Is H&M Really Bashing Their UGC Community?
With my friend Stephan Fellinger I have been doing interactieve marketing workshops for many years. It’s a delight to help with brand marketers ignite their digital brand revolution. But Stephan and I keep each other sharp as a razor too.
Last course he told a shocking but true story about Hennes & Mauritz, the fashion brand that has embraced e-commerce. In april 2005 the 18 year old Dutch Frits Kranenborg started the H&M Hyve at Dutch dominated social network Hyves (5.000.000 members).
This user created H&M Hyve (simply the best!) has today 149.472 members!!! It’s one of the largest communities in Holland. In NRC Next, a Dutch Daily Newspaper Frits stated he has never ever heard from H&M?!
When H&M was asked:”why don’t you participate in this community or reward these loyal members?” the H&M spokes person stated:”No we don’t do much with it. We think participating will cost to much time and we will not be able to steer te discussion”. Further the spokes person declared:”At your own website you can control everything, not in a community like this”.
Also H&M states:”We don’t think we can interview these members, we already have our own customer panels”. Frits has placed a link to this NRC Next article where H&M Hyve members can read the H&M statements. Why doesn’t H&M tap into this great UGC community?
Isn’t this community marketing and engaging consumers from the stone age? Can’t H&M fire it’s brand manager and hire a social media marketer? If I would have been brand manager at H&M, I would have hired Frits immediately!! What happens if the community will turn against H&M and 150.000 consumers stop shopping at H&M for a month or 3? Can companies be too busy to reward 150.000 loyal members? Share us your thoughts on H&M’s approach?
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[...] dank aan Viralblog kwam ik op een artikel in NRC Next van (schrik niet) 17 januari van dit jaar. Daarin een quote [...]
Companies must weight up the advantages and disadvantages of joining and participating in an online social community. The level of influence and key opinions should be understood first and it seems that H&M may well have done this.
However in the new Web2.0 world, no company (especially those who have some passionate followers such as fashion brands) should entirely ignore this form of relationship with its customers on the grounds that it doesn’t have complete control.
regards
Hayden
@ Hayden
Thanks for your remark. I like the way you put it!
What’s your professional opinion with the internet: do brands still have full control or is that just an illusion?
I remember the Heineken VP Marketing say at an event 2 years ago: many people will co-create with the Heineken brand. It’s not wise to stick our head in the sand and hope it will all go away. If we can’t beat this movement, we might as well join it, by letting our creative digital agency create stuff that is compelling.. and invite our target group to participate and co-create at our branded platform/website.. this is the only way I think brands can control it…
I feel he was ahead of his time and has a strong and clear vision on how it actually is. We might not like it as brands, but what should we do if we can’t stop it?
Looking forward to your vision.
Cheers
Igor
Brands, and therefore the companies behind them, do have control. But really only within their ‘walled garden’ of influence (e.g. everything that sits within the company or is work they pay for/sponsor/etc.). Outside that walled garden, the control they have diminishes incredibly quickly, especially the further away you venture.
However, companies should not see this wall as a barrier beyond which they cannot venture. Instead I believe it is an exciting area where they should try to explore, BUT in a planned and considered way.
It is quite easy to identify the different types of ‘influencer’ out there (just type ‘anti’ before any brand name into Google to see my point) and with Social Networks, Blogs, etc. facilitating comments, the creation of opinions is so very easy. It’s the next step however to measure their effect (gradually being referred to at the corporate ‘social graph’).
So why don’t companies try and have that extended conversation with key ‘influencers’? (Even perhaps a limited sub-set of their target audience/consumers?) Because it’s a scary place and one that some companies have failed at in the past (albeit, the execution may well have been bad, not necessarily the concept).
The difficulty comes in not only stepping through this minefield to try maintain that conversation, but keeping track of the ever-changing landscape as it responds and evolves to constant change. Those that navigate this new world and understand it more, should see new opportunities presenting themselves. Or put it another way, those that don’t may find that they are not having the conversation and engagement they once had.
Hayden
http://press20.blogspot.com
Excellent discussion guys!
Great point about marketers needing a planned and considered strategy. Just jumping in for the sake of keeping up with the latest technology can do as much damage as not bothering at all. It’s what Seth Godin refers to as the meatball sundae.
@ Hayden
I think you use exact the right words to explain it.
I really know what you mean, have been marketing director at 3 listed companies: sometimes they move very slow and afraid. I really know the damage that could be done. And do agree with you in many ways.
But, I also meet many marketers a week that are very reluctant to learn, to ignorate to see, to scared to try, but heroe enough to burn (tens of) Millions of Dollars on print and tv ads… I feel with that kind of budgets you need to allocate some money to get a proper site, to test conversational tracking.. mostly I think marketers need to start to listen, they shout enough already…
Cheers
Igor
Let’s say there is not
Igor
As a web strategist, I’ve been lucky enough to work with some great companies who have been taking some interesting steps to understand (listen to) their online users and have a sensible dialogue….
It may be easier to revert back to the ‘old & traditional’ methods of marketing and corporate communications, but for how long? These disciplines are gradually becoming more of a science than an art, and every company is looking for a greater accountability for its spend.
Consumer interactions are only going to become more fragmented and complex over time. However, with clear thinking, such as your Heineken VP Marketing and measured insight (which could be gained from participating in the correct community conversations) I believe a company can evolve and learn to respond in the right ways.
Hayden
http://press20.blogspot.com
@ Hayden
Fully agree!
You must also know what happens with brands, you must have experienced to many times: HQ is deciding on the marketing and media budget for all markets. I know very large brands, that are in the top 20 big media spenders, their HQ decides that local countries have to spent their media budget on TV and in Print. Internet only gets 2-3% max.
And the marketer of each local country has to stick to this program.
I know the largest beauty brand, with their HQ in Paris.. the employee’s don’t have internet at work, email only! They don’t have any clue what happens online, and if they knew: they can only spend media budget in TV GRP’s..
These brands will stay slow for at least a couple of years…And don’t learn at all online, don’t gain experience and cases. And if they start online, it will take them 3-5 years to learn the drill, the do’s and don’ts… so they will be behind 7-10 years of some competitors that have started already some years ago. How will they ever close this gap?
And many marketers do not like accountability in their marketing and media spend at all. Because that will make them accountable too!! So no measurement is save for many marketers: this way that can’t be fully responsible and not accountable .. Bad results will make them look bad internally..
But agree that some brands are far ahead … will be tough to get close to them for the slow ones, since the slow ones don’t really know what they are missing…
Cheers
does anyone knows if there is any other information about this subject in other languages?
Now, a view years later, I lost all my (branded) Hyves domains. They kicked me off Hyves and nowadays, one of the Hyves that I build up, the MTV Hyve is in hands of MTV Benelux, how nasty;)
Gr. Frits Kranenborg