Social media is becoming a more important tool for many companies and playing a bigger part in their marketing strategies (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2015). In order for companies to engage with a consumer base, one of the first steps they often take is creating one online. It is easier to grow an interest online than in stores in this new digital age of retail (Chaffey and Smith, 2017). This is because companies such as ASOS can promote themselves in ways to achieve interest from more people from their target market. This can include boosting a post on Facebook or sponsoring a post on Instagram or Twitter. An example of this would be if a company like Adidas were offering 20% off Student Discount, they would be able to promote this on their social media attracting students by using targeted post boosting.
One of the most important ways in which companies engage with their consumers over social media is through customer feedback (Chaffey, 2013). Whether the feedback is good or bad from customers, it is a good opportunity for businesses to show to the public how they respond to their feedback (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2015). This is a good opportunity to show people interested in their company how good their customer service is. For example, if someone was to make a complaint about an order or a product, and they handled the situation well, everyone would be able to see the service they offer. If someone were to share their good experience or praise a company on their customer service, that company could then share that with their larger following, for example retweeting a tweet of appraisal on Twitter.
Not only does responding to feedback on social media make a company look good, it also give companies such as ASOS to find out easily from consumers what their concerns are, to help them improve their services in the future. For example, if they find that a number of customers have the same issue with their service, they can focus on fixing it (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick, 2013). Companies will find it easier to discover trends in their feedback when using social media. This can make it easier for companies to find recurring problems and also identify what they are doing right (Ferell, 2016).
An issue with social media as a channel for consumer engagement is that if a customer has a complaint, it is there for anyone to see. For example, if someone had ordered a parcel from ASOS and they failed to deliver it on time, that person could make a complaint for everyone to see. Further to this, if the company were to handle the complaint badly, this would cause more bad impressions on their customer service and possibly their company. This could potentially lead to a decrease in followers.
Once a company has established a following on their social media network, they can use this to advertise upcoming clothing lines, new products or other exciting news they would like to share with their consumers. An example of this would be if Topman were introducing a new line collaborating with another brand such as Adidas. Topman would then boost the post or try and get it trending with a hash tag like ‘#TopmanXAdidas’.
In conclusion, using social media marketing as channel for consumer engagement in the fashion retail industry is very effective. It is a great way to contact consumers and allow consumers to contact companies.
Reference List
Chaffey, D. (2013). Emarketing Excellence. 4th ed. Oxon: Routledge
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2015). Digital marketing. 6th ed. Harlow: Pearson.
Chaffey, D. and Smith, P. (2017). Digital Marketing Excellence. 5th ed. Routledge.
Ferrell, O. (2016). Marketing strategy. [S.l.]: Cengage Learning.
Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2013). Principles and Practice of Marketing. 7th ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education
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