Consumer Generated Marketing| #TOPSHOPSTYLE

 There is no denying that Topshop is one of the most popular shopping destinations on the high street for young people, and Topshop use this popularity and avid fan base to their marketing advantage. With the nation becoming ever more fashion conscious, and craving the status of a 'fashionista', Topshop encourage their cusomers to create images of their looks, and share them across their social media plaforms, with the chance of being featured on the highly exclusive Topshop social media.

  

In relation to consumer generated marketing, Topshop encourage customers to share their Topshop purchases and outfits across their personal social media platforms, "Show us what you're loving and how you're wearing it on Twitter and Instagram #TOPSHOPSTYLE" is the message which appears on their site homepage. #TOPSHOPSTYLE pictures appear at bottom of topshop site which users can browse through, allowing you to upload your own pictures and to view the gallery. By implementing this consumer generated media into their own website, this allows customers to view the gallery and browse through pages and pages of other customers wearing Topshop products, which may inspire them to re-create the look, or buy certain pieces. Similarly to ASOS, Topshop use this to their advantage by adding the 'shop this look' feature which allows you to buy the products featured in the image.

 The Topshop Instagram page has a following of 3.5m, this creates a motivational aspect to Topshops use of of consumer generated media, as customers aspire to have their look shared on the Topshop Instagram, as this would be a reflection of status and 'style'.  Topshop also use inspirational bloggers to showcase their products and use Instagram hash tags to create awareness of their products, in addition to this, they also include the product codes below the image to induce sales.

 

TopshopTumblr is solely dedicated to showcasing customers wearing their products. The Topshop Tumblr page allows you to submit your outfit to the site, and if they like it they will re- post their favourites. The page is seen as exclusive, as there are a number of guidelines and tips that should be adhered too in order to get your picture published, which ensures all of the images posted are to a proffesional standard, thus showing Topshop products as something luxurious. The page states "Most excitingly, you can submit pics of yourself styled up in your favorite Topshop pieces. We’ll be tumbling the looks that we love the most, so be sure to take a peek at our photo guide before you start snapping. If you see yourself up there, tell all your friends - it means we love your style!" Ultimately, this is what any fashion conscious woman aspires to be, praised and noticed by one of the most popular fashion stores on the high street, and for others to see them as 'fashionable'.

 

This is something that Motel Rocks also offer their customers. In order to get more exposure of the brand, they encourage customers to take a picture of how they have styled their Motel products and then if chosen, they appear on the Motel Rocks website beneath images of the product. This is entitled "Motel girls rocking it #MotelRocks".

The customer ladder of loyalty is something which reflects the reasoning behind the creation of customer generated marketing, it shows the development of customer relationships in relation to 'moving them up the ladder of loyalty' from initially attracting the customer to eventually creating customer loyalty. These customers would be categorised as advocates and supporters of the brand as they are proud to wear the Topshop brand, they want to showcase their outfits to their friends and family and create exposure of what Topshop clothes they are buying and wearing, this will eventually encourage others to shop at Topshop as well.

 

(Payne, 1994)

  Consumer generated marketing is a highly valuable asset to any company, whether is is posting a review of a hotel on Trip Advisor, reviewing a product on Ebay, or uploading an image of your new favourite Topshop dress, it is highly valuable to a company when seeking strong customer relationships and developing awareness of their products or services. Ultimately, the customers who decide to create consumer generated marketing are those described as supporters, partners and advocates of the brand. Topshop can then use this media to create huge awareness of their products, not only through their own media, but for example when a customer uses the #TOPSHOPSTYLE hashtag, all of their followers see it, and anyone who browses through the hundreds of images with the hashtag shared. This can then be used as an effective sales increasing technique.

Consumer generated marketing| ASOS Fashion finder

 

                         

 *Disclaimer: This post is part of  my University marketing communications assignment. 

Although I have already discussed the effect of consumer generated marketing within the fashion and beauty industry, I have decided to also focus on ASOS, who dedicate a whole section of their site to customers sharing their outfits and personal style!

 

ASOS aim to create an online community of customers, bloggers and other influencers to develop an online portfolio of product reviews; encouraging customers to: "connect with new friends, build your fashion following". This type of marketing is effective as it goes beyond showing visitors to the site few images of stick-thin models wearing ASOS clothes, instead the outfits are seen in real life, and shows the products used in multiple different outfits by customers with very different fashion styles. Entitled; "create, share and shop" this provides ASOS with creative user generated content, directly uploaded to their site, providing potential customers with the option to interact with other customers and they are able to see how others have styled a product, displaying the potential for an item.

 

ASOS fashion finder works by encouraging customers to become a member and upload images of their outfits, in which they create a mini portfolio of all of the ASOS clothes they wear. To encourage customers to take part and contribute, they also hold competitions. Some of the looks featured allow the audience to 'shop the look'- something which others in the industry could benefit from if they encouraged consumer generated marketing better, as this feature goes beyond creating awareness of products and showing the items potential; in fact it encourages others in the community to make a purchase and invest in the whole outfit.

 

This is an example of consumer generated marketing being beneficial for both parties. ASOS has valuable marketing content created for them, whilst the users can regularly upload outfits to their online 'look book', motivating them with the hope of appearing in the sites 'Top picks' or 'Outfit of the week' section. This allows them to feel like a fashion influencer and trend setter for ASOS products as more people follow and connect with their fashion finder profile.

 

 The fashion finder site is very easy to use and despite containing such a huge catalogue of users and their looks, it is categorised by; this week/this month, most popular, by occasion, celebrity style and by individual trend using tags including "90's, floral, rich colour". This makes it easy for users to browse through the collection of looks which could help to influence their purchase.

 

Furthermore, to get even more coverage, ASOS allows you to share the look you have uploaded across many social media platforms such as; Twitter, Google +, Pinterest and Facebook to create even more awareness of ASOS products and drive traffic to the fashion finder site.

 

For users who upload pictures of themselves wearing ASOS products regularly, this does not only create customer loyalty, but it also develops relationships  between the member with other members on the site and with customers who may visit the site often to keep up with a certain members profile, you can do this by searching by name.  

 

It is important for brands to recognise the increasing number of messages that are now created and shared online by the average individual. Not only are they used to communicate with companies, but they are also shared with peers, friends, family and others in their social network communities. Those who contribute to the fashion finder site are not just the one off customer, they are individuals who have a passionate interest in ASOS products, who are brand loyal and want to support the brand.

 

 Similarly, they include bloggers, who enjoy creating content based on their personal interests, and have then used this to develop 'opinion leader status'. This has been described by Muniz and Schau (2007) as 'vigilante marketing', which involves the creation of self-generated content to promote brands with which they have a strong affiliation.

 

ASOS has benefited massively from inviting and enticing customers to create user generated content on their fashion finder site. Not only will they experience increased awareness and credibility of their products, and possibly an increase in sales, but also increased brand loyalty and stronger customer relationships; a competitive advantage for any company operating in the fashion industry.

Consumer Generated Marketing| Models Own & Instagram

*Disclaimer: This post is part of  my University marketing communications assignment.

Having launched in 2010, Instagram is one of the most popular social networking sites and is used by around 300 million active users to date, making it a fantastic outlet to encourage customers to create and share consumer generated marketing content.   

Although the functions of Instagram are limited compared to other social media networks such as Facebook or Twitter, restricting the amount of interactivity that can be created, it is important to remember that "a picture is worth a thousand words". Instagram have recently introduced a lot more effects that can be used to edit photos that users upload,  thus providing the potential to display a high quality image of a product, increasing its attractiveness to potential customers.

In particular, nail polish brand; Models Own, use their Instagram account to encourage customers to share images of their nail art designs, which they have created by using Models Own nail polish and nail art products. The best designs are then chosen to be re- posted on the Models Own Instagram account to a massive 52K followers, allowing them to showcase the potential of their products. This is something that Models Own could not do themselves, and is particularly important in showcasing their products, as all the brand can show you is a pot full of colourful liquid, whereas customers can show other potential customers what they could do with the product, inspiring others to buy the product the replicate the design themselves. Thus, marketing generated by their customers help to effectively market their products. In return for this, customers try to create the best designs so that they are in with a chance of being featured on the  Models Own page, which increases the amount of likes and followers they may receive, which is perceived as an indication of popularity and credibility on the site.

Not only do those chosen to be re- posted effectively show the product in a more effective way than just a picture of a nail polish bottle, but with a large amount of customers using the Models Own hashtag, and tagging the brand in each post they create, this creates high exposure to for the brand, as not only do all of their followers see this, but also anyone who views their profile or searches for the hash tag. This allows the audience to browse through a catalogue of amazing and beautiful nail art designs. From the image above a huge 103,491 posts were created using the models own hash tag, not to mention the other posts which have also been created using a similar hash tag.

According to Chris Fill (2013), the creation of consumer generated content requires three core conditions to be met. Firstly the content must be published on a social networking site or publically accessible website, in this example; the platform is Instagram. Then,  the material must display creative effort, for Models Own, this is the creation of nail art designs. Finally it has to be created outside of professional routines. In this case, the creators of the content are brand supporters and advocators of the Models Own brand, and those who have a passionate interest in nail art and nail polish products.

It is important to reflect upon the fact that consumers are becoming increasingly important in creating and generating more engaging brand communications, this is a vital factor for any company to ensure their products are promoted more effectively.

 

Consumer Generated Marketing| Bloggers & Product Reviews....Zoella

 Source: YouTube

 

*Disclaimer: This post is part of  my University marketing communications assignment.

 

According to Stoeckl et al (2007); Consumer generated marketing, or 'CGM' is where "customers freely choose  to create and share information of value", it also refers to when customers create brand focussed messages with the intention of influencing others.

The growth of consumer generated marketing is inevitably due to the rise of social networks, and the increased use of social media. These networks provide the perfect platform for customers to engage with brands and to express their views and feelings about a product, or a company online, and then share them with others in their online communities. Although there can be some disadvantage to companies from the creation of  consumer generated marketing, for example once a customer has expressed a negative view online, this cannot be removed and is beyond the control of the company. If it went viral, this could potentially significantly damage their reputation. Despite this, CGM provides massive opportunities for brands to interact with their customers and provoke positive conversation, brands can utilise this advantage by inviting customers to create material and then respond to what they say. Not only does this lead to brand loyalty and stronger customer relationships, but it develops the frequency of product opinions online.

 

Other customers may then respond to these opinions by using them to consider where to shop and which products to buy, for example this may affect the decision making process; it will influence the evaluation of alternatives and the information search stages. This is a form of 'word of mouth communication' which involves consumer-to-consumer conversations about products, services and brand-related messages. It is also when customers and potential customers exchange information without influence or being prompted by the brand, making it the most trusted form of marketing communications.

CGM has massive effect if created by an opinion leader or a person with high influential impact, an example of this is product reviews, and the use of bloggers. Bloggers have become an increasingly important and influential channel of communications; 'Zoella' (Zoe Sugg) for example is a hugely popular beauty and fashion blogger/ vlogger with over 6 million followers across social media platforms such as blogger, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, this is why companies target bloggers such as Zoella to share reviews of their products to all of their loyal followers, which creates huge exposure for their products.

 

Blog- http://www.zoella.co.uk/ - 246,691 (followers)

Instagram- http://instagram.com/zozeebo- 3.6m

Twitter- https://twitter.com/zozeebo- 2.65m

YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390/featured- 6,739,879

Here is an example of one of her product reviews: "Beauty| Autumn colours",  she also created  a YouTube video to compliment this post in which she created a makeup tutorial on how to apply one of  the lipsticks featured in the post, and with what other products in could be combined. This review would be valuable to the brand as not only was a large amount of exposure created for the product, but it created awareness in a way the company cannot; i.e the brand may show pictures of the product on their website, but Zoella demonstrated how to use it, what effect it would have, and what other products you could use it with.

 

I myself have reviewed products for companies and have also written sponsored posts to share with my followers. For example; the last product sent to me was a hair piece,  for me to review and share with my followers.

 

 

Overall consumer generated marketing is a beneficial process for both brands and bloggers, whereas bloggers reap the benefits of possibly receiving a free product in exchange for a review, or even just enjoying featuring products on their blog voluntarily, the brand will find this exposure invaluable. Bloggers have such a high influence and are increasingly becoming opinion leaders, becoming a valuable asset to any brands communications strategy.