with many other luxury brands within the top rankings, Chanel saw greater passion intensity than Gucci.

Gucci's Twitter account. Image credit: Gucci

Chanel’s price, sales, but mostly its selection have been what has been driving social media user’s passion online. Gucci follows a similar structure, but sees greater passion for price and discounts than selection.

The hashtag #Fashion was the top hashtag used when mentioning brands Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Burberry online.

Chanel boasts the most social followers – more than 57 million globally – and is the leading luxury brand on all platforms, except Facebook, where it is a close second to Louis Vuitton, both at around 20 million.

This is a fascinating story from a legendary mason, which made its mark by abstaining from any form of ecommerce engagement as not to dilute the brand or make it accessible on a mass scale (see more).

Social media and ecommerce
Ecommerce has surpassed department stores in terms of social media conversation, which is a representation of the industries themselves. However, department stores are not nearly dead, with many eliciting a wide range of mentions on social media.

Nordstrom leads the way in terms of mention total, with 36 percent mention share. However, a significant spike during a small period of time leads researchers to believe that the onslaught of social media relations is in response to the news of the department store dropping Ivanka Trump’s designer label from its stores.

Nordstrom's Twitter account. Image credit: Nordstrom

Another report from Pinterest’s laid out some of the most popular trends of the year according to users’ Pinterest pinning and shopping behavior.

These trends range from health and wellness to apparel to home decoration. The report shows how important social media behavior can be as an indicator of commercial habits and trends (see more).

“Nike claimed the top spot this year over Amazon, despite Amazon’s massive advantage in conversation volume," NetBase's Mr. Lieban said. "Nike’s focus on creating visual content and forming brand partnerships that inspire their audience pushed them over the top this year.”