Friday, February 15, 2008

Retail Brands and Social Media Marketing

I came across this article today and it really parallels what we have been discussing in class recently. How Top Retail Brands are Using Social Media Marketing to Drive Sales discusses a company called Pod1 based out of New York and London who are taking steps to influence their current clients to take advantage of sales opportunities in peak seasons such as February (Valentine's Day) and December (Christmas) etc.

They are utilizing this concept by directing their clients to websites where they can create "Wish Lists", based on online items they are interested in. These "Wish Lists" provide a link back to the original item's parent site as well as major search engines, and they also allow the original list maker, the opportunity to upload their lists on their social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, MySpace etc). Marketers will most likely benefit from this tool because they are indirectly and non-intrusively targeting a wide array of people within the social network thanks to the person who writes the original list.

Do you think this is a good way for marketers to target new customers? How effective do you think this concept will be during seasons other than holidays etc?

2 comments:

Laura said...

I think this may be effective if it was created as an iLike or iWant application. People could add links to products they want as ideas for gifts or just to show others what they are interested in. This would help people discover new stores and products, and also help promote the companies.

Tara H. said...

This article is great because it emphasizes how beneficial social media is becoming to companies and retailers because the consumers are literally telling them what they like, dislike, and wish to have. Sites such as Pod1 and Wishlist.com are doing exactly this; allowing consumers to create a list of desirable items. This is a win win for retailers because they are able to target a wide range of international online users creating lists for birthday’s, bridal showers, weddings, and any other holiday or season you could think of.

This concept is a good idea as far as being able to target new customers by directly linking back to sites and through search engines. However, I would not count on this strategy to be the best way to target new customers because it could be that someone else (boyfriend, friend, relative, parent, friend, ect.) is purchasing the item off the wish list and has no connection with the item at all. Also, often when people create wish lists they take items off sites that they are familiar with, and in this case it would be loyal customers who are utilizing the application and not new customers.