Primark keeps up the social media marketing momentum

Primark is gearing up for the holidays with all kinds of special merchandise and seasonal items. Its value fashion positioning is a distinct competitive advantage, offering both style and affordability. No wonder Primark's sales are up. And costs stay low because Primark doesn't splash out on flashy TV adverts. Instead, it concentrates on social media marketing, inexpensive and interactive.

A quick look at its social media accounts shows fashions for men, women, children, and home...giving brand fans more reasons to shop at their local Primark store more often.

Above, Primark's Twitter post about its Hogwarts merchandise for home and gifts. With 217k Twitter followers, Primark posts a constant stream of photos and promos to keep consumers excited about what's next.

Primark has an amazing 5.2m Facebook followers. In addition to merchandise promos, the company posts job openings to attract brand fans as employees. Who better to talk with shoppers than brand fans?

Fashion is a natural for Primark's Pinterest boards, which have 86k followers--many repinning Primark fashions for later review or to get hints for how to wear the latest accessories. Similarly, 5.2m people follow Primark's Instagram account. That's a big audience, and because they choose to follow Primark, it's clear that they're interested in the company, its products and its latest promotions.

And of course the company's Primania section of its website continues to attract user-contributed photos of Primark fashions in action, more than 15k photos in all. As 2017 winds down, Primark is well positioned for social media marketing momentum into the new year.

PS: This post, my 802nd post, updates the opening example in Essential Guide to Marketing Planning 4th edn. More posts are on the way!

Lots of interest in marketing with Pinterest

Lots of brands are using Pinterest as part of broader-based social media marketing campaigns designed to reinforce brand image, build buzz for new products, expand their audiences and stimulate purchasing.

Pinterest is doing its part to support brand marketing through shopping buttons and boards, Promoted Pins and other marketing techniques that engage consumers. In fact, more than 1,000 brands signed up for Pinterest UK's Promoted Pins just weeks after this promotional opportunity was introduced.

So who's marketing with Pinterest? Here are just 3 of the many brands:

• Burberry. One of the most social-media-savvy brands on the planet, Burberry has a new Cat Lashes mascara Pinterest campaign. Burberry's Pinterest page has nearly 180k followers.
• Made.com. Based in London, Made-dot-com has Pinterest boards with more than 24k followers. It uses Promoted Pins, knowing that consumers who pin furniture and other products are often ready to actually make a purchase.
• L'Oreal. The global beauty products marketer studied one of its Pinterest video campaigns and found buying intentions increased by 31%.

Online marketers and ad blockers

Online advertisers and content marketers are unhappy with ad blocking software that so many consumers have installed to filter out, well, ads. Annoyed by non-targeted or simply irrelevant ads, or impatient to see content they are waiting to see, 39% of UK consumers in a recent study were found to be using ad blockers to keep ads out of sight. When Apple recently released an updated iPhone operating system, ad blocker apps skyrocketed to the top of the App store ranking. 

But this means web sites don't have as many visitors who count as 'viewers' or 'exposures' to adverts. As a result, some are fighting back by blocking consumers who use ad blockers. At the very least, a number of sites are explaining why consumers shouldn't use ad blockers--namely, because ad revenue helps support quality content, and blocking those ads means revenue is lost to the sites that need it. With lower revenue, sites may have to reduce the quality content they post or find other revenue sources (such as subscriptions).

Other avenues exist for marketers to reach out to consumers in creative ways, with non-ad messages that build brands and reinforce image. Instagram is increasingly used by Nike and other brands, and Pinterest recently added a 'buy' button to facilitate shipping in the US. 

Watch for more innovations as ad blockers continue to be popular and marketers test ideas for engaging consumers in multiple digital media.

Pinterest celebrates four years of pinning

Happy fourth birthday to Pinterest.

This strongly visual social media site tends to be most effective for highlighting products in context, either with related products or in a usage situation. Think of it as a virtual bulletin board where consumers 'pin' photos of products they like or want, 'repin' photos from other boards to their own and browse pins for social shopping.

Brands can use Pinterest as a way to understand what their customers (and prospects) are interested in, by analysing which and how many pins of their product photos (and competitors' photos) appear on consumers' Pinterest boards. Another way to use Pinterest is to connect with customers by repinning their pins, says a Responsys expert.

Encouraging customers to pin your product's photo engages brand fans and builds relationships. Kahlua's holiday contest campaign, which included Pinterest, attracted 8,000 entries and more than 10,000 pins. Topshop's holiday campaign incorporated thousands of Pinterest pins as personalised gift ideas, with a contest element to encourage participation during the shopping season.

Pinterest is, of course, extremely active in social media: It has a Facebook page (3.2 million likes), a Twitter account (1.7 million likes), a Flickr account (599 photos) and a GitHub account.