Monitoring social media can be very valuable for brands. On Facebook, there are many groups that are titled 'Bring H&M to Australia'. For those who are not familiar with the brand here a link to their website http://www.hm.com/entrance.ahtml?orguri=/ . H&M is a Swedish 'affordable fashion brand'. After doing a Google search I found so many blogs discussing about H&M and demanding it to Australia.
I had a look at one of the Facebook groups and it even had a copy of a response from someone who works at H&M thanking the creator for showing the interest towards the brand. Through monitoring social media companies can find these kind of consumer demands and address them accordingly. It has been in the news that H&M is planning to open retail stores in Australia soon. It would be interesting to find out whether these 'demands' had an effect on the decision to expand to Australia...
One way or the other, social media has provided great marketing for H&M from brand lovers. Should brands show their appreciation and reward people who do this?
You could say these are the new forms of 'consumer demands' that are forming in the digital age... where instead of companies analysing the marketplace and its consumers to determine what there needs and demands are - the new age consumer is going online to direct companies as to what they truly want.
ReplyDeleteI think if a company can get the right conversations happening online it would be a great way to determine company growth and product development.
Social media is a new form of way for brands to find out customers' demands and needs. However firms need to monitor it in order to response to customers effectively in order to gain competitive advantage.
ReplyDeleteThis is similar to another website that ask for consumer demands to bring artists or celebraties to their country. Especially for the music industry, this type of 'consumer demand' is extremely useful and important. Like you have mentioned, it is an opportunity seeker for brands and companies. For the music industry, it kind of ensure and understand the demand of people who wants to watch shows, especially to those countries (Such as Thailand) which does not get a lot of chance to watch artist from abroad. Again, it would be interesting to see how do these comments and online demands contributes to the expansion or visit decision.
ReplyDeleteThe website i am talking about is "eventful.com"
I would say that SM would be able to at least start the thinking process for H&M in this situation, however, I do question whether this will be the key driver. Intention to purchase again could easily be overthrown by numerous other things such as economic downturn, Zara's early move etc. Although consumers want it here, and show through SM that they do, how sure would H&M be that these consumers will actually purchase their products when they arrive on our shores?
ReplyDeleteRoss
Chun: I like that site (eventful.com). It'll be good to see how well it works and how many people actually use it but there seems to be a fair bit of traffic.
ReplyDeleteRoss: Good point with the intention to purchase but I guess you'll never know for sure. This sort of demand could be used as market research with a caution. In the end, if you do primary research and people say they will purchase it is hard to measure whether they actually will even with the likelihood scales...
The social media voices alone wouldn't be sufficient to convince a brand to open a store in a new country. Even a few hundred "demands", whilst it sounds like a lot, is really only a very small market.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, how many friends and followers are reading those messages in social media? And are they all genuine "fans", or might some of them be seeded by the company? (I'm being a little cynical there, but it's been done before!).
Nice post, Roni.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the intention to purchase, it is hard to test that actual one. thus, I think H&M can establish an Online store in Australia instead of opening retail stores. if customers make a lot of online purchases, they may consider to open retail stores in Australia... well.. :D