Author: Jordan Dean

https://www.facebook.com/hm/videos/10153296631790913/?t=0

H&M advert including David Beckham which can be found on his Facebook page.

Celebrity endorsements is an initiative that I have opted to use as part of the digital marketing campaign for next.  Celebrity endorsement has become a popular approach in branding process when gaining attention and gaining favourable associations which leads to positive brand knowledge. (Caroll,2009). The use of celebrity endorsers had increased to about 25 of all advertisements in the UK, (Caroll,2009).

In recent years social media has been used as another platform for celebrity endorsements. Dj Khaled and weight watchers has endorsed weight watchers on his twitter account. (Parker,2018) writes that the appeal of a celebrity like Dj Khaled is that he gives fans and followers a level of accessibility and familiarity with weight watchers through social media which would not be possible in traditional advertising. Parker (2018) expands further suggesting that coupling his celebrity draw means fans and followers who normally would not be interesting about weight watchers will do so anyway. So having the right celebrity with a good following can spark interest in your products in new innovative ways.

The idea of desiring to wear what your favourite celebrity is wearing and encouraging you to do so sounds great, however it has been questioned if it is an effective and useful marketing tool. However if done correctly it can prove to be very useful.

When using celebrity endorsements it’s important to use the most appropriate indivual and if the person represents the values of the company. (Wheeler, 2003) emphasised choosing someone that has a logical connection to the organization and the companies target group is familiar with the individual. Wheeler (2003) adds that when the celebrity’s relationship with the company is meaningful then people have more faith in the source of information. If customers have more faith in your items then it increases brand loyally because they’re less likely to turn to competitors.

Celebrity endorsements useful in bringing a company extra revenue and increase the brands sales volume.( Elberse and Verleun,2012), conducted a study into the effectiveness of the endorsement of athletes concluded that there was validation for the use of celebrity endorsers as an advertising strategy and it generally has a positive pay-off in brand level sales as well as increasing a firm’s stock returns.  David Beckham’s endorsing h&m underwear is an example of when celebrity endorsements have a positive impact on sales. (independent, 2013) reported that h&m had experienced an increase in sales from £718.5 million in the previous year to £777.6 million and thanked David Beckham for helping to do so.

 

 

 

Below is a video explaining the impact of the kardashians promoting items on their social media platforms.

 

 

 

While celebrity endorsements are meant to have a positive impact on companies, they also can fail and actually hurt their name. (Poghosyan,2015) writes that a celebrities inappropriate public behaviour and ethical mistake during a promotional contract with companies may have a negative impact on the product.  An example of when an endorsement has sparked controversy is in the case of American football player Colin Kaepernick. Their campaign consisted of the company’s iconic phrase, features Kaepernick’s face with the words, “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything”, and this caused swift pushback on social media with people burning Nike gear in protest, (Flanagan,2018).  In the example of Nike the choice of celebrity is key because if a controversial person is chosen then this could lead to boycotting the brand which hurts the image of the company but also dampen future sales.

Click below to see 8 Endorsements that failed

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/8-high-profile-celebrity-endorsements-that-backfired/

Tips and Guides

To use celebrity endorsement effectively as part of a marketing strategy it is important to consider a few factors. Firstly think of which segment of the market that is being targeted. When selecting the celebrity ensure that that they are well known amongst the target market.  Similar to that point decide how big is their following on social media platforms such as twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. Also examine how many likes, shares, comments, retweets etc does the celebrity gather.  Also consider how often you want the celebrity to post on social media in regards to endorsing your product. If they’re not active enough then people may be less aware of your items as you would aim for them to be. Also ensure that the person has a good reputation as selecting someone who doesn’t could damage your existing image.

References

References

Carroll, A., 2009. Brand communications in fashion categories using celebrity endorsement. Journal of Brand Management, 17(2), pp.146-158.

Elberse, A. and Verleun, J., 2012. The economic value of celebrity endorsements. Journal of advertising Research, 52(2), pp.149-165.

Flanagan, C. (2018). Nike ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick sparks boycott. [online] myajc. Available at: https://www.ajc.com/sports/nike-campaign-featuring-colin-kaepernick-sparks-boycott/MB7QK1bXArnO2MI0kjTiOL/ [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].

Parker, S. (2018). Celebrity endorsements in the social media age –. [online] Union Metrics. Available at: https://unionmetrics.com/blog/2018/01/celebrity-endorsements-social-media-age/ [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].

Poghosyan, A., 2015. Celebrity Endorsement As One Of Nowadyas Major Ways To Influence Consumer Buying Behaviour. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 11(10).

The Independent. (2013). David Beckham’s on target for H&M. [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/david-beckhams-on-target-for-hm-8779117.html [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

NEXT is a multinational British clothing, footwear and home products and the headquarters can be found in Leicestershire. NEXT clothes are styled by its in-house design team to offer great style, quality and value for money with a contemporary fashion edge, (NextPLC,2011).

 

Target audience

Originally Next intended to fill a gap in the market by selling fashionable clothes for people aged 24-35 years old and those starting on Careers and family life, (Verdict,2017). When going on NEXT you can find items that suit families and kids while finding professional clothing for the purpose of work.

While this is the main target age there is something for all ages whether that be teenagers or grandparents, NEXT provide a wide variety of fashionable clothing.

In 2018 there are various ways customers can use NEXT to purchase items from them. Customers can choose from their mobile app, mobile and desktop website and obviously in store. This is can be convenient to different types of customers which will be illustrated further on using two personas.

Personas:

Jake Thomas

Jake is a 28 year old male who lives in Central London and is from a middle class background. He’s aspiring to be a head chef but currently works as a personal trainer and lives with his son and girlfriend. Jake is very relaxed. Jake likes modern clothing but also buys some sportswear due to his current job. As he has a son Jake will often use a site such as next to purchase clothing for him.

 

 

Simran Patel

Simran is a 19 year old female who currently study’s law at the University of Sussex with intentions to pursue a career in the field. She comes from a lower class family from Norfolk. She likes buying casual clothing and also loves to buy the occasional dress for nights out or for social gatherings. She also uses social media often.

 

Competition

There are two competitors to NEXT that are very similar. They are Marks and Spencer along with Debenhams. Both provide modern fashionable clothing and Unlike a retailer such as H&M, Marks and Spencer both provide clothing at a slightly higher price like NEXT do. All three provide branded clothing. There a few differences between them. One being that Marks and Spencer also sell food and other things. With that being said all three are very similar to one another.

Customer Journey

A customer journey map is a visual representation of every experience your customers have with you. It helps to tell the story of a customer’s experience with your brand from original engagement and into hopefully a long-term relationship,(SalesForce,2018).The customer journey path to the left illustrates the experience Simran and Jake both went through when using NEXT. The key points are stated below for both Simran and Jake:

Simran

1. She finds a dress on NEXT’s Facebook page.
2. Goes on her phone to find alternatives to her dress on the mobile site.
3. Revisits social media to get details on the dress and purchases the dress on NEXT’s mobile website.
4. Agrees via email to receive any updates or notifications for anything in the future and emails NEXT about signing up for loyalty schemes.

Jake

1. Initially in person sees poster advertising sales.
2. Looks in store for clothes but cant find anything he was looking for.
3. Goes on laptop to look for the item of clothing and then purchases it.
4. Writes a review on web forum and calls about joining loyalty scheme.

Overall Experience

While both Simran and Jake in the end both had positive experiences throughout their journey there were a couple of negatives. Jake wasn’t too pleased with the lack of stock in the stores. Simran also wasn’t given too much detail on Next’s social media page.

As shown in the photo to the right the NEXT app is very useful. It provides customer with a size option and provides a picture of the item.  Also the website was found to be relatively straightforward

Word Count 653 words.

References

Nextplc.co.uk. (2018). At a glance. [online] Available at: https://www.nextplc.co.uk/about-next/at-a-glance

Limited, N. (2018). Next Official Site: Online Fashion, Kids Clothes & Homeware. [online] Next.co.uk. Available at: https://www.next.co.uk

Verdict. (2018). Next is in real danger of following M&S as its customer base ages | Verdict. [online] Available at: https://www.verdict.co.uk/next-real-danger-following-ms-customer-base-ages/

Salesforce UK Blog. (2018). What is Customer Journey Mapping & Why is it Important?. [online] Available at: https://www.salesforce.com/uk/blog/2016/03/customer-journey-mapping-explained

 

 

Argos is one of the biggest retail stores in the United Kingdom and I am one of the 123 million customers that go there to buy a wide selection of goods.  According to the case study I read which was published by Brandwatch state that Argos now has 53 of these new digital stores. Argos realised that the only way they would be able to accommodate all the feedback from the 123 million customers was through social media platforms hence they turned to Brandwatch analytics.

Is Social Media actually useful for big companies?

One major company that has used Social media to improve its customer service through interaction and listening to feedback is Coca-Cola. In the link provided below gives a more detailed look at how coca cola has found success in this new social media age. For instance they respond to fans tweets with direct messages and rather push a promotional campaign they tend to directly deal with the customers issues. I think that this is a great way to utilise social media as this can improve customers perception of the product and are more likely to purchase the companies goods again.

In the case of Argos they were able to use Brandwatch analytics to The data provided by Brandwatch showed that some customers missed elements of the previous store environment – especially the catalogues. This insight validated the decision taken by Argos to keep a small number of copies behind the counter for those customers seeking a sense of familiarity.

In Argos case the social media research conducted showed that customers who shopped in the new digital stores missed certain elements of the previous store like catalogues. As a result they took a small number of copies into these stores to ensure familiarity. My personal opinion is this is an easy adjustment for Argos to make in order to improve the overall experience for all customers.

 

 

References

https://studentcentral.brighton.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-3263929-dt-content-rid-6133556_1/courses/IT382_2018/Argos%20Case%20Study.pdf

https://econsultancy.com/how-coca-cola-uses-facebook-twitter-pinterest-and-google/