On MySpace, the social networking Web site, the rock band Panic at the Disco has 1.4 million friends. Coldplay has 467,000 friends. Paris Hilton has 178,000 friends and Madonna has 397,000.
As for Cartier, the luxury jeweler, it has more than 3,800 friends, including Sting, the band Good Charlotte and Lou Reed. And while the sincerity of these friendships is questionable — when was the last time that Eric Clapton sent Cartier a birthday card, or vice versa? — they send a message that Cartier cares about people who spend their time on MySpace.
Cartier, owned by Richemont of France, is one of the first luxury brands to hang out its shingle on a social networking site, for fairly obvious reasons. How do you market items of the you-can’t-afford-it-if-you-have-to-ask-the-price variety to a population that is heavily represented by people who make their money by baby-sitting and mowing lawns?
“To work in the luxury environment, it means being a step in advance sometimes,” Corinne Delattre, director of communications at Cartier, said. “We work with people moving fast. They use technology. They are ahead in their way of life.”
On its MySpace site (myspace.com/lovebycartier), Cartier has many friends who it hopes fit this description. Most of them are not famous, but the jeweler is counting on them nonetheless to spread the vibe through the social network and beyond.
The MySpace profile was set up to advertise jewelry in Cartier’s Love collection, but visitors can also sample music from artists like Lou Reed and Grand National, including several songs with the theme of love that were composed for Cartier. They can watch film clips with a romantic story line. And, of course, they can click on any of those friends’ pictures to visit their profiles.
The possibility of blending entertainment and marketing and spreading it through chain letter-style links has many marketers excited about social networking. But luxury brands, worried about the company they keep, have been reluctant to become involved with the likes of MySpace or Facebook. Cartier took the risk, Ms. Delattre said, because it was a “different way to talk to a young audience.”
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