Fashion Industry's Social Marketing Strategy

This article used a lingerie retailer as an example to talk about how small business should choose the right social media. This reminds me of Victoria Secret's emerging competitor - Aerie's successful social media campaign "AerieREAL" and how it was engaging conversations with customers.

Before the advent and widespread use of social media platforms, companies had power to influence consumer behaviors by effectively defining appropriate social values and lifestyle aspirations for them. And no industry has been more expert at shaping people’s behaviors than the fashion industry, as it unapologetically wrote and rewrote definitions of self-worth, prescribing exactly how people should look in order to feel good about themselves. For example, sexual objectification of women has been propagated by the lingerie industry, where women have been taught that their attractiveness is determined by their ability and willingness to exhibit certain behaviors and conform to ideological “sexy” stereotypes.

However, social media has eroded much of the industry’s power by enabling consumers to interject into such marketing messages. No longer one-way communication from corporations to consumers, individuals can now respond and visibly communicate with each other to form a united voice that is as powerful as the industry’s. Combined with the ubiquity of instant connectivity, a company’s fortune could turn quickly unless it recognizes and addresses the desires of its customers. Technology has thus furnished consumers a level playing field, where even a dominant player such as Victoria's Secret is forced to change its core strategy and message and redefine beauty beyond purely physical attributes. Instead of a message, technology will force companies to have conversations.

http://www.app.com/story/money/business/2017/05/21/small-business-social-media/101810470/