THE IMPACT OF LUXURY BRAND’S SOCIAL MEDIA DISAPPEARANCE TOWARDS PRODUCT MARKETING: THE CASE OF BOTTEGA VENETA

• Main Author: Fides Akhsan, Muhammad
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/68072
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, businesses need to adapt with several changes if they want to survive with the current condition, one of them being presence in digital platforms. Winning in social media is every brand’s dream right now and they are willing to spend big money in order to achieve it. However, one of the biggest fashion brands in the world, Bottega Veneta, decided to get rid of all of their social media platforms which include Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and swap it with their own digital magazine. It was Daniel Lee, Bottega Veneta’s creative director who first proposed this idea. This action left fashion enthusiasts questioning how Bottega Veneta will survive in the era of digitalization without owning any social media. This research paper will mainly discuss why Bottega Veneta did this action and how the brand will promote their products and maintain existence. During the process of doing this paper, qualitative based research will be implemented by finding relatable research journals and academic articles to help me answer the research question. Moreover, In order to answer the research question, I will use secondary data sources to gather information from academic publications, web searches, published online interviews, and academic articles. The findings show that it is possible to survive for a brand without having any social media in this digitalization era if the brand has already had a strong brand as well as numerous fans or customers. In the case of Bottega Veneta, financially speaking, the numbers were looking good and seemed like nothing bad affecting them in Q1 of 2022, which is after they deleted their social media. This is due to Bottega Veneta relies on their customers and influencers to promote their product on social media and implementing word-of-mouth marketing. They believe by doing that, the message will be more organic rather than promoted on the brand’s social media account, which feels more like company mandate.