GUESSSocial

Social & Digital Media Strategies

141FWS4592 Amber Weiss Digital Strategies for Fashion Marketing FMO013 1st November 2015

Contents

About GUESS.......................................................................................4 Importance of Media Strategies............................6 Digital Media......................................................................................8 Main Domain.....................................................................................8 GUESS Magazine..........................................................................9 App....................................................................................................................9

Social Platforms...............................................................................10 Facebook................................................................................................10 Twitter..............................................................................................................12 Instagram................................................................................................14 Pinterest......................................................................................................16 Snapchat..................................................................................................16

Paid, Owned, & Earned.........................................................17 Paid...................................................................................................................17 Owned........................................................................................................18 Earned.........................................................................................................19

Conclusion............................................................................................20 References............................................................................................21

About GUESS... Over 30 years ago, the Marciarno brothers brought the ‘American Dream’ to life. Combining American and European influences, the newly established family business essentially redefined denim. One of their initial designs was a stonewashed, slim fit jean, first sold at Bloomingdales. Shortly after 2 hours of being put on retail shelves, the design had sold out. (GUESS, 2015) This marked the beginning of, what are now a public company, GUESS and its long success story. Today the globally recognised business has become the ultimate symbol for living a sexy, young, and adventurous lifestyle. GUESS has developed itself through its iconic and timeless ad campaigns whilst turning ‘unknown faces into famous models’. Through its success, GUESS has leveraged its name into a wider variety of markets, these include; GUESS, GUESS?, GUESS U.S.A, G by GUESS, GUESS Kids, YES, baby GUESS, Gc, Marciano, and GUESS by Marciano. Therefore, the brand has a huge range of market segments to target. (Bloomberg, 2015) Ultimately, GUESS aims at a style-conscious consumer between the ages of 20-35. However, through the brands specialty product lines, for example GUESS kids, the brand appeals outside this group to either a younger or older age bracket, or consumers that don’t have a flexible income.

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Having such a common market segment, GUESS has many competitors within the industry. Levi Jeans have played a big role within the denim industry since 1853, and have certainly maintained a high level of quality, comfort and style. (Hoovers Inc, 2015) Levi’s aims at targeting 15-30 year-olds who ideally are students or young professionals. Similarly, the world-renowned retail brand Calvin Klein plays as a major competitor for GUESS Inc. Urban upper class youth or business executives are generally CK’s market segment. Lastly Bebe is GUESS’ third biggest retail competitor. They target hip, ‘body conscious’, 21-34 year-olds. (Hoovers Inc, 2015) Despite this, GUESS has remained as a well-established lifestyle brand and differentiates itself from other retailers by its classic American/European influence.

(source: IQ Option)

(Source: Famouslogos.net

(Source: Altair Eyewear.com)

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Importance of Media Strategies ... As the world has continuously advanced in technology and social/digital platforms, so has GUESS and its strategies involved with marketing. The Company has always aligned its marketing strategies with better ways to engage consumers so that they feel part of, and closer to, the brand. (GUESS, 2015) Like most other retailers, social networking has provided an opportunity to form relationships with millions of their consumers all around the world, ultimately speaking to them ‘individually’. Therefore, it is vital for GUESS to get their social media strategies right. Being aware that because they are receiving active followers through ‘liking’ or ‘retweeting’ posts, does not essentially mean that consumers are contributing to the brands profit growth. Overall, the end goal is to be a successful business that maintains a profit. (Bruno Treuber, 2012) A study by JWT Intelligence revealed that 40% of men and a third of women are more likely to purchase a product when a friend has recommended it on a social network. With statistics like this, it has become more and more evident how important it is for a lifestyle brand to be connected to its consumers, and to keep up to date with social and digital media platforms.

(Source: Musewords)

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Amber Tarshis, senior vice president of marketing at GUESS, explains how the company is continuously expanding its fan base on social media platforms. “We need to be where our customers are, we know that our young, extroverted customer is an early adopter of new media. For this reason, we’re going to continue to take risks and try new digital platforms as they become available. The digital landscape is changing every day, so it’s impossible to imagine what we’ll be using in six months, let a lone a year. It’s all about bringing the brand to our fans and customers wherever they want to find it.” (May 1, 2012 issue, WWD) GUESS is active on many social media platforms these include; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google+, YouTube, Snapchat and Foursquare. The American lifestyle brand not only makes use of social resources. Being technologically savvy, GUESS is also aware of other digital forms. Sources such as; Digital Surgeons, Bitly, Postano, Android/ IOS Apps, and online Magazines help to maintain brand image as well as making it easier for consumers to shop and connect with GUESS anywhere they are. Overall, the company has an annual net worth of $2,417 000.673. (GUESS, investors 2015) Within the last financial quarter, GUESS has received up to 20% growth in revenue sales due to e-commerce activities. (Stuart Lauchlan, 2015) This means that brand essentially gained a total of $483, 400.134 just from online growth. The brand evidently keeps digital media as a large strategic priority and is working.

(Source: elcomcms.com)

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Digital Media... Main Domain – www.guess.com Like most retail brands, their main digital source is their website. For GUESS, www. guess.com is where consumers have access to everything all in the one place. Consumers can shop all of GUESS’ specialised brands on the one site. Customers also have access to the latest news about the Company, campaigns that are happening at that current time, as well as links to all of their social media points. (GUESS, investors 2015) At the bottom of the page, shoppers have the option to ‘view Instagram Gallery’ that contains pictures from their trending hashtag which is #LoveGuess. ‘The World of GUESS’ is the brands version of a blog also available from the domain website. This is where consumers can connect with the brand more than ever as they can get to know the label on a deeper level. Things that the blog includes are; current or previous campaign advertorials or pictures, GUESS Magazine online, History or About GUESS, and GUESS Girl History. According to Buzzsumo, the most viewed and shared pieces of content on the site are Women’s Push Up Jeans with a total of 11,378 shares. Following in second place at 9,280 shares is the Gumball 3000 campaign. (Stuart Lauchlan, 2015) Facebook is the main platform where www.guess.com content is being shared.

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GUESS Magazine Years ago GUESS invested in owning a magazine, known as ‘GUESS Magazine’. However, the production of the publication stopped 8 years ago. Recently the brand saw the potential opportunities this could give and as a result have reincarnated it. Today, the magazine can be accessed online for free through ‘The World of Guess’ (or in GUESS outlets). The content within the magazine contains exclusive editorials, essays, and articles featuring the brands nearest and dearest. As the magazine is only available either through their website or in-stores consumers have to physically go to the brand in order to obtain a copy. This allows consumers to be even closer to the lifestyle brand compared to what is publically displayed on their social media platforms. (Connie Wang, 2013)

GUESS App Available on Apple IOS and Android devices, the highly interactive GUESS app has brought the convenience of shopping to their customers. It contains ‘better customer service, more information and fashion inspiration, and a seamless Omni-channel shopping experience that blurs the line between in-store and online shopping’. (Micro Strategy Inc., ‘GUESS rolls out mobile app’, 2015) The app was essentially created to target GUESS list customers (loyalty members). The digital platform balances between social and traditional loyalty benefits as GUESS list members are rewarded when they post GUESS campaigns or promotions, via the app, on their own social media networks, such as; Facebook, Twitter, SMS, or Email. At this point in time, the app is only available within the US. However, reviews on the app suggest that it has not been as successful as it could have been due to the format or technical abilities with signing in to accounts.

(Source: recombu.com)

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Social Platforms... Facebook Recently hitting 6 million-fans on the page, Facebook is practically the backbone of the Business’ social media strategy. Being active on this social source has allowed GUESS to engage with a broad, global audience. Amber Tarshis mentions that GUESS matches the right content for the right digital medium. This is entirely based upon what target segment is most likely to see that content and be engaged with it- typically determined by what people use what social media. (Aberdeen Group, 2015) For example, GUESS primarily uses Facebook as a way of advertising products, promoting special offers or to connect with fans in order to receive live feedback. Facebook is the social platform that is best used for connecting with all market segments that GUESS targets. (Facebook, Guess, 2015) This is mainly due to the fact that both male and females use Facebook more equally, compared to other social platforms such as Pinterest. How often the brand posts on Facebook is generally determined by the Brands event calendar and current campaigns that are running. Within the last month, GUESS has only made 10 posts. This is a small amount compared to 21 posts in May whilst the Gumball 3000 campaign was running. On average, Facebook posts have been made in the morning (US time). According to SumoRank, the day that followers seem to be most engaged is on a Friday and the average time for most engagement is either 9am or 9pm. On average GUESS generally posts between the hours of 7am-11am EST. This corresponds with SumoRank data. (SumoRank, Guess, 2015) People around the world are using social media either before/on the way to work or at night. Therefore when GUESS posts in the morning, it is sent out in the morning for Eastern Standard Time, or at night if the engager lived in Western European Time. Facebook is the main social platform where content is being shared from different media sources, E.g. their website. It is evident that consumers are most engaged with Facebook posts when GUESS is promoting giveaways or special offers, rather than videos and editorial images. This can be backed up by SumoRanks data. It can be said, that followers generally comment and contribute to conversations over queries about the product posted. Consumers don’t seem to post negative comments on their page, or if they did GUESS deletes the post. (Facebook, Guess, 2015) It is evident that the retailer tries to maintain a quick response to questions; however, there are still a lot of comments that go unanswered. Like all of the brands media platforms, links and photos on Facebook are connected to a Bitly link, this way GUESS can follow up and track their social media performance.

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(Source: Facebook, Guess)

(Source: sumorank.com)

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Twitter Besides Facebook, Twitter is GUESS’ second most important social media platform. Currently holding a total of 320,000 followers, new content is being posted more regularly than Facebook. GUESS generally uses Twitter to post video links, these can include; sneak peek previews of campaign advertorials, behind-the-scenes with ‘GUESS Girls’, photos or news within the brands interest, and updating fans on current happenings within the brand. The labels Twitter account is mainly targeted at their more loyal customers. General consumers are most likely not interested in the content shared on the site. (Twitter, @GUESS, 2015) Therefore Twitter receives a higher engagement rate because the people who are following are genuinely interested in the content that is being shared. On October 16, GUESS tweeted a total of 7 times that day with a consistent hashtag of #CakebytheOcean. These all related to the same conversational topic that involved GUESS. On one moment posted on this day, they received a total of 12 retweets and 31 favourites. (Twitter, @GUESS, 2015) This is an above average response compared to regular tweets. It can be said that this was due to the fact that other celebrities had been tagged, an aesthetically pleasing image was added, contained the #CakebytheOcean hashtag which was trending at the time, and social media terminology ‘ICYMI’. (Aberdeen Group, 2015) Similar to Facebook, TweetStat says that Friday is the highest day for engagement on Twitter for GUESS. Again the highest engagement time is in the morning for Australian Eastern Daytime.

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(Source: TweetStat

Example of GUESS welcoming engagement with followers to tag a friend who is like a GUESS Girl to them. This is propably not one GUESS’ best tweets, purely because they are asking for tags.

(Source: Twitter, @guess

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Instagram Like Twitter, GUESS consistently updates its Instagram account with similar content. However, the brand mainly sticks to posting new editorial shots, behindthe-scene 15-second videos or lifestyle pictures with GUESS products. Instagram receives the highest engagement rate out of all of the social media platforms, with a following of 1.1 million people. (Instagram, Guess) GUESS mainly targets those who are looking to be connected with the brand but with the convenience of it being on their mobile. (Instagram, @GUESS, 2015) In comparison to Facebook and Twitter, GUESS updates new content to Instagram everyday, sharing at least one post. One post will generally receive around 10,000 likes, and 40 comments. (Instagram, @GUESS, 2015)) Like most other retailers, the brand has one common hashtag, #LoveGUESS in which they tag each post with. Followers are also encouraged to use the #LoveGUESS to post pictures of them wearing the products. That way, followers can be more engaged and active with the brand. According to Amber Tarshis Instagram “has quickly become a key marketing tool for us and has allowed us to give our fans a behind-the-scenes look at our exclusive events, photo shoots and inspiration, which they love.” (May 1, 2012 issue, WWD) Throughout campaigns, GUESS will often come up with other hashtags related to the event. For example, Gigi Hadid (one of the many well known faces of GUESS) visited Sydney for its latest collection launch, the brand hash tagged each photo with #GigiTakesSydney. (May 1, 2012 issue, WWD) That way when fans were at the launch event they could tag their Instagram photos with GUESS’ trending hashtag. Generally GUESS does not respond back to the comments of consumers. Occasionally, GUESS will regram photos from other celebrities (mainly GUESS Girls) that have tagged the brand in one of their own photos. (Instagram, @ GUESS, 2015)

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Pinterest Pinterest is one of the brands less used social platforms. They will generally only pin photos to their board when they have a new collection out or are running a social event. For example on Valentines day GUESS ran a hashtag that was #PinlovewithGUESS. This involved consumers to pin photos up of their GUESS outfits that they were wearing on Valentines day or received/gave as gifts. (Pinterest, GUESS, 2015) GUESS mainly use Pinterest to draw inspiration to their consumers via their products, for example what product you might wear with what style. GUESS is continuously finding more ways to make Pinterest a bigger and better social platform for the brand. (Pinterest, GUESS, 2015)

Snapchat Throughout the highly anticipated Gumball 3000 event, GUESS was running a campaign where they were following the race. GUESS advertised their new snapchat account ‘guesssnaps’, which enabled friends to follow the event even closer, as more footage was shown. Since the campaign, the Company have not used the snapchat account since.

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Paid, Owned, & Earned... Paid Media GUESS partnered with Postano throughout 2 big calendar events for the brand. Postano is a company that provides ways for attendees to participate and increase the visibility of the event, promote a dedicated hashtag on a social media display, as well as curating the content of every post so that it is displayed on-brand and enriches the experience for the attendees. (Digital Surgeons, 2010) This company was used for the Coachella event and the launch of their #GuessRocks music festival campaign. At these events GUESS showcased dynamic displays that helped to create a good vibe and a buzz that encouraged engagement from attendees at the event as well as followers on their social platforms. This also is an example of how GUESS integrates its online media with offline marketing strategies. Another form of paid media GUESS has implemented is through another third-party partnership, DigitalSurgeons. This company helped to create a series of dynamic interactive e-catalogues for a new line of GUESS Watches. (Digital Surgeons, 2010) The catalogues featured product information as well as social sharing and a store locater of where would sell that product. This form of e-catalogue engaged customers to be digitally interactive with the product in a unique way. (Digital Surgeons, 2010)

E-catalogue by DigitalSurgeons

Postano display board

Results from DigitalSurgeons

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Owned Media GUESS has a number of owned media sources. This is generally most of their digital forms, for example, their domain website, mobile apps, ‘the World of Guess’, and their social media channels.

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Earned The brand receives a large amount of earned media. This is mainly through GUESS Girls and Boys or other major influencers. For example, Gigi Hadid and Danielle Knudson two known celebrity models and GUESS Girls often post editorial photos from GUESS shoots, with themselves on their social platforms. One Instagram photo is then exposed to millions of more people, with GUESS being the main topic. Other sorts of earned media can include the recent conversational event, ‘Cake by the Ocean’ music video. American known band, DNCE recently filmed their latest hit song ‘Cake by the Ocean’. Coincidently, Gigi Hadid was the director for the clip. Since Hadid has been modelling with GUESS since she was just 2 years old, Hadid wanted GUESS to be part of the video. As a result, GUESS sponsored the video with specially designed bikinis for all of the female actresses. In the background of the film, a very obvious poster with GUESS’ iconic logo is displayed several times throughout the film. Through their connections, GUESS has been able to gain free media.

Bikini’s custom designed by GUESS

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Conclusion... In addition to maintaining relationships with existing customers, retailers are increasingly using social and digital media to attract new buyers. More than 55% of retailers have successfully expanded their customer base through the use of social platforms. (Aberdeen Group, 2015) Therefore, retailers have to consistently implement new social strategies to gain a better understanding of their audience, form ‘branded communities’, and essentially gain revenue. A clear example of a retailer who relies on digital and social media platforms is GUESS. Throughout GUESS’ success story, the global retailer has significantly boosted its social awareness significantly within just a few years. The apparel brand makes use of all social forms, for example; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr and Pinterest. GUESS understands the importance in creating a social presence in order to keep up with their extroverted and young consumers.

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References... http://diginomica.com/2015/08/28/af-and-guess-retailers-in-search-of-digitaldeliverance/#.VjBYraTNBDE (Diginomica, ‘A&F with GUESS?’, Stuart Lauchlan, 2015) http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/jul/25/ social-retailing (The Guardian, Media and Tech Network, Bruno Treuber, 2012) https://www.microstrategy.com/us/press-releases/guess-rolls-out-mobile-app-forcustomers-powered-by-microstrategy (Micro Strategy Inc., ‘GUESS rolls out mobile app’, 2015) http://www.refinery29.com/2013/01/42459/guess-magazine (Refinery29, Connie Wang, 2013, ‘GUESS Launches A Glossy Featuring Sun, Surf, & Jeans (Obviously) http://www.hoovers.com/company-information/cs/competition.BEBE_STORES_ INC.8331a30dc74b5478.html (Hoovers Inc, 2015, Company Profile) http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot_article. asp?ticker=GES (Bloomberg, ‘Guess Inc. Company Description’, 2015) http://www.tweetstats.com/graphs/guess (Tweetstats.com, ‘GUESS’, 2015) http://sumorank.com/fb-page/Guess (sumorank.com, ‘guess’, 2015) http://shop.guess.net.au/ (GUESS, 2015) http://www.digitalsurgeons.com/work/guess/ (Digital Surgeons, 2010) https://app.buzzsumo.com/research/analyze/content-analysis?num_ days=365&q=www.guess.com (Buzzsumo, Guess, 2015) (GUESS, facebook, 2015) https://www.facebook.com/GUESSAUS/?brand_redir=44409632681 https://twitter.com/guess @guess, Twitter, 2015) https://www.pinterest.com/ra8175/guess/ (Pinterest, #Pinlovewithguesswatches)

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