“The more passionate and argumentative I get the more followers and friends I make online.”


Thursday, October 10, 2013

Brands & The IMC Approach

This week we are taking a look at Brands and their presence on Social Media to see if they are really taking the IMC approach. Integrated Marketing Communications is defined as "an approach to achieving the objectives of a marketing campaign, through a well coordinated use of different promotional methods that are intended to reinforce each other". I'm taking a look at three different brands to see if they are truly following the IMC approach as well as making suggestions as to what they can do better to improve their campaigns.

DRESS UP BOUTIQUE:


Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ShopDressUp
Twitter https://twitter.com/ShopDressUp
Instagram http://instagram.com/shopdressup
Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/112649699513786804923/posts
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/shopdressup/


 Dress Up Boutique is definitely making an effort to have an Integrated Marketing Campaign by establishing their presence on different social media outlets and they are using these various outlets and media channels to reinforce the other. They are doing a good job of using each of the media channels in which they are active on to drive traffic and sales to the website as well as to the store.  One of the things that I commend Dress Up Boutique on is being consistent with their Brand Messaging and Imagery. They definitely have the same voice and overall brand message throughout their entire campaign. Consistency is key. Especially when it comes to marketing. You don't want to have your channels sending out different messages to your audience. The images across all of the social media platforms are definitely consistent and in sync, which is great since this is a clothing boutique...we definitely wouldn't want to see one channel advertising fall clothing while the other has already jumped ahead into winter. So Dress Up Boutique is doing an awesome job in ensuring that the overall Brand Message and Imagery is consistent.

The content is definitely up to date on all of the channels except for their GOOGLE+ Account. I'm not sure if they do not know how to effectively use Google+ to stay consistent with their Brand Message and Imagery but there is virtually nothing on their GOOGLE+ Page which is definitely not good. If they are not going to use the page or social site then they need to delete the page completely. It doesn't look good to have a page on a social media site that they are not using. Aside from their GOOGLE+ Account, the content on all of their other pages is up to date and looks awesome!

I love how they use links and photo posts to drive their  users to the other social channels. For example, they post their instagram pictures on their Twitter account and they have links directing users straight to their website on their Pinterest and Facebook pages. They also are very clever in using their social networking sites to get their customers to the store. They're growing exponentially and I love how they tease their customers with layouts of their new stores on their social sites.
Sometimes, I just get an urge to go to the new stores just to see how they look on the inside and then once I'm there I'm sucked into buying something.




They also do a great job of incorporating hashtags on their Twitter and Instagram accounts. I think this is awesome because when people are searching for certain things that relate to their boutique it is easy to drive traffic to their pages and sites and this is a great way to gain new customers.

My only recommendation for Dress Up Boutique aside from figuring out if they need/are going to use their GOOGLE+ Account is to be consistent in answering their customers across all platforms. I notice that they interact with their customers more on Twitter and Facebook and I think they need to be consistent across the board. Other than that, I think they are doing an awesome job!





NIKE


Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nike
Twitter https://twitter.com/NIKE
Instagram http://instagram.com/nike
Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/+nike/posts
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/nike


Nike is one of those companies who is definitely on top of their "A Game" when it comes to taking an IMC approach. They are using every social media site available to drive customers to and from their stores, website, social media sites as well as driving traffic/sales for the Brand and they are doing it all effortlessly.

Their Brand Message of "JUST DO IT" is consistent throughout all of their campaigns and they imagery and content is up to date on all of the social outlets listed.  Their content is up to date and they post regularly across all of their social media platforms although they could post a little bit more than what they are doing. I did notice that there are some lapses in between days on some of the sites. They use hashtags and social bars/buttons that link their audience to their other social networking sites.
They also post pictures on one site in order to drive traffic to another social media site or their website. I think a lot of companies can learn from Nike by mimicking their IMC.


One thing I did notice is that they do not interact with their audience much on any of their social networking sites. I think they need to do a better job of engaging in active listening and paying more attention to what their audience is saying as well as actually responding to them in order to keep them engaged an interested. No one wants to follow a Brand who is just talking about themselves or retweeting themselves all day.



















WIX


Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wix
Twitter https://twitter.com/wix
Instagram http://instagram.com/wix
Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/+Wix/posts
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/wixmypage

Wix is one of my absolute favorite brands because I love building websites and their templates are awesome! They are so helpful and provide so much detailed information to their users on their website so it's no surprise to me that they do the same thing across all of their social networking sites that they use to carry out their Integrated Marketing Campaign. They definitely take an IMC approach and they use all of their social networking sites to reinforce the others as well as to drive traffic to their website in order to get their audience to use their templates.

They are consistent in their messaging and imagery. Their imagery is one of my favorite things about the Brand. They are so colorful, bright, bold, and fun and it shows through all of their social networking sites. It definitely alludes to the types of templates their audience can expect to find on their website and I think that is awesome! I'm a visual person and the fun colors make me more intrigued and interested in seeing what they have to offer.

One of the other amazing things I noticed about their site, is that their content is always up to date and they post a lot. Not only do they post a lot but all of the information that they post is extremely informational and educational. I learn so much from their posts on how I can improve my websites and what I can do to make them look better. The thing that I think is amazing is the fact that their audience can expect to see different educational and informational posts across all of their social networking sites. Each one has something new and informational.

To me this shows, the time and dedication they are putting in to make sure that everything is fresh and relevant and this keeps their audience visiting each site because if I know I am going to see the same tips and tricks you post on your GOOGLE+ account on your Twitter account as well then I am just going to visit one of those sites as opposed to both of them. The only social networking site that I saw where they are not as up-to-date as the others was their Youtube channel. There is so much they can do on their to keep their audience interacting and I think they are missing out big time. I saw more videos from other Youtube users instructing wix users how to get the most out of their Wix templates than I did from the Wix page and I think this is a place where they can improve. You don't want others to market your Brand and message better than you do. I think they should make some more instructional videos to go along with the educational/informational posts they are making and use the other sites to drive traffic to their Youtube account so their audience can actually watch the videos and learn visually how to do things.

They use hashtags regularly on their sites and they drive traffic with links and social bars/buttons.
I love everything about this fun Brand and I am always interested to see what they have to post each day. I think they are doing an amazing job aside from the few recommendations that I have.




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