New Marketing Experience : comparing the use brands make of social media. How they change our use of products. How firms deal with it. And how YOU can use them.
In 1964, Road Dahl published a book that would become extremely popular : Charlie and the chocolate factory.
With Tim Burton's 2005 adaptation, the book became a movie and was made even more popular. But, farther than this, it has created an amazingly marketable tool : the golden ticket.
The principle of the golden ticket trick, also known as the Willy Wonka Trick consists in hidding in your products one or several golden tickets (that can also take other names) and associating a reward to the finding of these tickets. This very viral recipe will conclude in your customers' frantic quest for the tickets, so that they can win those precious prizes.
Today, an article to compare two recent campaigns using this golden ticket trick.
Nestlé - We will find you
In September 2012, Nestlé launched the operation "We Will Find you"
Nestlé's "We Will Find You"
The principle :
Hide a GPS inside 6 chocolate bars
Once this chocolate bar is found, the GPS is activated, and the winner receives 10 000£.
The communication relays:
• Video, as seen above
• Product packaging
• "Classic" advertising on bus stops
What was most interesting as we can see on this ad was the use of NFC. Thanks to the scanning of the QR Code / use of NFC tags, you could enter the competitions and see how many tags were left !
This campaign was very well relayed by numerous websites, french as english, so I will not extend upon it.
Instead, I would like to introduce another brand's perhaps less well known use of the golden ticket trick.
Michel et Augustin
Michel et Augustin is a french patisserie brands on which I have already written an article here. I had presented very briefly the principle of the four golden cows (les "4 vaches en or") and have decided to go more in depth here.
Michel et augustin's Four Golden Cows
The principle : make the consumers and internet users search for the four golden cows. They could be won :
- When buying a giant cookie (Cookie des rois)
- When finding the cow on the website
- By winning the lotery on their site (lotery to which 8 970 people registered)
- "Somewhere in France"
Today there still remains one ticket to be found in the giant cookie, finding which will close the contest !
During the first edition of the contest, I had observed the competition, and quite a lot of people where very active on the facebook page of the brand, relating which pages the golden cow could not be found on. But it took quite a while finding the cow, given that the Michel et Augustin team would have hidden it in a remote corner of their website.
The communication relays :
• The picture above is the homepage of their website
• This picture is relayed on their Facebook page, with the following cover picture
Michel et Augustin advertising for "4 vaches en Or" in Clermont-Ferrand
In conclusion, a very interactive, and rather low-cost viral strategy.
One last piece of advice : do not hesitate in making teasers of this kind of campaign, behind-the-scenes videos, making-offs... They will only increase the virality of the operation ! The key success factor being of course the virality of the operation. Two main KPI (key performance indicators) for this type of campaign : the number of incremental products sold, and of course the incremental augmentation of the social media used to relay the campaign with.
For now, the golden ticket trick has mainly been applied to the domain of sweets, candy and other delicious things. What could be most interesting would be to see another kind of brand use this technique : luxury for example.
And you, what are your favourite golden tickets campaigns ?
Unless you live in an igloo you have noticed the marketing buzz around the London Olympic Games. One of the issues underlined during the games was the heavy investment brands dedicated to sponsoring athletes or advertising.
On the sports level, Nike's "Find Greatness" campaign generated a lot of buzz. However, a french magazine titled this month Adidas as the real winner of the Olympic games.
This article is an investigation upon the two brands : their strategy on social networks, what works the most ... and the less
Nike
This article will focus on the last months, and more peculiarly the campaign "Find Greatness", that took a great first step during the olympics.
I'll let you watch (again) the ad they released two weeks ago and that has already hit more than 4.5 million views.
"Find Greatness" - Nike
"Find greatness" is a very motivational campaign. Altogether with the Nike Plus system, it is devised to make you want to be sportive. What is Nike Plus ? It is basically a system that allows you to add up all the sport / physical efforts you make with a system of counting.
How does Nike do that ? With an app, or the fuelband, a sort of bracelet specifically designed to count and add up all your physical efforts.
Nike Fuelband
Nike's ad for "Make it count"
Nike's campaigns and devices always designed to inspire people into action. You might have noticed : their campaigns are very often based upon verbs : "find greatness" during the olympics, "make it count" for the launch of the fuel band, "write the future" in 2010...
Their Facebook strategy : keep on inspiring people, always in the action mode : make people move more seems to be their motto.
Their partner athletes also appear on their Facebook page, and are always a reminder of this call for action.
Nike on Facebook (7th August 2012)
Let's note here that their Facebook strategy is centralized : one page for the whole community, and one community animation.
Twitter
Nike uses Twitter for product marketing and inspiration with the @Nike account (593 710 followers) Another very interesting use of Twitter is the @Nikedigitaljobs account, dedicated to recruitment, an account followed by nearly 1000 people. Although the animation of the account is not always relevant to recruitment (sometimes, the use of news such as "I've completed a 8.00 mi run"), the community manager is very prone to answer to tweets.
Also to be noted, the very sober description of the @Nike account "If You Have A Body, You're An Athlete". But, as they say : a few words say it all.
Pinterest
Except for Nike Basketball and Nike Running Turkey, Nike is not present on Pinterest. However, prints or images from Nike are very regularly pinned and repinned on Pinterest. For example, the image below was liked more than 900 times, commented more than 300 times, and repinned more than 6000 times !
There also exists a fan board for Nike which already has 300 followers on Pinterest (a number who tripled in 6 weeks !)
Conclusion
On the global standpoint, it is true that Nike has a very coherent social networks strategy : every campaign is relayed in the same tone and addresses the audience as if only one person was animating every social network device.
We can really emphasize on the priority that has been given by Nike on digital marketing. In the US, TV, print and written press budget was reduced by 40% between 2008 and 2011 while the global advertising has gone crescendo. A clear turn in budgets, emphasized by a doubling of recruitment for digital teams.
Adidas
A first anecdote to start with is that Adidas, as the official sponsor of the Olympic Games, spend more than 100 million euros for the sponsoring of the 2012 Olympic Games (source : Capital magazine, France).
The image that Adidas defends, whether it is on social networks or traditional advertising, is less based on pure sport or physical intense effort. Their image is more trendy, and fashion based. While Adidas keeps on equipping athletes, the brand has also chosen new and different icons like Kate Perry or I Am.
Likewise, this year, Adidas has also chosen a new design for their website, not too far from Pinterest's board design. A much more agreeable design, which still has sales objetives (it is not a solely inspirational website)
Adidas has a more decentralizedFacebookstrategy than that of Nike. For example : it has a dedicated page to Adidas Originals (more than 15 million fans, more than the official Adidas page). Despite the enormous community, the community management of the page is sometimes incoherent, with statuses sometimes written in French and sometimes in English...
On several others sports and countries, Adidas has chosen to decentralize their community management. A diametrically opposed strategy than Nike, but therefore creating less synergy around the brand.
A choice that many brands have to face a day or another : - Create separate universes with a higher engagement rate for each of the pages because the audience / themes are more targeted - Or keep a general account, designed for more inspirational aims
Clearly, while Nike is a perfect example of the second strategy, Adidas has chosen to separate the universes.
Adidas Originals on Facebook
Twitter
Adidas' twitter account (23 475 followers) was very animated during the Olympics, with a nearly continuous updating about Adidas's partner Athletes.
On the whole, their twitter strategy is quite classic : news about sports, Adidas events or products, and tweets about their partners.
But once again, the strategy is divided between the different universes (originals, basketball).. and even in between the countries, which is quite difficult when you just want to follow one account that sums it all.
While the four other boards are classical product promotion (vitrine), the board "Adidas is all in" is the one that is less axed towards product promotion, and more towards the advertising campaigns the brand has done
All in all, the repin rate for Adidas is quite low: 4 or 5 repins on the average
It is quite a shame : Adidas could really take advantage of their more-than-10-million-fans online community to post and share new content on Pinterest. For example, with more inspirational pins on the universe of streetdance for Adidas Originals, a universe they partially defend on their Facebook page.
Conclusion
I lead last week a quick comparison of the social networks strategy of both brands on Facebook (based on their 12 last posts)
Adidas
Nike
Number of fans
8 766 229
10 047 300
Average likes / post
3 124
10 834
Average comments / post
83
164
Number of posts in the last 7 days
26
14
Proportionally, Nike atteins a much higher engagement rate in terms of likes and comments than Adidas.
My first impression was that the coherence and sometimes sobriety of Nike's strategy is a great advantage for them. No need for them to dig deep into the physical characteristics of their products to convince their followers to like their page. Indeed, likers of Nike pages / accounts seem to already be convinced of the values of the brand, and all there is left is to animate and nurture this Nike inspiration.
Likewise, Adidas' marketing strategy on the global has diversified itself, with new targets (fashion, streets...). It is therefore more difficult for the brand to maintain a unique tone for its different pages. One solution could be to separate the brand universes : streets v.s sports, for example.
But as a whole, the use the two brands make of social networks is very successful, as proven by their number of fans and followers. And a real priority was given to the marketing strategies (and especially online marketing) of the two brands (Adidas' 2011 worldwide marketing budget was of 1,36 million dollars)
A next step could neverthless be taken. Pinterest, for Nike and Adidas, seems like an interesting opportunity to diversify their content, affirm their message, and reach a feminine audience. Even though Adidas has started to launch their page on Pinterest and probably given the example, the path still has to be traced !
Today (finally) an article about food marketing. I've decided to talk to you about Coolhaus, a foodtruck concept from the States, which sells to you icecream scoops between cookies. 6 cookie bases, 25 ice cream flavors.
Freya Estreller and Natasha Case, the two founders of Coolhaus
This article will analyze the entrepreneurial adventure behind the concept and of course the social networks strategy of Coolhaus. But before, I'd like to warmly thank Natasha Case, co-founder of Coolhaus, who kindly agreed to answer my questions, being the first (and certainly not the last entrepreneur) interviewed for @New Marketing Experience.
The entrepreneurial adventure
The concept was created in Los Angeles in 2008 by Natasha Case, architect, and Freya Estreller, estate developer. Coolhaus for a "cool house", made of walls of cookies and icecream (the name also being a reference to Rem Koolhaas, Dutch architect, and to Bahaus, designer of the 1920's and 1930's).
Architecture, besides being the past job of Natasha Case, is at the core of the brand strategy. For example, the ice cream flavors, amongst which the "Frank Behry" (strawberry iceacream and snickerdoodle cookies) for Frank Gehry.
Frank Behry Sammy
But, while many flavors are architecture-inspired, some are just wildly unexpected, such as the fried chicken and waffle flavor (video below), and contribute to the originality and competitiveness of Coolhaus.
Fried chicken and waffle ice cream by Coolhaus
In an article from the New York Times, we find out that the initial investment was (only) : 10 000 $, which covered the total buyout of a van on Craiglist, and its re-designing (painting, decoration...). See here for the whole article.
The flavor concept was wrapped up with a lot of detailed attention, such as an eco-friendly wrapper for the sammies (name for the combination of ice cream + cookie), made out of potato and whose writing's are printed in soy ink.
The concept has expanded rapidly thanks to media support, a great customer relationship and an innovative social networks strategy, and today Coolhaus has 5 trucks: 4 in Los Angeles, 2 trucks in Miami, 2 trucks and 1 cart in New York, 2 trucks in Austin, a store front in Culver City, and their ice cream sandwiches are also sold at Southern Californian Whole Foods Markets.
Social networks strategy
Overall strategy
The number of press releases (from Huffington Post, LA magazine, NY Times...) has clearly played a role in the success of Coolhaus, but we shouldn't forget its social networks strategy, that has been essential in spreading the word.
Coolhaus and customers
What's crucial to know is that Coolhaus decided to launch their social networks strategy right from the beginning of the adventure : being a mobile business, it was essential to let use them in order to tell people where Coolhaus was.
One of my questions to Natasha Case was about the difference in community management for the different trucks. Well, as it turns out, there is a social media manager, who oversees the corporate account and the work of each city manager. Then, for each city, you have a manager that does his own community management, supervised by the group social media manager.
Facebook
A few number : Coolhaus's fan page has nearly 12 000 fans, and an equivalent number of Twitter followers.
Coolhaus's Facebook Page
Specific promotions are made on Facebook, for example the organization of a flavor contest for fans on Facebook. Each Thursday, Coolhaus releases an ingredient, and fans have to make their own perfume out of that ingredient. Last week, the winning flavor was raspberry white chocolate cheesecake. Then, the following monday, a photo tagged with the name of the winner is posted on Facebook, exposed to anyone. The winner then gets a certificate for a free-sammie (the name of the cookie + icecream combination) and is qualified for the finale, which will oppose the 12 weekly winners of the contest. The winner of the finale will see his / her icecream flavor actually be created, sold, and named after him / her.
The problem with this initiative is that, despite how great the initial idea is, the contest is not valorized enough on Facebook. For example, there is no specific application on the Facebook page that allows people to enter in their suggestion and see the other ideas that people have already have. This could potentially generate for engagement for the fans.
Moreover, the Facebook posts of the brand generate few likes and few comments : the interaction of the brand is more made on Twitter, a more instantaneous mode of communication.
What's great with having a local account for each truck is that the information is very quick to diffuse, and managers can answer directly to questions of their followers. A great twitter strategy, which allows clear user engagement, compensating the lack of interactions on Facebook.
Tumblr
Coolhaus has created a Tumblr, which gets around 15 notes (equivalents of sharing) for each post. A good point (but also a disadvantage) about this Tumblr is that Coolhaus does not focus on their products but post photos, recipes, architecture or news about what they do. For example, they wrote a couple of weeks ago an article about the last festival they went to.
Nevertheless, more photos of the events and of the Coolhaus truck and followers would be great : it's for instance nearly impossible to find pictures of the truck on an official Coolhaus device. Very easy on the global Internet to do so, but Coolhaus should take advantage of their great brand image and broadcast more photos themselves.
Pinterest
Coolhaus does have a Pinterest account, on which there are 75 pins and 81 likes. Coolhaus follows 153 users, is followed by 93 people and posts about architecture, logos and other cool stuff. But, like the Tumblr account, nearly no pictural information is given about Coolhaus. Maybe making a board dedicated to Coolhaus customers, events of trucks could give a more clear image of Coolhaus.
Coolhaus on Pinterest
However, Coolhaus does make a certain buzz on Pinterest, with more than 150 pins created by users other than Coolhaus. An example that clearly demonstrates that Coolhaus has targeted a hype market, very sensitive to new trends.
Conclusion(s)
For those of you who are near one of the Coolhaus trucks, I strongly advise you to follow them on Twitter and get a bite of their food. If I weren't on the other side of the ocean, I would run there straight away !
And for those of you entrepreneurs thinking about a food business to launch, you should carefully look into the food truck concept, a market in exponential growth (read the great article of Fast Company for more information about that).
And finally an advice for brands : even if using social networks not to sell but to communicate with customers and share your commun interests is the right thing to do, not communicating enough on your brand image can be too restrictive. Don't hesitate sharing pictures of your employees, of your customers, of your products, people will appreciate your transparency !
The word of the end : Natasha's advice for entrepreneurs
"Trust your instincts : don't be afraid to do something truly unique; people will appreciate the courage and the end result !"
Thanks for being more and more readers on @New Marketing Experience. If you have any feedback (positive or negative), don't hesitate sending in a mail to lily.gros@gmail.com or a tweet to @newmarketingexp.
Today, two mountain giants will be confronted in their e-marketing strategies. Ladies, and gentlemen let me introduce Salomon and Patagonia.
Two great businesses, both the USA
Patagonia : born in the USA in the 1950's from the initiative of Yvon Chouinard, a young men passionate about climbing who had begun his own business of selling and producing climbing equipment. With the years, Patagonia has become known as one of THE references for alpinists, climbers, hikers and greenlovers of all kinds. If you want to know more about the history of the entreprise, do check out this page, filled with anecdotes about Yvon Chouinard and the evolution of the company.
Yvon Chouinard - founder of Patagonia
Its product universe today keeps on revolving around the mountain yet with an extended number of products: ski clothing, hiking shoes, climbing equipment and others...
Salomon: a French company, created in 1947, was also created in the mountains and was selling skis from the beginning. Today, it sells hiking, running and skiing products (both alpine and cross-country skiing).
Georges Salomon - founder of Salomon
Like Patagonia, it is one of the main actors of the market of outdoor leisure and sports.
There are differences in products between the two companies (Salomon for example constructs skiis, which does not do Patagonia), but their universes are very close. Likewise, both companies put forward their environmental engagement. For example, Patagonia with the Common Threads initiative (a double pact between Patagonia and people, in which both parts engage in significantly reducing their environmental impact - Patagonia by conceiving products respectful of the environment, and people by recycling, reusing and repairing products instead of buying new ones as often as possible).
Patagonia's Common Threads Initiative
The similarities between the two brands made me wonder : with such similar valors, business history and product universes, how do the two brands communicate ? And most of all, do they have a different communicational style ?
Site analysis
Patagonia's website has four sections : products, environment, videos and blog. You couldn't do clearer.
A very nice thing they have done is the footprint chronicles. Remember when I told you about Rapanui, an awesome british eco-textile company which made a map for each and every one of their products : the origin of the textile, where it was conditioned, where it took the boat... ? (if not, you can check it out here). Well, Patagonia has done something quite similar.
With their footprint chronicles they have created a map on which they have indicated all their suppliers (both textile mills and factories). You can directly click on one special point, and tada information about the supplier appear: the address, the date since when Patagonia started working with them, the number / gender of workers, the languages spoken, and what product is made there.
Footprint Chronicles - Patagonia
On the other side, Salomon's website is divided according to products : you have to choose your product universe (alpine ski, cross-country ski, trail running or hiking) and then a dedicated section opens up. Or you can choose to navigate more globally by type of product division (shoes or clothing).
This division, quite intuitive enables a visitor to go straightly to what he desires : whether it is a specific pair of shoes or he searches for products to buy for his next hike.
Moreover, in addition to these e-business divisions, a small toolbar right at the top of the Salomon website indicates the existence of four (even five) dedicated universe websites : salomonfreeski, salomon snowboard, salomon running,salomon racing and salomon nordic. Then, in each of these websites, you can have sections for : the presentation of the team, presentation of the gear, videos (or even webTV), and the link a blog dedicated to the subject of the site.
Salomonsnowboard.com
Even though the multiplicity of sections in Salomon's websites allow people to have access to very rich and multiple content, it must be hard to manage such important flow of information : imagine having to create different pages in different websites just for one product. On a customer viewpoint, the navigation is quite simple : not as simple as Patagonia's, but it's still quite easy to find what you are looking for.
Interactive content : blogs and videos
As I've just presented, both companies have blogs. The different blogs of the company are well fed with relevant content: Patagonia and Salomon have clearly understood that behind the concept of blog is not only product promotion but broadcasting of news that potentially interest their customer. For example, the last post of Salomon Nordic was posting pictures of Kikkan Randall, worldcup champion.
Likewise, both Patagonia and Salomon use videos
- Patagonia has chosen to broadcast videos about their ambassadors (aka the people who test and promote their products). At first, I thought it was videos made by the ambassadors themselves but it appears that they are videos made by Patagonia. These videos are really beautiful to watch, ambassadors talk themselves about hiking, climbing, nature... and make you want to go hiking : a nice moviemaking in between National Geographic beautifully styled videos and amateur sports videos.
Lynn Hill at Hueco Tanks - A Patagonia video
However, promoting self-made videos could have been a great initiative, and a good way to create a relationship between the brand and its customers. And you could have imagined a total opening of video posting to people who may not be Patagonia ambassadors but at least Patagonia customers and lovers.
A slight false note is the presentation of the videos themselves on the website : as beautiful as the videos are, they are not enough valorized on the website.
- Salomon's videos are on the contrary very well promoted, and surf more on the hype curve of sports videos. Haven't you noticed how many sports videos people share, tweet about today ? The popularization of very high-tech cameras such as proHD has without a doubt contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of sports people who just film their own sports exploits and post them on the Internet. Well, Salomon has very well exploited this change, and use the same graphic codes and tone than in these videos (for example, the amateur side of filming oneself)
And, moreover than just making nice-looking videos about, let's say, a snowboarder going down a mountain, Salomon also aims at creating content. For example, it has created a series of episodes about running : interviewing members of the Salomon Running team and letting them express what it is they like about running, and their advice to fellow runners.
A last good point about Salomon's videos is that they don't hesitate in turning themselves in ridicule. You can for example watch the video they made about their own ski vacation; for a brand that has over half a decade of existence, the tone is really young, and very refreshing.
Social networks
And last of all but certainly not least, my analysis of their social networks strategy
Salomon's social networks strategy is to have one global account for Salomon, and then dedicated pages to the universes of freeski, running, nordic, racing and snowboarding. The global Salomon page has more than 32 000 fans, but generates little user-created content. The posts made by Salomon receive few likes (a maximum of 60) and very few comments.
But on the other hand, the dedicated pages generate more interaction, especially when Salomon posts photos.
Salomon Freeski's Facebook page
Yet, there is not enough participation from the users themselves : unlike other companies which I've talked about in my other articles, comments on the Facebook posts of the brand are not massive. Moreover, the brand does not directly incite the consumers / sports lovers to interact directly with the page (whether it is with games or photo contests). Instead, the brand generates vertical content about the last news, the results of the Salomon team. Too bad that users are not more incited to interact, because I'm sure they have a lot to say !
Likewise, Salomon uses its twitter accounts to give updates about what is going on. For example, the Salomon freeski account (@salomonfreeski) is described as "Random updates from the salomonfreeski.com team).
Patagonia
Patagonia's Facebook profile is centralized and gathers more than 168 000 fans, with an average of 100 likes and 20 comments per official post. If we crack up the numbers, the score of Patagonia is higher than Salomon in terms of engagement per user.
Patagonia's Facebook account manager has cleverly arranged the account as to balance pictures and articles, so that the lecture of the timeline doesn't get too boring. The titles of the posts are very short (no more than 140 characters) and echo either to a past event about climbing, the firm, about news of the different stores (a quite moving note was for instance posted by a Japanese employee of the Sendai store, that had been impacted by the tsunami), about Patagonia ambassadors : a very diverse number of posts that doesn't leave time for users to get bored.
Patagonia's Facebook page
But then still, the users are not quite incited to participate in that content and post themselves content. It is true that Patagonia answers the Facebook users when relevant comments are made, but maybe more space could be given to consumers to express themselves.
I might have sounded harsh in my last statement, so let me make an amend : in terms of reactiveness, both the Facebook and the Twitter (@patagonia) account managers of Patagonia are proactive : answers are made to users very quickly, which tends to generate a positive interaction between users and the brand.
My conclusion / advice :
- Go hiking ! (for readers)
- Keep opening up your content to your users : Patagonia and Salomon are great examples of successful companies that have evolved in their core competencies and products, and have succeeded in maintaining their competitiveness despite the arrival of competitors. Now, the stakes rely on emphasizing customer fidelity and relationship !
Today I am going to talk to you about a trend more and more striking everyday in the French clothing industry : hyper-specialization. Three examples of successful young entreprises : Archiduchess, Six & Sept and Ben & Fakto. I will first present these startups, and then analyze their social networks strategy: what works and what doesn't (with a focus on the very-debated Pinterest network).
Archiduchesse
You might have heard of them recently about their being copied by Chinese producers (see here for more details). And if not, here's the story : Archiduchesse is exclusively selling socks, all made in France : ankle socks, lisle socks, warm socks, high socks and tights : no more no less than these five varieties, all sold in more than 20 colors each (48 colors maximum for some socks)
Their website is very well constructed : navigation is very intuitive, agreable, and you never end up in some remote place of the website from which it is hard to come back from.
A very nice initiative (creation in 2006), that has been talked about a lot this year, and makes a successful business. For example, in March, they sold 4 507 pairs of socks (see there for more numbers)
Ben & Fakto
Ben&Fakto is an ethical e-business shop: 10% of each order is invested in micro-credit projects. The designers chosen are quite remote from traditional ethical or fairtrade clothing. High-priced, the clothes, jewellery, shoes and accessories are clearly designed and fashionable.
The e-shop offers a great variety, from ethical condoms (yes that exists), organic wear to hand-made necklaces. You can choose to segment your basket according to clothes category (trousers, shirt), or to the origin of the product (fair-trade, made in France, organic...)
For the record, Ben & Fakto was created last year, at Startup Weekend Lille (a great concept that I encourage you to see for yourself here), has been incubated by EDHEC business school: a very successful business.
Six & Sept
Six & Sept focuses on selling V-neck sweaters and cardigans, with original touches of color: on the end of the arms for sweaters, and around the buttons for cardigans.
They have clearly positioned themselves as a luxury brand: their cardigans are made in Venice, are in egyptian cotton, and the brand universes adopts the code of Parisian luxury. Their photographies are art-oriented, their Parisian store is called a gallery: a quickly identifiable positioning and market.
The brand was launched on 30th March 2012, so its too soon to say if the brand will be successful, but it is incubated (like Ben&Fakto) by EDHEC business school and clearly surfs on the dandy fashion trend that has been invading our streets: two undeniable ingredients for success.
Commun points of the brands
• Relatively high prices : 4,50€ a pair of low ankle socks on Archiduchesse, 90 € for a skirt on Ben&Fakto, 110€ for a cardigan on Six&Sept. The three brands clearly aim at a trendy, fashioned-oriented, and responsible clientele : young and mostly urban.
• Hyperfocused on their core products for Archiduchesse and Six&Sept, and very coherent on their consumer promise for Ben&Fakto.
Social networks strategies
Ben & Fakto
Six & Sept
Archiduchesse
FACEBOOK
Number of Facebook fans
3 075
360
13 093
Number of likes per post
10 in average
2
20
Number of comments per post
4 in
average
None
5
TWITTER
Number of tweets
1 141
Not present
on Twitter.
845
Number of followed on Twitter
282
93
Number of followers on Twitter
529
2 033
PINTEREST
Number of Pinterest boards
5
1
The brand
doesn’t have an account on Pinterest
Number of Pinterest pins
61
1
23
pins from Pinterest users
Number of Pinterest followers
38
1
Number of Pinterest users followed
15
10
Number of Pinterest likes
5
0
Ben & Fakto
It’s too bad users don’t interact more on the Facebook
page: the brand has a great (direct, interactive and funny) communication
through its internet site and its newsletter, and the tone is not present
enough on the Facebook page.
They have chosen a third-person communication, a great
humourous tone in the newsletter, but perhaps not that well adapted to
Facebook. Maybe bringing in more humour would help Ben & Fakto generating
more interactions. Their post which got the most likes was a post in which they
parodied an old French add (below) : maybe they should do that more often.
On
the other hand, a great Twitter communication in which they engage a direct
dialogue with their customers : people posting about / to Ben&Fakto get
very quick answers. (@benfakto)
On Pinterest though, their posts are not viral enough to generate more content from the followers of the
brand.
Six & Sept
The brand is very new, but the low level of
engagement of their Facebook fans leads to thinking they should invest in their
social networks strategy.
As they themselves generate quite a lot of content
they could incite more their customers to interact with them: by giving direct
incentives (reductions), or making them participate in online games for
example.
Moreover, the brand
has a clear art connotation; encouraging photo contests, in an art style (not
only of Six & Sept products) could generate a higher level of engagement of
their customers.
Likewise, their use of Pinterest looks a bit hesitant: between not using Pinterest and using fully Pinterest they have chosen to be on Pinterest but produce very few content: maybe producing more content (for example relaying the content already present on the Facebook page and on the website) would be more appropriate.
Archiduchesse
Archiduchesse's posts on Facebook are not very viral yet, but
users seem to post a lot more content directly on the Facebook wall of
Archiduchesse: to say hello, to make jokes, to say that they have just made
their first order and are very proud of it.
The beginnings of Archiduchesse on Facebook were quite
hesitant: it seems like Archiduchesse itself did not quite know what to post
and what not to post on their Facebook page, but now that the editorial line is
well defined, they get higher engagement rates. An advice: encourage and put
under the light pictures that customers take of their socks (yes, they do take
pictures of your socks: see Pinterest)
Like Ben&Fakto, Archiduchesse has a great Twitter communication, direct and interactive with consumers and people
who post about or to @archiduchesse.
And a last good point for Archiduchesse is its absence from Pinterest. By
letting its customers talk themselves about their products on Pinteret,
Archiduchesse has chosen not to take the risk (time, cost, reputation) of
launching themselves on Pinterest. The virality of the brand is still not very
high, but the fact that at least 23 users have chosen to post pictures of Archiduchesse
socks show a great brand attractiveness.
A quick conclusion
These three examples show us that diversifying your activity is not always the best business, and that very focused businesses are good business models : because customers clearly identify your core competencies and job, you are seen as an expert on your business, and more qualitative than your non-focused competitors.
A quick point also on Pinterest: brands successful on Pinterest are either brands that engage a clear dialogue with their customers (like Kotex for example) by repinning content from users and identifying key Pinterest users that could be their customers, or brands that let customers speak for themselves : in-between strategies take the risk of a waste of time and of return on investment.
