In this article:
- At the National Retail Federation’s annual conference, Ralph Lauren’s CEO Patrice Louvet said that the brand had found success in the metaverse
- He also think it fits the brand traditional philosophy
Ralph Lauren is an iconic American fashion brand, but not one associated with younger consumers. Now it’s winning over that demographic in the metaverse.
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Speaking at last week’s National Retail Federation’s annual conference, RL’s CEO Patrice Louvet said that the brand has successfully established a metaverse identity. As reported in FashionUnited, he observed that this was a concerning strategy to win over younger customers. “We are getting into a new space where younger generations are really comfortable,” he said.
The brand’s foray into the metaverse includes the Zepeto platform and the Roblox gaming site, home to other fashion brands like Nike. Shoppers can buy virtual versions of Ralph Lauren designs, which is a way to increase interest in and loyalty to the actual clothes.
Louvet said the brand regards the metaverse as “a fantastic opportunity to interact with younger consumers, to create experiences.” He explained, “You can get into Roblox and get your avatar to have a virtual coffee at a virtual RL coffee shop, create a virtual outfit on Zepeto or visit the Madison store virtually.”
The strategy appears to be working in terms of the business bottom line. FashionUnited reported that Ralph Lauren enjoyed an impressive 45% increase in total global digital sales. Digital items for dressing metaverse avatars are also selling well, as they boast that over 100,000 units sold on Zepeto in the first week they were available.
While being open about that motivation for getting into the metaverse, Louvet also insisted that the digital realm does fit with the brand’s creation of settings for its clothes: “There are many parallels between Ralph’s vision and the metaverse; Ralph has created different worlds (think of winters in Colorado, summers in Montauk…) which creates great consistency between our philosophy and what the metaverse brings.”
The next step in that evolution would have to include ways to leverage data from such initiatives. There’s a new world of customer data here, which is key to nurturing meaningful, long-lasting customer relationships and increasing long-term loyalty and retention rates by creating never-seen-before customer segments, allowing for new levels of personalization.