Does it really matter what your company sells, as long as those products look good on social media? Marketing manager for CXO Leaders Summit, Jennifer Hoch, delves into brands that have spent millions making their products look good on Instagram.
Many organisations, both large and small are in some way incorporating their social media channels into their marketing strategy to improve customer-centricity…and most importantly, sell. Companies are spending a pretty penny on their Instagram and Twitter pages, in order to shed the best lighting on their products and services across just about every industry and tailor-focused medium.
US food chain Chili’s has spent nearly one million dollars on an eggwash that gives their hamburger buns a seamless glow that asks the silently ominous question to competing restaurant marketers; sure…your food is good, but does it look good on Instagram? (because when you think about it…which of the two really matter?) A recent article published by Forbes, “Chili’s Spends Millions To Make Food Look Good On Social Media, For a Millennial Customer Experience,” highlights the social media phenomenon that goes to show the length companies are willing to go to in order to strategically market their products and services; because your customer may be more likely to focus on the appearance of their whereabouts and experiences, (by the “X-Pro or “Hefe” Instagram filter) than their actual experience of eating that burger, anyway.
Rather than stealing their customers social-media-scrolling time, Dutch airline company, KLM has incorporated live customer service via Twitter…proving a truly customer-centric business model by communicating with their clients, at their clients convenience…(and holding-time entertainment, for that.) At a respond rate that averages less than an hour, (less than 15 min from our CXOLeaders inquiry,) a personal booking agent can assist your flight management in a personally tailored and unobtrusive manner. The airline’s social media customer service is managed by 150 agents and generates annual revenue of $25M and of course, is seamlessly convenient, responsive and transparent.
According to Bazaar, brands spend over one billion dollars annually for retail-sponsored endorsements that prove to provide a solid revenue stream. Twenty-two-year-old, New York fashionista and blogger, Danielle Bernstein of “We Wore What” sets a $5,000 – $15,000 price tag on a single piece of sponsored material via social media. The retail-Instagram economy is booming. And it only makes that companies cater their efforts, quite literally to their customer’s hand; on the bus ride to work and in between coffee breaks that can attribute validation without appearing to try and do so. Because, obviously, the day-to-day “this is what I’m wearing” and “this is what I like” and “yeah, I know I look good” tends to come off less intrusive when you have a one million Instagram fan-base.
