Quit partying, start socialising

Sure, all our major fashion retailers like Edgars, Truworths, Foschini and Woolworths have official websites with plenty of beautifully presented information on their new ranges, job opportunities and style tips.

And some even offer online shopping, although that hasn't really taken off here yet.

But when it comes to talking and listening to their valued customers, all still rely on that seriously old fashioned “contact us” button in a corner somewhere. It's a bit like not knowing that shoulder pads are making a serious comeback.

But at least one of the big chains is on trend, and that's Mr Price. Not only does their trend forecaster, Amber Jones, pen a fabulous blog, with a prominent link on their main website, there's also a Facebook group and Twitter link.

If you look carefully, the Edgars Club also has a Facebook group, but you need to be serious about finding it in the depths of their main website. Zoom shoes also has a Facebook site, so there is hope yet, but it baffles me why so many others are missing out on this unbelievable marketing opportunity.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, you'll know that there isn't a young person in the world who isn't addicted to social networking of some kind.

Facebook, Twitter, MXIT — you name it, that's the way almost anyone born after 1970 keeps in touch with the world.

And the older generations are catching up fast: I'm a child of '67 but I check my e-mail and Twitter feed long before I've read a newspaper in the morning.

The secret that international brands like Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton have discovered is that an opportunity to strike up a conversation with your customer is marketing gold. This is where you not only listen to what they want, you also tell them what's happening in your business — long before those glossy magazine adverts appear.

There's a great big marketing re-think going on. This year, at the northern hemisphere spring/summer 2010 collections, Louis Vuitton broadcast their show live on their website, while Dolce & Gabbana put fashion bloggers like Scott Schuman and Grace Dore in their front row.

The past few months have seen a total acknowledgement that the social media side of the Internet is the most influential area of communication, and a fashion brand ignores it at their peril.

You're going to be spoken about anyway — you might as well be part of the conversation.

As Dana Gars commented on Forbes.com last week, Facebook and Twitter are cluttered with brand sites that weren't created and aren't maintained by the brands themselves. What happens when the brands don't initiate the conversation?

She cites the examples of @123dolcegabbana on Twitter and the Emporio Armani fan page on Facebook. Both have people writing about what they've bought and what they think of the brands — but there's no official voice at all.

Scott Galloway, of NYU's Stern Business School and founder of LuxuryLab, a think tank with a focus on luxury and new media, told thebusinessoffashion.com that 2009 was a tipping point in the importance of a digital presence for the luxury industry.

For while it was a year that the industry faced double-digit revenue declines, traffic to luxury brand websites increased by an average of 61%.

In years gone by, businesses would have spent many thousands of rands on market research. Now that research is being handed to you on a silver platter, for free.

Grab it.

Source: The Times

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