VS. L Y N S I E B E L A N

Transcription

1 A E R I E VS. P I N K L Y N S I E B E L A N

2 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 COMPANY HISTORY SOCIAL MENTION SOCIAL CHANNELS WEBSITE INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK TWITTER DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS OVERALL WINNER 2 6

3 E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y The Lingerie industry is growing daily and constantly evolving. In order to stand out, a company has to have a unique proposition. Whether a company chooses to create a brand image of a sexy line of lingerie or a body-positivity line, both have social strategies to consider. The following two brands, Aerie and PINK, sell similar lingerie pieces but present them with two different perspectives. Aerie presents lingerie with body-positivity in mind while PINK focuses more on how to be sexy and how to look like an "Angel." In this analysis, the two brands will be analyzed across multiple social media channels as well as their digital campaigns. Read more to find out which brand will reach the target audience better. 3

4 C O M P A N Y H I S T O R Y Aerie is a lingerie and intimate apparel retailer owned by American Eagle Outfitters. This brand was launched in February 2006 in Greenville, South Carolina. Since the launch, 148 stores have opened in the United States. The brand targets American year old females. Aerie's main competition is Victoria's Secret PINK. Aerie focuses on body positivity which is a completely different take than the rest of the competition. The brand decided to ditch Photoshop in 2014 to support this body-positive mindset. With models of all shapes, sizes, and skin colors, consumers are sure to find a similar fit online. Switching to this route for advertising was a risky move but the company has seen major benefits since launching the 4 #aeriereal campaign in 2014.

5 C O M P A N Y H I S T O R Y PINK first launched in 2002 as a sub-brand of Victoria's Secret carrying lingerie, activewear, loungewear, swim, and accessories. PINK targets younger girls (ages 14-22). The idea was to get these young girls into Victoria's Secret stores in hopes to transition them into adult product lines, such as Angels, Body by Victoria, or Very Sexy, years later. PINK opened its first stand-alone store in 2010 in Canada and has since opened 244 stores in the United States and Canada. The PINK line continues to grow as more teenagers hook on to the PINK "look", wearing apparel with the brand printed all over it. 5

6 S O C I A L M E N T I O N SocialMention.com is a tool used to analyze consumer-generated content to determine how a brand is doing across multiple social media channels. Social Mention was used to calculate an average for these metrics. Strength: Sentiment: Stength: Sentiment: 50% 17:1 41% 13:1 Passion: Reach: Passion: Reach: 21% 45% 22% 37% Strength: Aerie is discussed more often than PINK on Social media. Sentiment: Positive comments are made more often for Aerie than for PINK. Passion: Consumers are more passionate about PINK (only by 1%) and talk about the brand more repeatedly. Reach: Aerie reaches more new customers than PINK on average. 6

7 Social Channels

8 WEBSITE Aerie's website can be accessed through ae.com (American Eagle's website). The link to the aerie site is just another tab among the others (men, women, jeans, etc). One thing American Eagle could do to help Aerie stand out, is to give them a separate home webpage. This would allow for the separation of brand image and also boost the individual growth of Aerie as a lingerie line. As far as navigation goes it is difficult to find product categories since the entire Aerie line is under one tab. Once under the tab, the options appear only after you mouse over the Aerie tab again. This setup is not user-friendly and consumers, especially within their target market, are not willing to spend more than a few minutes figuring out how to navigate a webpage. The website does promote all sales and their campaign on the main page as well as a link to their instagram. 8

9 WEBSITE The PINK Website is an entirely separate webpage setup than the parent, Victoria's Secret webpage. You can access the PINK webpage from the Victoria's Secret home webpage, but the setup of PINK is unique which allows the separation of brand recognition. It was important that Victoria's Secret made separate webpages for the two brands, since they target different consumers. The website itself is extremely easy to navigate. The front page includes all of the new products as well as promotions they are running. The bottom of the home webpage includes their embedded instagram account with a link to the app. Under that, they include a link to find your closest store. All of these tactics build a strong foundation for PINK's website. 9

10 WINNER PINK wins the best website. The fact that the PINK website is separate from the parent website makes the navigation incredibly easier as well as allowing both brands to maintain separate brand images. The promotions on the front page also get straight to the point with consumers and give them what they want. Aerie was not up to par on webpage location or the presentation of current promotions. What could Aerie do better? Create a totally separate website from ae.com and include the tab/link at the top of the page. This separates the brands and allows for a more user-friendly experience. 10

11 E M A I L I signed up with Aerie to receive updates about promotions and news in the store 5 weeks ago. Since signing up for s, I have received s daily updating me on promotions in the store as well as updates on the #aeriereal campaign, such as new models or new products that support the campaign. The s are clean and attractive. It looks similar to the website setup, which is helpful as it is user-friendly and very easy to navigate. I also think the fact that they sent out daily s keeps the brand in the front of your mind whenever you decide you are ready to make a purchase. 11

12 E M A I L I went to the PINK website and signed up for s also about 5 weeks ago. I never received s from PINK so I decided to sign up for PINK Nation s about 4 weeks ago since PINK Nation is a popular group. After signing up for PINK Nation s, I started receiving s more frequently. Specifically, I have received s about exclusive sales and events for PINK Nation members. Sending exclusive promotions to group members definitely gives off the exclusive, high-end effect PINK is going for. Since I did not receive s daily, the brand was not kept at the front of my mind, therefore I would be less likely to make a purchase based on PINK's marketing. 12

13 WINNER Aerie wins best for their consistent s. Each they send contains a different message, whether that is building brand loyalty or promoting a sale. A balance of content and promotions is what really led Aerie to win the category. Some s would talk about the promotions online while others invited customers to share body positive photos on the website. The change of content along with consistent messaging caused the brand to always be at the front of my mind and if I were to make a intimates purchase, Aerie would likely be my choice. What could PINK do better? subscribers on a more regular basis to keep a consistent pattern as well as keeping the brand in the front of consumers' minds. Really pushing brand story and content more than just promotions is also important. 13

14 INSTAGRAM Aerie has 826k followers on Instagram. To target these followers, Aerie uses mostly content to build brand awareness, for those who have never heard of Aerie, and brand loyalty, for those who already follow the account. Aerie uses sponsored posts to gain new customers who show interest in lingerie lines, and consistent content posts to build loyalty with their existing follower base. To gain prominence on Instagram, the company has to post intriguing content along with their promotion posts if they want to gain traction on this channel. Aerie does just this with their combination of spreading the message about their #aeriereal campaign by integrating the sales process with content. Followers can send in un-retouched photos for a chance to be featured on the Aerie Instagram. If they are chosen the picture that is posted is also tagged with the items so other customers can easily shop off the contest-winners. 14

15 INSTAGRAM PINK has 7.9M followers on Instagram. Wow, that is a lot. How are they reaching these followers? Mostly, they just post pictures of their products with little to no content. Only some of the posts include shopper tags to direct a follower to the website. While the quality of the pictures and the consistency of the posts are correct, they are missing the content posts. While scrolling through the Instagram account, I only found one content post: a YouTuber who had picked out outfits she thought were trendy. Another thing I noticed PINK did not do were sponsored posts. I never saw an advertisement on my feed for PINK. Even though PINK has 7.9M followers, they still need to consistently be reaching new customers as well as keeping current customers thinking about them. This is a risky move not to advertise on Instagram as it is a huge channel for this type of company. 15

16 WINNER Aerie takes home the prize for best Instagram. While PINK had many more followers than Aerie, Aerie knew how to target the consumers on this channel better. Through an even balance of content-driven posts and promotional posts, customers feel like the brand cares about them more. Through the implementation of shopper-tags on most photos, customers can easily navigate purchasing any item. Through the use of sponsored posts, consumers will always keep the brand in the front of their minds and be more likely to choose them when deciding where to buy their next intimate pieces. What could PINK do better? - Create more content-driven posts. This will generate more brand loyalty and long-time customers Add shopper tags, this allows customers to easily navigate directly to the website.

17 F A C E B O O K On Facebook, Aerie has 1,882,825 likes which is a pretty large following. How does Aerie reach their consumer group on Facebook? Well, the target market is young females ages so Facebook is not going to be their primary channel. Aerie does however use Facebook to push promotions as well as sponsored ads. Most of the same content posted on Facebook gets pushed through Instagram as well. Aerie does not use Facebook to create events, which is a huge feature Facebook pages are known for. Older consumers seem to engage more on this channel, but it is not as prominent as Instagram. They also post sweepstake rules since Facebook is one of the better channels to run sweepstakes. 17

18 F A C E B O O K PINK has set a solid foundation of followers on Facebook. With 14 million likes, PINK can reach their target market almost solely on this channel. Obviously just one channel isn't enough, but that just shows how powerful their following on Facebook is. PINK utilizes the "Event" feature which is one of Facebook's most unique features. It gives companies the ability to gauge how many people might come to an event and especially for PINK, it might let allow them to predict how much inventory they will need for a specific event (such as a pop-up shop). PINK also utilizes Facebook as a customer service channel. They respond quickly to customer complaints and questions in the comment section of posts by referring them to the website or customer service line. 18

19 WINNER PINK knows how to use Facebook. They are the Queen of Facebook events and garnering likes. 14 million is a huge following, so they must post good content. They reply to customers concerns and post upcoming events often. They are sure to remind the customer of events happening, which is the unique feature Facebook offers. Aerie didn't take home the prize for best Facebook page because they had not utilized the event feature in almost a year which is a huge driving factor in creating content on a Facebook page. What could Aerie do better? - Create Facebook events for things like Pop-up shops and events going on around the nation. - Respond more to customer concerns. Aerie can use this channel to build brand image. 19

20 TWITTER Aerie has 106k followers on Twitter; definitely their smallest following of these three major platforms. This channel is mainly intended for customer care. Aerie retweets people's tweets about Aerie to spread positive word. I searched through most of their own content and did not see any feedback for negative comments. I would say Aerie could be more active in responding to upset customers through this channel and really use Twitter to combat negative comments. In Aerie stores across the country, they give customers sticky notes and ask them to write encouraging phrases to stick to the fitting room mirrors. Customers then take photos and share on channels like Twitter. Aerie retweets people who use a certain hashtag or take pictures in the fitting rooms. This promotes consumer advocacy for the brand. 20

21 T W I T T E R With 1.06M followers, PINK yet again has a massive following. They have tons of potential here to reach tons of their target market since millennial females do spend a decent amount of time on Twitter. Specifically, PINK has utilized customer care along with promoting PINK events on Twitter. PINK responds to customer comments by either providing a link to the website or apologizing for a customer's inconvenience. This is a prime use of Twitter as this channel is perfect for providing customer care. PINK also utilizes Twitter to spread awareness about events like the PINK Paradise. They strive to provide a majority of their online customer service on this channel and are utilizing this channel to its benefits. 21

22 WINNER? I couldn't choose one brand to win this channel. They both have pros and cons so below is a list of those and why there wasn't an apparent winner. RIGHT: Twitter's purpose is to jump in on consumer conversation in the now. What is going on and how can my brand relate? Aerie, with their new #aeriereal campaign along with partnering with NEDA, retweets any comments people make about body positivity and shared customers pictures inside the fitting rooms. WRONG: They never really addressed customer complaints. This is a major loss because they could easily regain some customers if they worked hard to make amends with unsatisfied customers. RIGHT: PINK responded promptly to all customer comments, positive and negative. This is extremely important as Twitter is seen as a customer service channel. They also have a huge following which allows them to reach a large portion of their target market through this channel unlike Aerie. WRONG: Something PINK did not do, was get into the customer conversations and figure out what the target was taking about. They never retweet consumers' tweets which is important because it allows the brand to be perceived more as a person than a brand. 22

23 DIGITAL CAMPAIGN #aeriereal This campaign is built around body-positivity. Aerie followed Dove, Pantene and Special K on the body positivity movement to show women they should love the skin they are in. By encouraging women to share unretouched photos with the hashtag #aeriereal, Aerie has gained a spot in the market no other teen-targeted lingerie brand has tapped into before. This campaign has allowed Aerie to grow beyond their goals and has gained so many advocates. This campaign mostly runs on Instagram and Twitter since those are the most popular places to share hashtags. 23

24 D I G I T A L C A M P A I G N Looking through all social channels, I could not find a campaign PINK was executing at the moment. PINK is definitely missing this aspect of a perfect social media presence especially since they have so many followers. A digital campaign is a perfect way to gain advocates, like Aerie is doing with the #AerieREAL campaign. PINK targets their customers a little different but they could still push out a digital campaign, similar to Aerie, with a hashtag or phrase customers could use to associate with the brand and campaign. The purpose of the PINK sub-brand is to bring in potential future customers of Victoria's Secret and there are no better customers to have than advocates. Their campaign could be something as simple as high school and college students take a photo wearing PINK loungewear or at the gym in activewear. They could even frame around Aerie and have customers post photos in the PINK swim wear on the beach all using related hashtags. This would push the product to potential customers as well as build awareness about the brand while creating brand advocates. 24

25 WINNER The obvious winner here is Aerie. Their ongoing campaign has been a huge hit on Instagram and Twitter. Customers constantly share photos with the hashtag #aeriereal and their lingerie line along with their swimwear has gained traction in the industry. They have really started to see exponential growth since starting this campaign in On-boarding models of all different shapes and sizes and including them in photos for each product online is something that most women could never dream of actually having and Aerie jumped in to provide this personalized feature. That alone boosted their campaign tremendously. 25

26 O V E R A L L W I N N E R The Breakdown: Website > > Instagram > Facebook > Twitter > Digital Campaign--> PINK Aerie Aerie PINK TIE Aerie Reasons why Aerie wins the competition: 1. Aerie is just farther ahead in the game than PINK. Aerie is in the "integrate" stage of content marketing while it is evident PINK remains in the "engage" phase. While PINK replies to customer complaints and retweets some messages across the board, they have not implemented e-commerce integration into any social channels nor is it apparent they have excellent marketing automation. Aerie includes shopper tags to all of their posts on social media and through marketing automation, customers receive personalized ads when scrolling through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 2. Aerie has an active digital campaign running. Without a digital campaign, it is difficult to post content relevant to consumers. PINK needs to think about pushing a campaign soon before they lose too many customers to Aerie. It is evident with the #AerieREAL campaign that previous PINK shoppers have switched brands. 3. Aerie, even with a significantly smaller following, uses all of the tools available to them to target their audience uniquely as well as attempting to capture new customers. I never saw PINK banner ads or ads integrated in any of my social media feed even though I followed both pages and showed interest multiple times. With Aerie following up with me, I was more likely to recall the brand and, in turn, would be more likely to think about the brand when deciding who to purchase from. 26