If you’re like most people I
know, you would consider clothes shopping to be a mostly social
experience. For me, getting advice,
healthy encouragement to try something new and accountability for my pocketbook
from trusted friends is an integral part of my semi-annual wardrobe
upgrade. So when retailer J Crew sent me
a direct mail invitation to engage their in-house shopping expert, “Erica”, I
decided to check her out.
My only options for contacting
“Erica” were a toll-free phone number and e-mail address. Before doing either, I wanted to get a better
sense for Erica’s style and experience.
So of course, I immediately fired up my web browser to see what else I
could learn.
My first stop was the J Crew
Website. Immediately I was introduced to
“Jenna” and “Jack” on the Home Page, but Erica was no where to be found. I scrolled down below the fold to the page
footer, located the “Personal Shopper” link.
But when I clicked, instead of meeting a personal shopping expert, I got
– a form.
Next, I went searching for
Erica on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Jenna (the creative director) and Jack (the style expert) showed up
again on Facebook, Jack had his own YouTube video and none of the three appeared
to be tweeting about their style knowledge or offering assistance to shoppers
in search of Fall clothing staples.
Sorry, J Crew…but your
personal shopper is starting to feel very “unpersonal”.
In about five minutes, I was
able to search the social web and form an opinion about “Erica” and in this
case, being socially MIA convinced me that she was likely a telesales operator
who flipped through the catalog or made appointments with locally based
personal shoppers in retail stores. Umm,
gee – I can do that myself.
Brands, especially retailers
need to understand this key point: not
having an active social profile can be a huge deterrent in growing your
relationship with your customers. Now, just imagine for a moment if J Crew and Erica had done the following:
Establish her point of view
as a personal shopper/styling expert:
- Blog/BlogTalk Radio – Erica
would feature weekly posts/podcasts on what’s in/out and how to get the most
out of your JCrew purchases with other items in your closet
- Facebook Discussion Forums –
Erica answering questions from the community about specific clothing items
Showcase how she’s helped
other customers who might share similar style / shopping needs and challenges:
- Facebook and Flickr Photo
Albums – Erica posting pictures of outfits she’s helped customers put together,
plus ones of the actual customers she has helped
- YouTube Channel – Erica
posting reels highlighting best of personal shopping tips for each season
Provide a toolkit that
shoppers can take on the go and get on-demand advice:
- iPhone app with different
color palette matching, a set of Erica’s style rules and ability to text
questions and send snaps of items while shopping
Of course, if Erica herself was
actually on Facebook or Twitter and I saw that she had helped people in my
network – that alone would have prompted me to trust her enough to seek her
out.
Our world continues to move
forward into a more open, real-time and connected social realm – brands need to
think beyond the traditional marketing communication piece and get on board or
get left behind.
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