Final Presentation- Aerie Real

Link to Final Presentation:

Aerie Real

Okay, so for those of you who have not heard of the brand AERIE, it is American Eagle’s Lingerie brand. They target teenagers and young women. As a lingerie brand, their biggest competitor would be Victoria’s Secret. Victoria’s Secret is much more publicized than Aerie, from their VS Angels and to their widely viewed Fashion show. Aerie did something to differentiate itself from VS.

The talk around body positivity has increased substantially in the past couple of years. As young girls we see how the media portrays this “ideal body” which is front and center at the VS fashion show. This “ideal body” is unattainable. Photoshop has ruled the advertising market. Models are constantly slathered in makeup and are then photoshopped to get this “ideal standard of beauty.”

Because of all of these false portrayals of body image in the media: girls as young as 5 years old are becoming concerned with their body image. We see it everywhere, even in Disney Princess movies.

We are in 2017 and this ideal body type does not exist, nor has it existed. In 2014 Aerie launched its Aerie Real campaign and it has come to be part of their brand. This campaign meant they were no longer going to retouch images of their models, and so they were going to let their “real” beauty shine.

Since the initial release of the campaign sales have boomed. In 2015 sales increased by 20% and in the first quarter of 2016, sales had already increased by 32% (Mosbergen). Okay great so the campaign seemed to be working monetarily wise for the brand, but was it working for what they stood for?

What began as a campaign has become part of their brand. They now have a blog that you can read posts from their models, some are giving advice, their outfit choices, interviews and much more. I think this blog is a great idea. However, I was not even aware it existed until now. I also noticed there are 0 comments on their posts, and 0 posts from the groundswell. I will talk more about that later.

Now this what used to be a campaign has had campaigns of their own. Aerie Real: Share Your Spark included a wide variety of young women from Aerie designers to bloggers to social media fans, 40 of them came together share this message of empowerment and loving the skin you’re in. This sounds great! A great little video. Awesome. But where did they go?

Another campaign was the Aerie Real: Real Women Project aims to challenge the “standard” definition of beauty. Also great!

But I went to look at their website. Where you actually buy the bras and clothes, were your typical thin models. There were some differences in ethnicity, however they were all thin. They very much market their curvier model Iskra Lawrence, but I was only able to find her in the swim section. This is great don’t get me wrong. Technically, in our swimwear we are the most vulnerable, because our bras are generally seen just by us. But women should feel confident no matter what they are in. When they do not have curvier models actually selling the products, they are contradicting themselves.

One section they do have curvier models is in the swimwear. They are doing a campaign of trying to promote young women to feel happy in their untouched swimsuit photos. And for every photo that is tagged with #AerieREAL they will donate $1 to a non-profit that supports those affected with eating disorders. This is a great campaign. They are energizing the groundswell to embrace what the company stands for and it’s for a good cause. The best part is that you don’t even have to be wearing their swimwear for them to donate the money, so here they are truly promoting the message of positive body image.

The groundswell LOVED this!

Li and Bernoff provided so many insights that I used throughout my analysis of this case study. But I want to look more in depth to some of the concepts they spoke about.  

We learned that first and foremost you need to listen to the groundswell. Around the time Aerie Real first began, positive body image was a widely discussed topic especially among women and young women. Aerie listened to the groundswell. As far as talking with… I looked on their social media pages and that does not seem to be a priority. They engaged the groundswell with the tagging of “#AerieREAL” but it kind of stops there. Sure they are donating the money, but what about interacting with groundswell. Like I mentioned, they are not really talking with the groundswell. So these women are taking pictures and tagging it, and $1 is being donated. But what if Aerie sent them a thank you comment for participating, they could even sweeten it with a % off code. The women were not posting to get the recognition (they were probably posting because they believed in the mission and wanted to help raise the money to donate), but it would be nice to get at least an acknowledgment from Aerie.

This loops back to the beginning of the book when Li and Bernoff tell us that we need to “concentrate on the relationships” (p. 18). Aerie has done a great job of revolutionizing its brand, but they aren’t creating a community. They have the tagline of being an “Aerie girl” which I will talk a little more about later on, but now use that and really foster a community. Use the blog to foster that community.

Li and Bernoff talk about using the Social Technographic Profile to create a strategy to involve the groundswell (build that relationship). From the Aerie Real: Share Your Spark campaign, Aerie is aware of the fact that it has bloggers posting about them, and social media fans. So they have Creators, Joiners, and probably have Spectators too. They have this great blog, so why not get those Creators to post there for the Joiners and Spectators to see. Then they are connecting with the groundswell, engaging the groundswell, energizing the groundswell and consequently letting the groundswell do the work for them. If a blogger (or any Aerie fan) is featured on Aerie’s blog, you can guess that that person is going to share where they are published on their own social media channels. Not only that, but it could create that community that we talked about.

Li and Bernoff gave us the example of Unilever and how Dove took a risk going against the industry norm. Dove did this before Aerie, but they are different industries. Aerie too, took risks when they broke away from the norm of stick thin models and perfect photoshopped images.

I broke up my thoughts of Aerie Real into a SWOT analysis.

Strengths:

• Understood target audience and their struggle with body image because of media
• Not the first to market real beauty instead of ideal, but first to forgo photoshop
• The first in the market

Weaknesses

• The models in the initial release, although they were not photoshopped, they still portrayed “ideal beauty standards” - since then has improved substantially

However, like I mentioned they aren’t portrayed on their website as much as they should be

• Criticized for their products not going up large enough, but go up to what they say is about a size 18
• Referring to Aerie users as Aerie girls, empower women too

I’m not sure if y’all have seen the video (if not you should watch it “Girl vs Women- Why language matters” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHH3lhYwqcY). But there could be problems with Aerie referring to these young women as girls…

Opportunity:

• Do a good job of engaging groundswell, what about posting the groundswell’s pictures on their own site
• Take what they have been doing and expand to all of their products- (so on their website, have models of different shapes wearing the bras and clothes) let young women feel empowered no matter what they are wearing
• Advertise their blog, invite Aerie customers to send in posts

Like I mentioned before, I did not even know this blog existed until now. Use this create a community. Invite Creators to blog themselves, give the joiners and spectators content to read, allow the conversationalists to connect with each other. The blog is a great idea; they just need to use it properly.

Threats:

• Competitors like Victoria’s Secret tapping into this, and then they are no longer distinct
• Not congruent throughout their products, only swimwear do you see a model who may not meet the “ideal beauty standards”.

Final Thoughts:

Aerie Real has done well as we saw from the increases in sales, but it needs to reenergize the brand. More and more companies are tapping into this real beauty approach, and they need to keep themselves separate. They can do this by really embracing the Aerie Real community. They are forming one with their campaigns, but they leave it at that. They need to utilize the tools they already have (social media pages and the blog) to connect with the groundswell, build those relationships, and then the community will follow.

Social Media Monitoring Project Part 2- Ben and Jerry's Pint Slices

Last time we looked at the brand new campaign of the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Pint Slices. We found qualitatively the Pint Slices had what looked like a great reach and following. People were excited and happy about the new product. Quantitatively, we did not find the same results and suggested that could be due to the fact that it is still very new, and that maybe Ben and Jerry's following does not include many Creators. 

Well now the Pint Slices have been out for about a month and a half, so let's see if anything has changed. 

Looking at Google Trends we still see that after the initial release of the product there was not much talk about it. It started off really high and then after about the first week stayed low and then the excitement never returned. 

Social Mention:

On the left is Ben and Jerry's (the brand) and on the right is Ben and Jerry's Pint Slices. The overall strength of Ben and Jerry's (the brand) has stayed pretty consistent in the past month. The strength for Ben and Jerry's Pint Slices has increased. Now that the campaign is a little more established, that is probably why. Ben and Jerry's as a brand has a higher strength because it has been around longer than the particular product. 

I think it is also important that we realize that this product is food; therefore it is difficult to have a continuing passion for the product itself. However, the brand does do a great job of always revolutionizing itself and its products which keeps the overall passion for the brand high.

Ben and Jerry's is always coming up with new campaigns. Since we looked at Pint Slices, new flavors for their original line, new flavors for their non-dairy line, their free cone day, and Splashback (cereal flavored ice cream). That's a lot in about a 4 week timespan. 

I went back to check their main social media channels and see how they balanced all of this advertising.

Twitter:

The last time there was a tweet about the Pint Slice campaign was February 17th...The campaign only came out February 1st, so that is only a little over two weeks of publicity time.

Also, it is important to note that there were only 2 replies, 6 retweets, and 43 favorites. Ben and Jerry's did not respond to the two replies. The initial post about the new product had 28 comments (some of which Ben and Jerry's did respond to), 127 retweets, 394 favorites. 

I want to focus on the difference of the retweets. Retweets are a company's best friend because they allow their tweet to reach a wider audience. The more retweets= the more people who see the tweet. It's word of mouth of their followers and groundswell helping them to spread the message. The retweet shows that the groundswell is excited about it and want others to be excited too.

Facebook:

And on Facebook, 8 days of publicity, and that was it. This post had 242 likes, 40 comments, and 24 shares. Whereas the initial post had 64 thousand likes, almost 11,000 comments, and over 18,000 shares. Ben and Jerry's did remain very responsive to the 40 comments on this post like they had tried to do with the initial post (obviously harder since there were SO many more comments). 

So the latest (if you can even call it latest) post had only 24 shares versus the over 18,000 shares on the original. The amount of shares has a huge impact on the number of likes and views. Similar to retweets, the more shares, the more people who will see/ like/ and or comment on the post. Retweets and shares are the perfect free word of mouth advertising for Ben and Jerry's. 

Instagram:

Okay, this picture is on the computer version of Instagram so it does not show the actual date, but I looked it up and it was February 10th. So 10 days.  This post had over 68,000 views, over 8,000 likes, and 85 comments. The original post had over 200,000 views, over 16,000 likes, and almost 1,500 comments. With Instagram you don't really share, or retweet, but you tag your friends that you want to see the post and that is how the word of mouth advertising would happen with Instagram. 

What's happened and what it means...

From the point of the initial release to the time of the latest post on the Pint Slices, the reach decreased substantially. Ben and Jerry's relies on its followers to get more views, likes, favorites, or retweets. They rely on their followers to spread their messages (through word of mouth on Social Media). So what happened between the initial release to the latest post?

First let's look at how long the campaign lasted. We see that the it did not actually last very long. For Twitter: 17 days, Facebook: 8 days, and Instagram: 10 days. 

This just seems like such a small amount of time. This isn't just a release of new flavors (which don't get me wrong, is really exciting), but this is a whole new product. It was extremely innovative they should use that individuality and uniqueness to really market the product. 

I mean I get it, it's still food, and like we discussed, it's hard to have a continuing passion for the food... but maybe the campaign could have lasted at least the month of February. If not that maybe just bring it back every once in a while. It's been over a month since the last posting of Pint Slices, and I think that's too long. Without seeing a post as a reminder, their followers/customers could lose interest. But, maybe it only lasted as long as it did because the it was no longer being received at the rate that they had hoped? Or is it possible that they know word of mouth outside of social media will continue even after the campaign is done?

We learned the last time that the main place that Ben and Jerry's responded to the groundswell was on Facebook. That remains true even with the fewer comments on other social media platforms.

So here they are, answering questions and just energizing the groundswell to keep the excitement going. 

There were only two replies to their tweet on Twitter, and they did not respond to either one. With only two replies that seems like an easy way to continue generating the excitement with those people. Generally, I have seen when big companies respond to people on Twitter, those people will retweet that tweet- adding to the spread of the company and the campaign. 

There were no responses on Instagram.

Target Audience: I would say the target audience of Ben and Jerry's as a whole is young adults. How many of you think of, or have been the stereotypical sad/stressed/ or even happy person that eats the entire pint of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream? I know I have. When I did some research, I found this to be a true representation of the market (see Slideshare). 

Ben and Jerry's knows this, and I think the Pint Slices actually expanded their audience. Now these Pint Slices are on the same playing field as ice cream sandwiches (except more innovative). Who are generally the audience of ice cream sandwiches... ding ding, children. Pint Slices became shareable, (as there are three to a box) and family friendly. The best part about it is they didn't lose their general audience, I feel they just gained more of an audience. 

Expanding more on the shareable aspect of this product... when you think of a pint of ice cream, you generally think of it as belonging to one person, right? You can't have two people eating out of the same pint at the same time (unless you transfer it to separate bowls...) So with Pint Slices coming individually wrapped, and three to a box, they are much more shareable and more of a group activity when multiple people can be eating them at the same time. 

They need to market this shareable aspect! A quick video of parents and their child, or a group of friends all taking out a Pint Slice and enjoying it together. They expanded their audience whether they meant to or not, and now can use this to further advance their product. If they don't want the actual people in it, you may have noticed they have a lot of just hands with their products and in their videos. So they could have a one hand taking out a Pint Slice, they pass down the box to another hand that takes out a Pint Slice, and they pass it down to another hand (maybe a smaller hand to further promote the child friendly aspect of the Pint Slices).

SWOT Analysis

Strengths: 

The campaign was innovative and created a new unique niche.

The groundswell was excited about the campaign.

Reach new audience.

Good at responding and energizing on Facebook. 

Weaknesses: 

Once a new campaign was introduced they did not advertise as much about the Pint Slices, and now I did not see it advertised at all this month.

Not responsive to excitement on Twitter or Instagram.

Opportunity:

Keep the excitement going by energizing the groundswell when they comment on Twitter and Instagram (already do that on Facebook, but expand to other social media).

Ben and Jerry's was asked questions that they can use to help expand the product's scope (to new regions, in new flavors, in non-dairy).

Threats:

Since they are constantly having new campaigns, it is possible that the older campaigns will only remain popular until the next campaign begins.

If they stop posting about the Pint Slices (which they have), it will be difficult to reach their newer followers and ones who have not seen the older posts (for example, if a follower gave up social media for the month of February, they may not know about the campaign, and now Ben and Jerry's is not advertising for it anymore). 

Moving Forward:

Goals:

Ben and Jerry's has done a good job of creating a new, unique product and expanding its audience. Now they can use the feedback from the groundswell and show they are really listening and expand the product to reach the needs of the groundswell (more flavors, dairy free, other countries). 

Ben and Jerry's has done a good job listening, engaging, and exciting the groundswell on Facebook, but could take this to their other social media platforms (Instagram and Twitter) to keep it going. There are people who do not have Facebook but have the other two, or one, and they want to see that Ben and Jerry's is listening. 

What to do next:

As mentioned above, I think a way to market the product in a new way would to really grab onto the sharable and more kid friendly aspect of the Pint Slices. Ben and Jerry's should really try and grab this new audience through their advertising, like the video idea I mentioned earlier.

Another idea is to try and energize the Creators of their following. They could do this by making a contest of the best way to eat Pint Slices. Whether it's how you eat them, where you eat them, or who you eat them with... there are many ideas that the creative Creators could likely tap into. With the videos and posts for the contest, that will continue to market and advertise the product. Plus, this will give them the opportunity to really engage their followers. 

Conclusion:

Overall Pint Slices are a huge success. They are innovative and unique and people love them. The actual advertising has come to a stop, and it was not even a month later. Ben and Jerry's can take breaks, but should keep reminding the groundswell of their product (it does not have to be on a daily basis, but it should not just be forgotten). Ben and Jerry's does a great job of listening, responding, and energizing the groundswell on Facebook, but can do a better job on Twitter and Instagram. Finally, Ben and Jerry's can use this product to broaden their audience and really should market to this new audience.