Lowe’s, Improving Home Improvement and Social Media

Lowe’s, the home improvement retailer, has been gaining a lot of attention for its effective use of social media.  With impressive pages on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and now Vine, their competitors are having a hard time keeping up.

Lowes’ key factor to success is that they have moved away from a product-promotion strategy on social media.  The retailer uses social media as a medium to help and inspire customers in a way that will also encourage them to buy Lowe’s products.   For example, Lowe’s uses its Pinterest boards to help inspire DIYers.  Instead of simply pinning its products, many of the brand’s pins are of ideas.  They pin design or project ideas that may have a Lowe’s product in the picture, or that can be made with the help of a Lowe’s product.  This picture of a kitchen was pinned to the retailer’s A Kitchen To Dine For board.  This kitchen is obviously not for sale by Lowe’s.  It was actually published in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, however, Lowe’s uses this image to attract customers to their products by tagging the photo: “Love blue? Browse these examples of beautiful blue kitchens to get some creative ideas for incorporating this usually calming, but sometimes invigorating, color into your kitchen.”

The benefit to posts like this one is that products are not being blatantly advertised to customers.  When users go on Pinterest they are often seeking inspiration and ideas, not advertisements.  The inspiring framework of the brand’s pins appeal to customers in a way that lets the customer choose the products advertised to him or her.  It gives the entire process a more natural feel, and helps personalize the message behind the pin.

Lowe’s is also doing a great job of integrating its customers in the action.  In addition to posting their own content, Lowe’s often re-pins the content of some of its followers.  This helps show followers that the brand is just as interested in what they have to say as they are in selling their products.

In addition to Pinterest, Lowe’s has been doing great things on Twitter and Vine as well.  Last Spring, Lowe’s launched its Fix In Six video campaign.  The campaign was built around Vine, the online site that allows users to create and share 6 second long videos.  The Fix In Six campaign featured vines with clever tips and tricks for at home projects.  The brand extended the campaign to twitter as well.  Lowe’s allowed customers to tweet their questions to the brand using the hashtag #lowesfixinsix, to get a video response answering their question.  Lowe’s also initiated customer interaction with event specific hashtags like, #timetospring, which was created as a source for followers to ask the company questions about getting their yard ready for spring.

Lowe’s is also keeping customers inspired and involved with their mobile app, Creative Ideas, and with MyLowes, an online feature that allows customers to keep track of their projects and purchases, as well as receive tips and reminders for upcoming projects and seasons.

They key to Lowes’ success with social media is that their focus isn’t just on selling products, but on engaging its customers.  Lowe’s provides manny channels for customers to seek help and inspiration for their projects so that they want to buy the necessary tools and equipment from Lowe’s.  The brand has found the right balance between self-promotion, and customer initiated promotion and it has definitely paid off.

Sephora Works it on Pinterest

When it comes to using social media as a marketing tool, Sephora knows what they’re doing.  The beauty retailer knows what it takes to reach their customers.  Not only has the brand created a large online presence for themselves, and drastically increased sales, they have even launched their own online community, BeautyTalk.

The key to Sephora’s success is knowing which social media platforms to use, and how to use them.  Of course, the brand has a Facebook page, but unlike many other retailers who attempt to promote their brand and products on Facebook, Sephora has designated Facebook as a customer service tool. Julie Bornstein, Sephora’s CMO said, “Facebook continues to be just a great customer interaction tool that gives us the real time ability to dialog with our customers; it’s a big customer-service venue for us.”

The retailer further realizes that the social media outlet that best suits their customers is Pinterest.  A 2013 study by Modea found that the majority of Pinterest users are women, many of which are between the ages of 25 and 44, the same demographic group that shops at Sephora.

Found in a 2013 Study by Modea

Pinterest is interactive in nature.  Unlike sites like Facebook or Twitter that are centered around posting thoughts and ideas and allowing others to comment on or like those posts, Pinterest is centered around sharing content.  A member is able to view the pins of everyone they follow (and people they do not follow) and either like them, or pin them to their own boards for their followers to see.  In this sense, Sephora is able to share their products with customers simply by posting them.  The customers take it from there.  As an added bonus to Pinterest’s interactive nature, it also encourages shopping more than most social networking sites.   A shopping survey by Bizarre Insights found that:

” Pinterest is more often used as a destination for shopping inspiration, tracking, and product discovery. Forty-three percent of the respondents use Pinterest, and 24% use Facebook, to associate with retailers or brands.”

In addition, in 2013 it was reported that Sephora’s Pinterest followers spent 15 times more on Sephora products than their Facebook followers.  The fact of the matter is that people don’t go on Facebook to shop or for shopping ideas, but this is one of the main reasons people go on Pinterest.  Julie Borstein commented:

“The reality is that when you’re in the Pinterest mindset, you’re actually interested in acquiring items, which is not what people go to Facebook for.”  

In order to further increase their success on Pinterest, Sephora has implemented several strategies encouraging customers to re-pin Sephora products.  For example, Sephora created It Lists, which are created by actual Sephora employees.  They include favorite products, tips, and beauty tricks laid out by staff members for Pinterest followers.  These suggestions by professionals help followers know what the newest products are, and also how to use them, making people more inclined to make purchases.

One of Sephora’s It Lists

Another way Sephora is encouraging customers to use Pinterest as a shopping tool is through email.  In 2012 Sephora started sending “Pinnable” e-mails promoting new products that allow users to pin products to their boards directly from the e-mail.

The beauty of pinning is that it allows Sephora’s staff to see which products get the most attention.  The products that are liked and re-pinned by a lot of people are the products that they can expect to do well in stores.

In addition to Pinterest, Sephora also developed an app in 2012 that now accounts for a third of all traffic to Sephora.com.  They also created the online community BeautyTalk which allows customers to talk which each other and with experts about products and services or any questions they may have.  BeautyTalk is also full of great tips and how-to videos for using products.  Most importantly, BeautyTalk is linked to Sephora’s website, so any product a customer may find appealing is available to them, at only a click away.

With their large online presence and success it is clear that Sephora really knows what they’re doing when it comes to social media.  The lesson that other retailers can learn from Sephora is to plan well; to know not only what social media sites to use, but also how to use them.  Different sites are geared toward different audiences, and have different environments.  The sites that should be used to interact with customers are not always the same sites that should be used to promote products.  Sephora has definitely figured this out.

JC Penney Uses Social Media to Win Customers Back

Under former CEO Ron Johnson, JC Penney experienced some major brand damage and plummeting sales in 2012 after the company’s big redesign.  As part of the redesign, the retailer ended the use of sales and coupons, and cut some of JC Penney’s most popular brands, which did not sit well with customers.  In 2013, JC Penney turned to social media to get customers back and to improve their brand image.

JC Penney launched its social media campaign, JCP Listens, to ensure that they would not mess up again like they did in 2012.

The JCP Listens campaign started with a commercial aired on both television and the internet recognizing their mistakes and asking customers to come back to JC Penney.  The commercial ends, “Come back to JC Penney.  We heard you, now we’d love to see you.”

Following the commercial, JC Penney took to other forms of social media to encourage customers to become a part of JCP Listens.  In hopes of a fresh start, the company abandoned its Facebook page for a brand new one, leaving behind many friends and fans of the page, but also all the negative comments that flooded the profile.

In his article, The Definitive of Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media Marketing, Mike Thompson says, “Do: Listen to-and engage with your audience”.  That’s exactly what JC Penney’s new campaign is all about.

With their new Facebook page, JC Penney initiated a campaign encouraging consumers to leave comments on the page sharing their own opinions and ideas about the company.  They did the same on Twitter, encouraging followers to tweet their opinions using the hashtag #JCPListens. JC Penney also used Facebook to ask their customers what they could be doing better.  Surveys and polls went out on Facebook asking customers what their favorite JCP brands were.  Many of the favorites were brands that were cut by CEO Johnson in 2012 under the redesign, including the customer favorite St. John’s Bay.

User comments, and poll results showed that the changes made in 2012 were not supported by customers.  The retailer responded by announcing that they would be bringing the St. John’s Bay brand back to stores, which helped the trust and approval of their customers.

In addition to bringing back popular brands, JCP has introduced new brands like Joe Fresh, and brought back coupons and sales promotions in hopes to attract lost customers back to the retailer.

JC Penney’s apologetic, and interactive social media strategy gained the company a lot of attention.  Over the last year they have maintained their marketing strategy, encouraging customers to share their thoughts and ideas with JC Penney on both Facebook and Twitter.  As far as statistics show, JC Penney really has been listening.