How Brands Can Do Better on Vine

Posted on July 25, 2014 by bermanevansretail

Vine is for retailers too!

Evans on Marketing's avatarEvans on Marketing

Vineis “the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see.” It has about 50 million users, many of whom are teenagers, who are attracted to the six-second videos.

Stephanie Castillo, a digital marketing specialist atVisually, reports that:

“Given its accessibility and low cost,this form of micro-contentgives marketers a chance to get some hands-on video production experience. But don’t be fooled: though the app promotes a quick and raw form of capturing video, you shouldn’t take this as a cue to wander away from quality content. Rather, the stakes for a quality video with a strong story are now higher, simply because you have anever shorter amount of time to get your point across.”

“By now, brands have had the chance to explore the many…

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Posted in Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Social Media and Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Clever Uses of Instagram

Posted on July 24, 2014 by bermanevansretail
Instagram is a rapidly growing social media site, particularly among younger people:
It “is a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image into a memory to keep around forever. We’re building Instagram to allow you to experience moments in your friends’ lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more connected through photos.”
According to the company, it has 200 million million active monthly users — more than 65 percent of whom are from outside the United States; overall, 20 billion photos are shared; there are 1.6 billion daily likes; and an average of 60 million photos are uploaded per day.
Lisa Hoover McGreevy — a professional writer specializing in corporate messaging, a data journalist in the Visually Marketplace, and a regular contributor to the Visually blog notes that:
“Based on the traction Instagram is gaining among social media marketers and its ability to engage users these days, maybe it’s time to change the old adage to ‘A picture is worth 1,000 conversions.'”
“In a recent study of how users interact with brands’ social media posts, Forrester Research found that when it comes to engagement, Instagram is far superior to any other social network. While six of the seven social networks Forrester studied had an engagement rate of less than 0.1%, Instagram’s engagement rate was 4.21%. ‘That means Instagram delivered these brands 58 times more engagement per follower than Facebook, and 120 times more engagement per follower than Twitter,’ wrote analyst Nate Elliott on the Forrester blog.”
As a result of Instagram’s popularity, marketers are stepping up their use of the site in their promotions. And McGreevy has written an excellent multimedia article on five companies using Instagram well: adidas, Ben & Jerry’s, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Zappo’s.
Click the image to access McGreevy’s interactive article.

Posted in Online Retailing, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Social Media and Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

“Retail Therapy” Myths

Posted on July 22, 2014 by bermanevansretail
“Retail therapy” is the notion that some people shop as a stress reducer and/or as a way to avoid life’s tough issues.
As Amanda Page, the Editor at HealthCentral says:
“We all do it: indulge in ‘comfort’ purchases to remedy a bad day or sour mood.   While the often short-lived euphoria resulting from this habit may lead to post-splurge guilt, new research suggests some surprising reasons why retail therapy can actually be good for you.  Let’s put some old myths to rest.”
Click the infographic to read more of Page’s views about the myths associated with retail therapy.

 

 

Posted in Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment