Two Different Social Marketing Processes With Similar Results
Over the past couple days, I looked into two companies. Particularly their social marketing process and how effectively they generate engagement, create a community and strengthen their brand. The two companies that I looked at are Wendy’s, the fast food chain and Chanel the luxury beauty product company. These two companies approach their social marketing very differently, however, both methods are very effective.
Chanel is a beauty product company that is very strict and protective of their brand image. I was fortunate enough to work at Chanel for 2 summers in the finance department. Not knowing much about the company or beauty products in general I was required to visit their website many times. After visiting their website, I was targeted for ads on other platforms. This really opened me up to all the ways they try to reach customers online.
Chanel is very active on social media. They engage in paid social media advertising as well as influencer marketing. An interesting aspect to Chanel is that that the company has 3 separate divisions that operate, for the most part, independently from one another. The divisions are Fragrance and beauty, Fashion, and Watches and Fine Jewelry. The digital marketing tactics for the 3 different divisions differ.
Fragrance and Beauty products are sold on their website. Their online advertising is almost always linked to their website. That includes paid social advertising, organic social media posts and google ad words. Their social media advertising leads to a lot of engagement and I would imagine a good click through rate to their website.
Fashion on the other hand is not sold online and they want to get customers to their boutiques. The fashion online ads are rarely linked to their website. Instead they focus more on brand awareness. They do this through influencer marketing that leads to positive engagement.They are very particular about who they do influencer marketing with. These influencers will typically post on social media and receive a great deal of engagement on those posts. Each move seems very calculated and they want to assure the discussion about Chanel is positive.
This differs greatly from Wendy’s approach to social marketing. Their social marketing is less calculated and has more of a focus on engaging with their customers. Wendy’s has become known for their witty responses to tweets and comments. Because Wendy’s is less protective of their brand image they are more flexible in the way they engage with customers. This engagement and authenticity leads to brand loyalty and a positive image of their company. A witty response to a tweet like the one below doesn’t direct anyone to their website. It has no direct link to an online order or anything like that. This is merely a tactic to stay relevant, fit in and give off the perception of authenticity. These three things strengthen a brand and can increase sales over the long term.
Many companies can learn from the engagement and tactics from Wendy’s. However, I don’t believe companies can copy them. This type of marketing works for Wendy’s because it comes off as authentic. It is their thing and people now expect it from Wendy’s. When another company tries to have similar responses it comes off as a copy cat and not authentic.
There is no one path to a successful social marketing process. There are various tactics to acquire fans, generate engagement and strength your brand. If I could recommend anything to these two companies, it would be to diversify the platforms that they are on. Wendy’s is very focused on engagement on twitter but their engagement slightly drops off on other platforms. Chanel for the most part exclusively uses Instagram to market their products and utilize their brand ambassadors. Twitter and Instagram are a big chunk of the social media landscape but they are not the only platforms that you can engage with customers and strengthen your brand.
The social marketing landscape is constantly changing and it can be difficult to keep up with the trendy ways to connect with customers. It is important for both companies to constantly be innovating marketing strategies in a more than ever competitive world.
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