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Mobile IQ

Sephora has secured the top spot in L2′s first-ever Prestige 100® Mobile IQ report. The ranking measures the mobile competence of 100 iconic prestige brands across five industries: Beauty & Skincare, Fashion, Hospitality, Retail, and Watches & Jewelry. Brands were measured against more than 250 data points across four dimensions: Mobile Sites, Mobile Apps, Mobile Marketing, and Innovation & Integration. Each brand was assigned a Mobile IQ and a corresponding class of Genius, Gifted, Average, Challenged, or Feeble.

“Mobile competence may be a crystal ball for a brand’s global prospects. Ground zero for growth in prestige exists among consumers who are increasingly turning to a small screen to learn about, and ultimately consummate, purchases from prestige brands.” —Scott Galloway

Key Findings

The inaugural study’s IQ distribution reveals a significant, widespread underinvestment in mobile—nearly half of the brands were classified as Feeble.

M-Commerce adoption is nascent in the prestige industry. Only two-thirds of prestige brands maintain a mobile-optimized site, and one-third of these mobile development efforts do not yet support commerce.

Fewer than 20 percent of brands have created unique app content for the iPad and other tablets, a missed opportunity as these devices register high usage among affluent consumers.

Retail brands outperformed other prestige categories by a significant margin. Of the 14 brands classified as either Gifted or Genius, half are retailers.

Sixteen percent of brands have yet to develop a mobile-optimized site or mobile site, which significantly limits their ability to effectively reach mobile consumers.

The ratio of mobile searches to desktop searches for prestige brands exceeds expectations set by the share of traffic generated by mobile devices at large. This observation underscores the urgency to adapt search engine optimization, email marketing, and other digital efforts for mobile platforms.