Few Tips for Online Marketers

Celebrities are influential personalities in the world of marketing and consumer purchase behavior. Because they are a brand to themselves, we can learn a lot from how they market themselves and stand out from the sea of other impeccable artists. Companies can alternatively be like celebrities in their own way – moving past the function of making profit and developing a strong brand equity with customers.

Inspired by Beyonce and how she carries herself and her overall fierce yet beautiful persona, I have compiled some tips for online marketers to take note of using Queen B’s Song Titles…I hope you enjoy them.

1. Irreplaceable

As an e-commerce business, make yourself irreplaceable to the consumer’s viewpoint. What do you offer that makes you stand out from your competitors? Market that differentiation clearly so that your consumers know.

2. Upgrade U

Because of technological advancements and the ease of getting data more quickly, the online world has become more competitive. Companies should then be open to adapting to the constant change of the times and upgrading to fit the needs and wants of consumers.

3. If I Were a Boy

Companies should put themselves in the shoes of their consumer. Understand their interests and purchase behavior. Analyze trends and taglines that will make them click on your ad or message.

4. Ring the Alarm

Alert your online target audience through appropriate social media channels. Use Facebook for posting relevant content and sharing stories of your brand. Use Pinterest to launch new product campaigns or showcase recipes or products. Don’t hesitate to be creative and have fun with your social media efforts.

Fashion meets Gamification

Gamification has been a popular trend that businesses capitalize on to innovate themselves and engage with consumers. We have seen Foursquare and Badgeville as some good applications of this technique. The Fashion industry is no stranger to gamification. Chictopia and Lookbook have used reward systems to incentivize its users and engage them. Chictopia, for instance has chic points given to the most stylish person. The points can then be exchanged for special goodies. On the other hand, Lookbook.nu has Hype and Karma. The more hype a person receives, the more likely his profile will be featured in the home page. These hypes and karmas also equate to higher rankings and more goodies.

But these gamification techniques have more to them than goodies, hypes and chic points. Gamification drives valuable consumer data. For example, analytics behind these techniques can offer deep insights into purchase behaviour and incentives. This is very useful for marketers to develop exclusive offers, promotional content and strategize brand loyalty.

Key Take-aways:

  • Fashion brands, retailers, start ups shouldn’t be afraid to test out gamification techniques.
  • They have great potential in the near future
  • Start small and progress! Begin with rewarding points and unlocking goodies then maybe start to build on more complex games…

Are Videos the Best Medium for Reaching Customers?

In relation to my last blog post about Youtube vlogging, companies have increasingly used videos to obtain data on how to fuel sales and drive traffic to e-commerce sites. Some believe that video has become the most powerful medium for reaching customers quantitatively. I believe the best example for the success of Video is Calvin Klein. Its short video last year featuring Lara Stone in the new Push Positive Bra was phenomenal, creating over 10 million views and over 450 million impressions (Women’s Wear Daily).

Aside from the Youtube media platform, I have recently come upon Joyus, a video commerce platform catered to women. The e-commerce site shows videos about fashion, cosmetics, health and fitness with a detailed product and price description in the side. Each video showcases a model wearing a specific product with details about color, size, fit, and other important information.

 Joyus is definitely something new that I have seen in the area of e-commerce. Most sites use pictures and ask customers to give reviews but Joyus goes above and beyond by making consumers love the product more and want to purchase it. The videos give advice on how to pair a piece of clothing or how to match a bracelet with what one is wearing. It is a definite plus for viewers and fashionistas.

 

 

Vlog My Style!

Social media sites such as Youtube have been creative avenues for people to express their views on fashion, current affairs, food, life, politics and even music. ‘Vloggers’ have become so influential because of their humor, eccentric style and ability to bring something creative and new to the table. Because of their influence on young consumers, companies have sometimes reached out to these Youtube personalities asking them to showcase their products using their unique style and persona.

Macy’s did this to target its Millennial customers through Youtube. They contacted 4 Youtube personalities with different styles and asked them to come up with content that reflects their perception of Macy’s. It is interesting to see how these 4 stylistas were able to promote Macy’s beauty products, accessories and apparel in their own way. I believe that Macy’s Youtube campaign is effective in touching younger consumers since vloggers are influential part of media today. The 4 vloggers have nearly 2.6 million subscribers and 303 million views. That is a huge potential to increase Macy’s brand awareness. In addition, subscribers’ WOM from these videos can become beneficial in attracting future Macy’s shoppers. Creative videos which model the apparel and beauty products also inspire other fashionistas to join in on the vlogging trend.

Overall, I believe that Macy’s strategy of reaching out to influencers is a wonderful idea to target its younger demographics and hopefully increase sales. I hope to see more companies doing this trend in the near future.

Here are some of the Youtube videos by Macy’s and the vloggers

A Dangerous Twitterverse

I believe that some companies have been really successful and creative in managing their Twitter accounts. I personally love and follow Tedtalks (@Tedtalks). Its account will show one amazing TED talk everyday. They make catchy headlines too!

Although some companies have managed to ace it, there are those Twitter campaigns that just fail and end up harassed by netizens.

Lets look at JP Morgan. JPMorgan (@jpmorgan) was just a recent victim of intense scrutiny and twitter abuse/ backfire. The financial company had just tweeted that James Lee, vice chairman and veteran investment banker was open to answering questions through the hashtag #askJPM. The Twitterverse did not respond positively! People were criticizing and making fun of the firm’s ethics, corporate responsibility and legal problems. The company cancelled the Q&A session later on.

Here are some of the tweets sent out by dissatisfied customers…

Take-aways from this:

-Twitter chats will not work for JPMorgan as a tool to improve its relationship with clients!

-JP Morgan’s marketing team did not think this campaign thoroughly.

-Seems to me that the company wanted to use the Q&A session to clean up its brand image

-The social media team should have predicted that starting a Q&A will lead to a discussion of bank’s past controversial cases, negative sentiment of clients

-JP Morgan should look at other ways of managing relationships – maybe asking feedback through their website?