Talkin-2-Me content on social media has reinvented retailing. Interactive digital innovations have enabled fashion brands and retailers to reorient shopping behaviors designed for multi-level retailing. By utilizing opportunities for talkin’ between brand-2-customer and customer-2-customer, the fashion industries have also changed merchandising production time-lines and supply lines.
By Talkin’-2-U about self-styling, many fashion brands are getting more and more ROI from their use of social media. We are now experiencing Talkin’-2-Me strategic content that offers on-line customer-centric promotions (CCP), e.g., members only sales and events, and provides unique customer experiences (CX), e.g., instant shopping options.
As designers are live-streaming their fashion shows, they are able to talk intimately with their digital attendees. Social Media Talkin’-2-Me content has effectively created communications that benefit fashion brands from promotional to luxury levels… for genuine cultural exchanges in retailing. Luxury and premium fashion brands had been criticized for their reluctance to get online. This was often because they did not want to be perceived as mass-market brands. But now, they are creating unique content for social media and initiating their own style of creative strategies for online retailing. They are inventing new mobile interfaces and online experiential marketing models that encourage interactive responses from customers who thank the brands for Talkin’-2-Me!
We have observed that luxury brands have found their techno-egos and are eager to build and grow their multi channel presence. Many brands are being helped by the newer social networking sites like: Pinterest. Pioneered by Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom, Pinterest makes posting and sharing pictures easier than other sites. It also has an invite-only strategy providing a feeling of exclusivity for the more affluent customer.
Heuristics is the process of discovery, learning and invention. We see the social media development and integration in brand marketing as a most helpful aide in the delight and joy of discovery, as it opens up the fashion conversation Brand-2-Customer.
BrandPsych Resources:
WWD.com and the Women’s Wear Daily Digital Forum
Mashable.com – Macala Wright Lee / Samantha Murphy
LuxuryDaily.com – Rachel Lamb
Arthur & Peggy Winters co-teach SXB 200 Brand Marketing Communications for Image & Meaning and SXR 050 Intro to Branding: The Art of Customer Bonding.