A new study from New York University (NYU) shows that being smarter online can help boost a brand's sales, a lesson that quite a few watch and jewelry brands appear to have missed, says www.nationaljewelernetwork.com.
For the study, Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at NYU's Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and experts from digital think tank L2 evaluated and ranked the "Digital IQ" of 82 specialty retail brands. The study included nine jewelry and watch brands as well as a number of others that sell fine jewelry.
In calculating a brand's Digital IQ, study authors took into account four factors: the effectiveness of the brand's site (40 percent of total score); the digital marketing efforts and off-site brand presence (20 percent); search engine optimization, or SEO (20 percent); and brand presence on social media platforms (20 percent). The brands were then placed into five Digital IQ classes based on their scores: "genius," "gifted," "average," "challenged" and "feeble."
The results showed that brands with a higher online IQ experienced greater sales growth. Second-quarter 2010 revenues jumped 21.3 percent for brands ranked as "genius" and 13.4 percent for brands ranked as "gifted" as compared to only 3.7 percent for those brands ranked as "challenged" and 6.6 percent for brands categorized as "feeble."
Of the nine jewelry and watch brands evaluated in the survey, Tiffany & Co. scored the highest, considered "gifted" with an IQ of 112 and ranking at No. 24 out of 81.
"A rare jewel in an otherwise dismal category," the study states. "Although site lacks some functionality, the digital experience feels like it's wrapped up in that little blue box."
While Tiffany was the lone watch and jewelry brand to crack the top 25, a number of other retailers that sell fine jewelry ranked as "gifted." They include: Nordstrom, No. 10 with an IQ of 133; Macy's, No. 14 with an IQ of 128; Bergdorf Goodman, tied for No. 15 with an IQ of 125; Barneys New York, tied for No. 17 with an IQ of 122; Saks Fifth Avenue, No. 22 with an IQ of 117 and No. 23 Neiman Marcus with an IQ of 116.
Blue Nile ranked No. 33, considered "average" with a Digital IQ of 103, with the study noting that while the Web site was strong, the brand had a limited social media presence and digital marketing efforts.
Zales came in at No. 45, classified as "average" with a Digital IQ of 93, followed by Swarovski at No. 56 with an IQ of 80 and considered "challenged." Cartier at No. 60, also classified as "challenged" with an IQ of 75.
Watch brands performed poorly in the study, ranking as "feeble" with relatively low Digital IQs. They were: Montblanc at No. 72 with an IQ of 52; Wempe at No. 75 with an IQ of 38; Tous (which also sells jewelry) at No. 77 with an IQ of 31; Tourneau at No. 80 with an IQ of 21 and Tourbillon at No. 81 with an IQ of 0.
"No sales, no social media, no e-mail marketing," the study states of Tourbillon. "Google search sends users to Wikipedia over brand site."
Overall the top finishers in the survey, all classified as "genius" were outdoor apparel retailer REI, with an IQ of 150; IKEA with an IQ of 149 and online T-shirt retailer Threadless with an IQ of 145.
Coach and A/X Armani Exchange rounded out the top 5 with IQs of 145 and 144, respectively.
