‘Urbanara provides the world with beautiful, high quality homewares, without the sky high price tag’

Founded in September 2010, Urbanara is an online brand which carefully sources each product from around the world. Online Marketing and the company website is a major way of attracting their customers. The top keywords that Urbanara’s potential customers might use, include:

• luxury blankets
• homeware online
• UK homeware

Competitors include companies such as:

A brief look at these competitors shows that keywords that users may search for, resulting in the above could also be used  to increase traffic to the Urbanara website. Ultimately this could increase potential customers and increase the awareness of the brand, something a recent start up company will strive for. These keywords include:

• home furnishings
• decorative accessories

Companies now need to consider many external factors when it comes to their brand reputation and and strategic position within the market. N.Booth 2011 says “Consumers are now the individuals broadcasting personal or second-hand stories to their social networks and the world. They are a brand’s storytellers and the new brand ambassadors.” So how can a company like Urbanara control these external factors?

For example, homeware bloggers could be a main influence on Urbanara such as http://www.designhunter.co.uk (a UK interior, design and lifestyle blog). Another influence would be social media conversations between previous customer experiences who then share their perusal stories for perhaps, social benefits or self enhancement and promotion. By taking an analytical approach to these influencers, Urbanara can listen and should act almost immediately to continue consumer conversations about the brand, as they are now brand embassadors. As Booth and Matic discuss, “control is an illusion, companies cannot control the conversations with social media, but they can influence them”.. something that should be at the heart of every social media campaign in order to generate measurable results.

Booth, N., Matic, J.A., 2011. Mapping and leveraging influencers in social media to shape corporate brand perceptions. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 16, 184–191