Let’s be honest: we all have our favourite store to shop at, or to just stop by and browse to find new fashion trends. No matter if it is a budget retailer or a high-end designer – it is all about fashion! In the online era, social media has become a key lever for brands to engage with customers, boost their brand reputation and look for ways to improve customer experience.
We recently explained how social intelligence benefits fashion brands when launching new campaigns. This time we used Talkwalker’s social media monitoring and analytics capabilities to compare major fashion retailers including Primark, Forever 21, Michael Kors and Gucci to see which brand is the most popular, loved or hated online and who delivers the best social media performance.
We Love Budget Brands
Nordstrom, Primark, and Zara are three of the top brands in terms of brand perception. The brands benefit from having customers that like to share their newly-purchased items on various channels in so-called “haul” posts on Instagram or YouTube videos, in turn increasing brand visibility for those chains.
In contrast, American Apparel’s ongoing fight with its former CEO is taking a heavy toll on their reputation. As a result, a third of mentions for the retailer were negative between mid-May and mid-June.
Luxury Asia, Budget-Conscious Europe
Analysing the different brands and categories of fashion retailers, we can see that luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren enjoy the most attention online in Japan. The budget brand Uniqlo dominates online conversations in its domestic market.
In contrast, the budget brands are heavily discussed in Europe. For Primark and H&M, the majority of conversations originate from Spain, France, Germany and Netherlands.
Luxury Fans Are Interested in… More Luxury!
When it comes to mid-range and budget brands, fans and shoppers like to talk about specific items. As we’re heading towards summer, customers of Primark and other low-budget brands talk about dresses, while customers in the mid-range category, e.g. Zara show a preference for t-shirts. And high-end brands? Well, they inspire a lot of mentions for… other designer labels.
Mid-Range Brands Handle Social Media Best
Fashion is a very visual industry, and a content analysis for the top-performing fashion brands proves that most brands understand that and focus on visual content for their Twitter channels. In terms of performance, mid-range brands are the ones that have embraced the value of social media the most – of the top 10 most active fashion brands on Twitter, 6 belong in that category, while Michael Kors is the only luxury brand to join the list.
Conclusion
Major retailers clearly see the value in engaging their customers on social media. Some brands are finding unique ways to create conversations with fashion influencers, introducing incentives for shoppers and deepening their connection to fans. For deeper insights on fashion brands’ social media performance, head on over to the Talkwalker Academy to read the full case study.
