There's nothing more valuable to a luxury goods company than brand value. Image and feel are everything. Quality, of course, comes into the equation, too. But whether we are buying a set of wine glasses from Waterford Crystal or a diamond ring from Tiffany & Co, it's the thrill of exclusivity that gives us the familiar "buzz" or adrenaline rush.
So how do luxury goods companies maintain their presence on the Internet, without losing their priceless, incalculable brand value? After all, the Web's very lack of exclusivity has revolutionised the way the world does business. Unfortunately, its brash colours and crassly produced homepages don't sit well next to Prada.
For all the Web's low-brow, jingle-bell, down-and-dirty gimmickry, even the world's most upmarket companies cannot afford to ignore it. This presents something of a dilemma for businesses that trade off their exclusive status.
From an e-commerce perspective, the Internet is a victim of its own success. It's fiercely democratic, reaching out to the masses. But if the masses get the same hankering for Tiffany's glittering line-up as, say, a New York dowager whose family arrived on the Mayflower, she may be more inclined to take her business elsewhere.
One Tiffany executive recently summed up the challenge perfectly by saying most websites were like "the front page of a supermarket tabloid - 50 things going on at once with bells ringing". It's safe to say Tiffany.com will not rate its "10 sexiest rings!" or expose any jewellery-buying "love rats" on a web cam.
Indeed, when all around it lose their heads, Tiffany's website is a quiet haven of tranquility. It keeps its pale blue signature colour, its font, its simplicity, its elegance. In fact, it slows down the images of its jewellery and other gifts so they gracefully appear on the screen before disappearing as quietly as they arrived.
Tiffany doesn't advertise its site in a flashy way, lest it appears uncooth or, worse, desperate. It keeps its static (or basic) website advertisements to the sober online versions of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
It also uses "tiles", which are taller and slimmer than the traditional, widely used "banner" ads.
Versace, meanwhile, appeals to a younger, edgier crowd. Its website attempts to do likewise, but unfortunately uses background sounds that could only be described as digital disco rap. Plus, as with a lot of over-excited websites, its in-your-face style makes it difficult - and exhausting - to navigate. But, hey, that's Versace for you.
Waterford Wedgwood follows Tiffany's lead with a blue and white website, but takes it further with Brady Bunch-like panels that slowly reveal opulent photographs of scantily clad models brandishing vases and other crystal goblets. This sexier approach is in line with the company's calendar and across-the-board marketing strategy.
"Sexy isn't the word I'd use," says a spokesman for Waterford Wedgwood. "It reflects what's appealing to the consumer and what's fashionable." Presenting a website with cutting-edge images helps vamp up the Waterford Wedgwood brands. Of course, employing the services of designers John Rocha and Paul Costelloe doesn't hurt either.
Like Prada and Louis Vuitton, Waterford Wedgwood prefers bricks-and-mortar retailers to the Internet. It doesn't wish to disrupt the traditional producer-retailer relationship with the stores around the world, which took years to build up. "This is a dilemma of all luxury goods producers," the Waterford Wedgwood spokesman says. It's not hard to see why. Companies have invested time, effort and financial resources nurturing these relationships. Consequently, there is a risk that web-based retailing would damage or irrevocably alter these lucrative relationships.
For these reasons, WaterfordWedgwood.com tells the story of the group, giving financial information, including links for its individual brands. "In common with other luxury goods producers, Waterford Wedgwood is cautiously approaching the amount of funds it devotes to its web-based activities," the spokesman adds.
So, just because a company maintains a website doesn't mean it has to lower itself to selling its goods online. Part of the pleasure of visiting Holland & Holland in London, for example, is the store's unique ambience: the snooty yet deferential sales staff and the old-fashioned ways that seem so rare these days.
Luxury goods e-commerce sites have had mixed results. Italy's high-fashion retailer, Luxlook.com, closed its virtual doors this year. Even though the site set itself up as the web-based version of Barney's of New York, Harvey Nichols of London or Brown Thomas in Dublin, it didn't have - couldn't have - the same attraction as those emporiums.
Luxlook even had the backing of high-profile luxury goods companies, counting Bulgari and Valentino among its investors. But if a customer is going to fork out £200 for a pair of shoes, he/she wants to be fussed over at the very least. Thus, Luxlook folded, joining other well-heeled ghosts such as Eve.com and BeautyJungle.com in Internet heaven.
Despite Waterford Wedgwood treading carefully and cautionary tales from Luxlook.com, shoppers are flocking to the Web for more than books and CDs on Amazon.com. According to New York-based research firm Jupiter Media Metrix Inc, online sales are set to top up to €1 billion by the end of 2001 and €2.2 billion by 2005.
Whether you're designing for a high street or luxury brand, the web page must fit in with the organisation's original brand, according to Melissa Clulow, director of Mira Interactive web design company. "The big catch phrase in both graphic and Web design now is branding. People must immediately associate the Web page with the product." Graphic design and web design have, therefore, joined forces.
Conversely, if the original brand is too complicated or if it was done on the cheap from a graphic design perspective, it can be a difficult and, sometimes, horrible task to create a website. As a result, from a luxury goods point of view, designers usually have a good start.
"Tiffany.com has the distinctive blue and silver box," Clulow says. "It's slow-moving, elegant and oozes the brand. The website is not doing anything that would dilute or damage its image. It's cohesive and in keeping with what we believe Tiffany to be. But it's also accessible as it has both straight HTML and Flash versions of its site."
Having a website that just uses a Flash plug-in - allowing the smooth movement on a site such as disappearing logos or keywords - can limit the amount of users. Those without Flash may be the very customers who buy Holland & Holland luxury goods or Waterford Crystal champagne glasses."Flash can put-off many users," Clulow says.
Similarly, Mira Interactive created a look on its own site to attract certain clients. "Our site has a crisp, clean style, with a lot of white space," she adds. "We might not necessarily be the design of choice for Versace, but may be more up Tiffany's street."
That's Fifth Avenue. But, if you're a Web surfer, you probably already know that.