digital marketing

Snapchat is a platform app for sharing photos and videos that expire soon after consumption. The app can be used as part of social media marketing compromising audience participation, managing social presence, viral campaigns and customer feedback (Chaffey, 2011). The app is very popular amongst millennials with;

• 5 billion+ video views daily
• 150 million + daily users
• 71% of users are under 34 years old
• Reaches 41% of all 18-34 year olds in the US daily (Snapchat, 2017).

Unlike existing social media sites or apps, Snapchat enables you to engage and build a small community of your biggest fans. This adds credibility and improves the overall brand image for brands looking to expand outside standard social media sites. As part of its advertising efforts, Snapchat has introduced targeting options aimed at boosting its advertiser’s ad-targeting creation with new features such as;

• Snap audience match– Enables brands to anonymously match data from their existing lists of email address and mobile device ID with Snapchats consumer data.
• Snap lifestyle categories- Implements brands to target ads to users who view specific types of videos e.g.; as fashion, sports or gaming.
• Sponsored lenses- Interactive ads created brands to boost audience engagement. On average Snap chatters spend 20 seconds playing with sponsored lenses
• Custom Geofilters- Enables fans to add branded filter in various locations such as physical stores and venues.

As well as advertising, the Omni-entertainment app features a discovery page which combines the best of tabloid news, social networks and television.

Burberry

Burberry has a history of using Snapchat to promote their campaigns and became the first luxury brand to sponsor a channel on the discovery tab of Snapchat. In 2016, the London based fashion retailer used Snapchat to promote their fall/winter16 campaign. In a series of Snaps, the London based fashion retailer told the story of two models who broke into the Burberry store on Regent Street. The models found two items from the new Burberry collection and played dress up in the store before getting caught.

How fashion retailers can use Snapchat as part of their strategy

Snapchat inspires excitement among its users has made the app a coveted platforms for brands. Compared to other networks, Snapchat’s originality makes it attractive for users but entice brands looking to gain power in their market. Research by (L2 Intelligence, 2016) suggests fashion brands who adopt Snapchat have a 54% point of differentiation in comparison to Instagram at 98%.

(L2 intelligence, 2016)

Fashion brands can use Snapchat to share creative and exclusive snaps with their audience such as:

• Promo Codes– Share promo codes and link to your e-store with your followers or sponsor a Snapchat influencer to share with their audience.
• Event Courage- Cover events popular among your target market that can be uploaded as a story.
• Product Placement- Post a snap story of current inventory or new products with a link to e-store. Same can be done with upcoming products.
• Competition- To boost interaction with audience and gain user generated content by encouraging followers to share snaps with their friends.
• Style tips- Post Weekly style tips and latest trends include link to blog where they can find out more information.

Per Gensler et al (2013), the channels between customers and brands can shift in order to create a ‘positive puzzle’. Snapchat acts as a puzzle piece for brands as the content creates value to the customer when they interact with the content which increases their over all user experience with the brand.

(Gensler, 2013)

Decrease of users

With any product on the market, there is always maturity and decline. Since the launch of Instagram stories in 2016, there has been a 15-40% decline in story view counts and posting of Snapchat stories by users (TechCrunch, 2017).

Mobile apps are temporary and short-lived. The introduction of disruptive technology such as snapchat may have a negative effect on brands who are considering implementing Snapchat as part of their digital marketing strategy. As a result, brands should consider using pre-existing channels that has not declined over time to ensure the success of digital campaigns.

References

Chaffey, D. (2011) Digital marketing channels. Available at: http://www.smartinsights.com/reach/attachment/digital-marketing-channels/ (Accessed: 15 February 2017).

Constine, J. (2017) Instagram stories is stealing Snapchat’s users. Available at: https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/30/attack-of-the-clone/ (Accessed: 15 February 2017).

Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Liu-Thompkins, Y. and Wiertz, C. (2013) ‘Managing brands in the social media environment’, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), pp. 242–256. doi: 10.1016/j.intmar.2013.09.004.

Mitchell, K., Engagement, D. of C. and Gatorade (no date) On-demand Geofilters. Available at: https://www.snapchat.com/l/en-gb/ads (Accessed: 15 February 2017).

Snapchat marketing: The key to discovering and engaging your most loyal fans – Shopify (2016) Available at: https://www.shopify.co.uk/blog/75307013-snapchat-marketing-the-key-to-discovering-and-engaging-your-most-loyal-fans (Accessed: 15 February 2017).

Sources, Data, S.I. and Users, em.U.S. (2015) Instagram vs. Snapchat. Available at: https://instagram-vs-snapchat.l2inc.com/ (Accessed: 15 February 2017).