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FASHION & SOCIAL NETWORKS

HOW TO SURF THE WEB'S NETWORKS

o help fashion brands develop on the Internet, the Fédération Française du

Prêt à Porter Féminin, in partnership with Ebuzzing, We Are Social and

Fashionmag.com, organized a conference on 7 December 2011 titled

"Fashion & Social Networks". The goal was to better understand the potential of

social media in brand development strategy.

Participants:Frédéric Montagnon, Ebuzzing

Sandrine Plasseraud, We Are Social

Pierre-Etienne Boilard, MenInvest Media

With contributions from:

Constance Smith, Lacoste

David Legrand, Beaumanoir Group

Axel Dutreil, The Kooples

"With major changes in the fashion system over the past 10

years, new practices have appeared: the need for an attractive

product and the concepts of creativity and expertise. The

product must mirror this desire to create impulse buys". These

were the opening remarks by Jean-Pierre Mocho, President of 

the Fédération Française du Prêt à Porter Féminin. By

stimulating the imagination while still provoking desire, every

brand can benefit from these consumer expectations.

And the web, with its infinite possibilities, has revolutionized

fashion brand communication. Now, to create desire brands

have a choice of tools that is sometimes difficult to

understand. The Internet's rapid growth in 2010, with 9% in value of women's ready-to-wear

purchases, gives consumers new ways to access brands (finding information, sharing

experiences, reselling and more).

Mr Mocho continued, "Viral communication, and particularly social networks, by increasing

information sources both in diversity and number, have considerably modified the

relationship between brands and consumers".

T

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Brands now find themselves at the core of consumer expectations, with consumers asking

them to keep their promises, and to be both creative and "responsible". It's up to brands to

meet these new ongoing expectations. What follows is a report on these exciting challenges.

Sandrine PlasseraudWe Are Social

We Are Social is a conversation agency.

With offices on several continents, the

agency observes and studies social

media's accession to the top Web

destinations. "Today it's almost the only

media that's growing, ahead of 

television, radio, newspapers,magazines, etc." And this despite the

fact that traffic on the sites is down.

(Sandrine Plasseraud refered in

particular to American figures, which are precursors.) Social media's growth rate of more

than doubling in three years is a thing of the past.

More importantly, it has become the second reference for consumer trust, at 70% with

brand sites. The first source remains acquaintances' opinions at 90%. In comparison,

television represents 62% and magazines 59%.

Today we are in a phase of exchanging and sharing. Fans have become more important than

unique visitors. This is an enormous evolution for brands. "Being found is good, but being

carried along and shared is better. But then the brand loses its status as the preferred

information source," she emphasized.

Brands need to influence social media by developing a presence at the core of these new

public meeting places. The reasons are manifold; they include hearing and seeing consumer

expectations in real time, stimulating involvement and interactions around the brand,

generating traffic from social networks and so on.

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Frédéric Montagnon

Ebuzzing

Today it's imperative for brands to be

present in social media. You only haveto look at the amount of circulating

content. In 2004, when Frédéric

Montagnon launched OverBlog (since

sold), daily published content on social

media was the same as in the "Petit

Robert" dictionary. In 2008 internauts

began publishing on their own - the

equivalent of an encyclopaedia. And in

2011, content was the same size as a library! According to the Ebuzzing Director, this meansthat if brands want to be seen, they must create content to become part of the discussions.

And this content, he explained, must not be too basic, nor too exclusive, or the brand won't

last. It's a far cry from television advertising campaign content, for example, which is

generally pretty heavy handed. "Brand placement depends on the type of message".

For the most part, fashion has a strong presence in social media. Currently it's the third topic

of conversation, after politics (surely because of the upcoming presidential elections) and

high tech. It's responsible for 4% of content. That may not seem like much, but in fact it's a

lot, according to Mr Montagnon.

He maintains that it's important and even fundamental to analyze how information is

dispersed. He identifies three phases. The first one is content creation by influencers

(bloggers, etc) who are trustworthy. The second phase is the popularization or re-

publication. And the third is amplification, or "buzz" as it's called. This is when people count.

If this phase is successful, other people will follow. This step doesn't depend so much on the

audience, but rather on the quality of the message and its capacity for re-transmission.

Pierre-Etienne Boilard

MenInvest Medias

In the opinion of this media specialist who represents internet sites and works with

magazines such as "L’Officiel", "Jalouse" and "L’Optimum", an information quasi-revolution

has taken place the last few years. "We've gone from information handled by journalists to

information handled by journalists and bloggers. Today with social networks, each one of us

relays information. At the same time, the technological evolution has also transformed the

situation. There was a simplification and then a multiplication of publishing tools for blogs,

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without even taking into account that information now also circulates in an unprocessed

way with Twitter especially". For Mr Boilard this means "diminishing brand power".

And at the same time brand identity is diluted through an increasing number of sources.

"Everyone can broadcast information. And going even farther, that can spark debates and

discussions. This has led us to consider social media as a new form of informationdistribution.

So, how to best exist in this

environment?" asked Mr Boilard. First,

you must give specific communities

information that interests them. You

must also give the community manager

information that's segmented, organised

and targeted so he can be an efficientintermediary. Next you give the

blogger/opinion leader a way to be respected in his community. Echoing the opinion of Mr

Montagnon, Mr Boilard agreed that opinion leaders must be made into proactive

intermediaries.

And do not treat bloggers like entities to serve brands or treat the brand's Facebook page

like an advertisement. His conclusion: "Today it is unthinkable to have a media plan without

digital, or to have digital without social networks".

Constance Smith

Lacoste

The Lacoste Facebook page was created in

July 2009 and had 900,000 fans. In July 2010

Lacoste S.A. brought in Constance Smith as

Community Manager. In November 2010 the

Lacoste Golf and Tennis page went up, and

then in February 2011 the Lacoste L!ve page.

Today Lacoste has 6.7 million fans. The brand

is also present on Twitter with more than

370,000 followers, on flickr with two active

accounts, on Vimeo, and on YouTube with four accounts totalling more than 3 million

videos. And on 10 November two accounts were opened on Google +. "The idea behind this

presence in social networks is to create more proximity and to go beyond fashion and sport

and give more visibility to the brand's expertise, heritage and other qualities".

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Constance Smith listed five factors for success. First, a Community Manager must be in

place. "Someone dedicated to content is required," she insisted. "Someone who will create

specific content for each platform, if there are more than one. It's also important to follow

the content of different networks, and be personally responsible for the content. It's key to

set up a solid international coordination, with both global and local messages. Today, forexample, Facebook allows you to geo-localize messages". Finally, it's necessary to integrate

social networks into the brand's advertising and sites.

She also underscored the importance of watching what's happing in different platforms and

the social network universe itself. Lacoste's Community Manager ended by revealing an

added value to integrate, "it's important to interact with fans to be able to really visualize

how the brand affects them".

David LegrandBeaumanoir Group

David Legrand makes a clear distinction between the distribution groups that he represents

in the Beaumanoir Group and brands. "The Beaumanior Group is a retailer with hundreds of 

stores, including 500 Cache Cache boutiques in France. For a distributor, the marketing

conversation happens mostly in the stores and not in the social networks. Around the end of 

2007 and beginning of 2008 we started to pay attention to the development of social

networks, and the phenomenon was integrated into the Group's digital platform which had

been created for e-commerce".

Mr Legrand also pointed out the

difference between the content in

comments from brand fans on Facebook

and from label fans. The later are

generally prolonging the buying

experience. For example, they

photograph themselves in the clothes

they just bought. "They contribute more

regularly than those on the brand sites.

We notice that often there is a gap

between what consumers do with your brand and the image you want it to have. If I have

one piece of advice to give, it's to be as natural as possible. Don't idealize your image. Our

initial reason for being on Facebook, which is the only network we use, was to extend our

service, meaning the consumers' experience. It was only afterwards that we wanted to work

on the brand image. But the brands that win will be those that know how to create a real

identity, especially using social networks. That means having a budget available. "In

distribution groups the directors are first and foremost ROIists. Their priority is a return on

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investment. So you have to convince them to change the model. Celio, for example, is

getting there. The Beaumanoir Group's new organization means more autonomy given to

brand managers, and that should facilitate this orientation.

Axel DutreilThe Kooples

Axel Dutreil joined The Kooples eight

months ago as E-commerce/Internet

Manager, a newly created position. He

explained, "The Kooples were, in fact,

already present in social media. But the

leitmotif of the directors was that though

we had plenty of fans, we didn't know whatto do with them". Which made sense, as the

brand had prioritized a strong presence in

press and billboards. Furthermore, they followed social media in an inconsistent manner.

So Mr Dutreil's first task was to set up monitoring tools. The next was to convert fans into

strong brand ambassadors. "We put together an operation that worked really well by calling

for couples to be photographed. The minimum cost was €5,000 per photo shoot. We were

able to recruit people who were friends of our fans and so already familiar with the brand.

"The Kooples has a budget of zero for social media, but our work is accomplished with

human time. For example, there are three of us that keep the networks, public relations and

advertising going, and I take care of e-commerce. In any case, it's a very good way to

establish a platform for communicating", he concluded.

As far as cross selling, Facebook also brings in 2-4% of the online revenues, their lowest cost

per purchase.

Communications Department

Fédération Française du Prêt à Porter Féminin

Tel. +33 (0)1 44 94 70 80

pretaporter.com