GU’s Facebook AnalysisNew Media Advertising Prof. Jay Moon

Culture and Tourism1375462

Misaki SAMUNO

agenda

>All about GU>Analysis of GU’s Facebook fan page-The most successful example and the worst example-Whole page analysis>Facebook Analysis Conclusion>Analyzing their competitors -UNIQLO-Bershka>Insight-GU’s recent situation analysis-Similarities & differences-Unexpected things>Recommendation

• GU is the casual fashion brand built in 2008.• GU is targeting 20s, 30s and families.• They have 214 branches.• Total sale is 83,7 billion yen and operating profit is 7,6 billion yen• The concept is “Wear freedom” • GU is pronounced like “自由” (Jiyuu) meaning freedom in Japanese.

(genesis)• GU sets importance on fashionableness and low plice than UNIQLO• Casting Atsuko Maeda(AKB:Japanese idol),Kyary Pamyu pamyu(Japanese

artist), Peace(Japanese comedian)

All about GU

Analysis of GU’s Facebook fan page

>GU created their Facebook fan page to promote their philosophy “Wear freedom”. They are promoting their brand with this philosophy by posting some interesting posts. All the posts are written in Japanese.(but they opened the first oversea branch store in Shanghai recently

>They have 86,980 likes (2013/10/12)

>0~3 postings are updated their Facebook fan page in a day.

>They usually get 200~400 likes for 1 posting

>I will observe previous 1 month posting of their Facebook fan page.

>They get only a few comment on their postings.

>They don’t give a feedback to their fans on their Facebook fan page.

>They often post photo + text postings.

>They often use formal tone but they also use “ (cute expression)” or “(*^^*) ☆(facial expression)”

>Almost all of their posting are based on informative advertising.

>>>It could be said GU’s Facebook fan page is on the way to developing

>I categorized GU’s Facebook fan page contents into 4 categories-Personal experience contents: provide personal experience to their fans from UNIQLO company or staff. It could include any types of information. (Photo, text, video)-Mutual communication contents: need some reactions from their fans. For example, it could be voting contents or quiz.-Purchase encouraging contents: provide information with web-shop link, sale information, and so on. It should be a content that encourage customer’s buying intention.-Information providing contents: provide information to their fans. (New store’s information, volunteer event information, and so on.)

>Their most successful posting got 1,351 likes (by 2013/10/13)(Information providing contents)

The informative posting that provide the information about the new and first

oversea branch opened in Shanghai

They also tell thanks to their customer and express strong desire to diffuse their

philosophy “Wear freedom”

The most successful example and the worst example:I chose the most successful example and the worst one.(Because many other postings got similar number of likes )

They also got more comments than usual. They got comments

even from foreigners.

What made this posting so successful?>Fact—”The first oversea branch”The fact that the first step of advance of GU made their fans to push like. Many fans of them congratulated their first step to oversea.>Tone—“ ” and “♡ ＼ (^o^)／”The friendly tone of they use gave their fans the friendly image of GU. They also say “Hello” in Chinese. This is also gave good impression to Chinese people.

The reasons of many commentsThe got more comments than usual, even from foreigners. There are many fans of Japanese fashion in the world. Many comments were about the desire to build GU in their fan’s own countries.

To be more successfulAlthough this posting was about the advance to oversea of GU, they updated this posting in Japanese. It means this posting could be read by Japanese and few foreigners. If they want to get more likes or comments, they should update in English or two languages (Japanese + English).

The worst example(information providing and purchase encouraging contents)

This information is about the new branch in Aichi.

It got only 36 likes

Reasons of failures>Because GU has already had many stores in Japan, this information couldn’t attract their fan’s interests.>They provided the information of sale, but GU always has big sale, so it wasn’t big attractiveness.

Whole page analysis

>Their most frequent posting is about “Coordinate recommendation from staff” by using GU’s fashion items.

“Coordinate recommendation from staff”>they provide their coordinate recommendations with total price, detail price and web link (to their website and online shop)

They got around 200 likes and 2,3 comments for 1 posting.

>They are posting this kind of posting about once a day.

Personal experience +Purchase encouraging

They also provide male’s coordinate recommendations.

Although they use polite sentences, they use or some ☆cute expression, customer feel

close with GU.

Many contents of posting are this

“Coordinate recommendation

”

The good

>Their fan could feel closer to GU by providing coordinate recommendation by staff.>Providing coordinate by using their company’s products can promote more customer purchasing.>We can expect the improvement of consciousness as a member of fashion industry by exposing their idea of coordinate recommendation.

The bad

>High frequency of similar posting can make their fans feel bored, and attractiveness of postings can be decreased→This is proved by a number of likes. These kind of postings get similar number of likes and it is quite small amount comparing with a number of their fans.

Purchase encouraging contents

The good

>This posting absolutely catch customers’ eyes. >They also provide information encouraging to register mobile membership.

Information providing contents

The bad

>This posting doesn’t have a big impact to catch their fan’s eye.

>Too simple to get interest

GUFacebook Analysis Conclusion

>Almost all postings of GU’s fan page are about these three contents : New opened branch’s information (information providing contents or purchase encouraging contents), Sales information (purchase encouraging contents), Mobile membership encouraged contents(purchase encouraging contents), and Coordinate recommendation from staffs (personal experience).

>The reasons why their contents can get only 100~400 likes (average) although they have 86,980 fans: almost all of their contents are so similar and seems like repeated. It can make their fans make bored.

>They have many sales and provide these information. However, they don’t have mutual contacts with their fans. (ex: feedback to comments, present campaign, etc)--They should have more “Mutual communication contents”.

>Their friendly tone could be effective because of closeness.

UNIQLO: UNIQLO is top Japanese casual fashion brand. They have 854 branches in Japan and 441 branches oversea. They have 944,614 likes(main page, in Japanese) and several fan pages in all languages of nations where they have branch.

Bershka: Bershka is sister band of ZARA. They have 899 branches all over the world and 5 branches in Japan. They also have several languages pages. They have 6,081,530 likes.(main page, in English)

GUAnalyzing their competitors

Purchase encouraging contents

UNIQLO did a successful posting in terms of creativity. This posting is for encouraging customers to purchase Bandanna. They use cultural fact that Japanese use bandanna to wrap lunch box and wrote their logo on the rice.This posting got 1,265 likes and 28 share in 6 hours.

>interesting postingThe good

UNIQLO

>Using celebrities

>They often use Japanese celebrities to promote their products or some campaigns.>By using celebrities, the posting has bigger impact.>By using celebrities credit is getting higher.

Mutual communication contents

This is the contents that need their fans to vote. These kind of contents often attract their customer’s attention. UNIQLO got 1267 likes and 94 comments, especially from female fans.

The good

Personal experience >Individual story

>This posting provides the staff’s individual story with UNIQLO. She is talking her hard experiences and heartwarming experiences on this posting and it got 1030 likes, 46 share, and 18 comments>Her cheerful smile make UNIQLO’s image up.>Exposing personal experiences of staff make customer feel closer.

The good

Information providing contents

This posting provide the information about volunteer project to send second handed clothes to people who need clothes (Syria, Africa, etc)This posting got 1163 likes and 38 shares. These kind of contents (volunteering things) can make customers moved. Tones are also formal and we can see how serious UNIQLO is for this project.

The good

The bad

>Too innovative--The most Japanese don’t know the SNS, Pinterest. --This picture is not the common image of UNIQLO --high individuality

BershkaMutual communication contents

>This contents asked their fans which outfit is better for Saturday night.>This post got 2,467 likes and 248 comments and about 50 share.>This posting is simple and stylish>They provide simple question that is easy to answer

The good

Purchase encouraging contents

>There posting feature is simple and eye catchy.>There posting usually get more than 2,000 likes>People can understand easily at the first sight.

The good

Non needed contents

>They often provide non needed contents such as Fes or some movies that don’t have relationship with them.>These kind of contents couldn’t get even 500 likes.>Their fans merely understand the necessity of postings.

The bad

GU’s recent situation analysis GU has developed with low price, trendiness and quality. However, sometimes people are afraid of wearing same clothes with other people by chance. Recent trend of fast fashion promotes to make people to buy GU’s stuff. Moreover, recent bad economy makes people save money and people have become seek cheaper things more and more. These facts promoted GU’s popularity. However, many other fast fashion (ex: H&M, Forever21, and so on) brands have been advancing into Japanese market, so GU should prepare better advertising contents to defeat their rival companies.Similarities & differencesSimilarities: can be seen in “Purchase encouraging contents”. GU and their competitor put their shop links on their postings to encourage purchasingDifferences: can be seen in many postings. First of all GU has only Japanese page but competitors have several different language pages. GU always has same contents regularly but competitors has many variety of contents. GU use more friendly tone than competitors. Unexpected thingI didn’t expected that GU get really small number of likes. As I compared GU’s Facebook fan page with competitors, It can be said GU should improve their contents more.

Insight

Recommendation

>Personal experience contents:I recommend to provide more individual contents of staffs or company related GU.:Example→ to show the process of making ~ selling GU’s clothes →staff’s personal experience related GU

>Mutual communication contents:GU should provide more mutual communication contents. GU merely provide questions or voting postings. They also don’t feedback to customer, so they should respond their fan’s comments sometimes.:Example→to create the posting to vote to Coordinate recommendation from staff once a month (regularly), and show staff’s comment who got the first prize.

>Purchase encouraging contents:They always use staff to promote purchasing, so I recommend to use Japanese celebrities sometimes.:Example→ to provide the Coordinate example from brand image character (Kyary pamyu pamyu, Maeda Atsuko, and peace).

>Information providing contents:I recommend to provide more information providing contents and it should be more creative and attract fan’s attention.:Example: to use celebrities, video interview.

>Others:They should provide information in several languages.