TOM FORD BLACK ORCHID: Social Media Monitoring Part 2

Many luxury brands struggle to create accounts on social media because it can cheapen the prestige and perception, brands may lose their exclusiveness, and what is more, negative comments can destroy a long established reputation. The Information Age has erased the boundaries, people from around the world can say out loud what they want to say, and other likeminded people can leave a comment, share, support etc. “Luxury Brands Must Innovate or Die in the Digital Age” (Ana Andjelic). If they want to stay afloat and if they want to be in demand among the digital generation, they have to accept without a question the rules of the game.

The first part of Tom Ford Black Orchid social media monitoring was dedicated mostly to the presence on social media and the main trends. In this part I would like to pay attention to the current statistics, social metrics and the target audience. I’ve learned that Tom Ford hasn’t always been so optimistic about social media. Let’s check his before and after quotes on social media.

In the past

“Tweeting? It's one of the silliest things ever”

-Tom Ford

Now

 “Something new is happening that I'm just clueing into now—this probably won't go down well—but customers don't care any more about reviews or hard-copy publications. They care what picture Rihanna just Instagrammed while she's naked in bed, what new shoes she has on, how she's talking about them. That's what they respond to”

-Tom Ford

 

1. Current  Metrics

1.1 Google Trends

The search item “tom ford black orchid” on Google Trends is a very vivid example how popular can be the Black Orchid perfume during the winter months. In this graph we can see the increase in popularity every December.

If we check the related posts in December 2006-2014, we’ll find a lot of articles that describe the best “affordable luxury” gifts at a competitive price. For instance, I found the post “55 beauty gifts under $150” and the Black Orchid was in that list.

In the first picture I've decided to compare the users' interest in Tom Ford "Black Orchid", Guerlain "Shalimar", Yves Saint Laurent "Cinema", and Dior "Poison" (according to the website fragrantica.com, people who like Black Orchid may also like these fragrances). The second picture represents the interest in Tom Ford, Yves Saint Lauren, Chanel and Dior perfume in general (without choosing a certain scent).

The results are the following:

1) Dior "Poison" is the most competitive scent among the selected ones. Over the past few years, the Black Orchid has increased the level of peoples' awareness, so the potential customers want to learn more about this perfume and to evaluate it by means of detailed reviews, positive and negative comments etc.

2) Chanel perfume has a long history and always sounds familiar, so it will be difficult to break this record.

3) The "December" trend holds, people are getting interested in perfume search before the holidays.

1.2 Social Mention

The Social Mention tool has shown the majority (199 neutral against 19 positive and 4 negative) of neutral sentiment.

1) the ratio of mentions that are generally positive to those that are generally negative is 5:1;

2) some passionate advocates post about Tom Ford Black Orchid repeatedly (45 % of passion, 111 unique authors);

4) it's a pretty high likelihood that Tom Ford Black Orchid is being discussed on social media.

1.3  Social Searcher

The Social Searcher tool has shown the same neutral sentiment but it's been divided into more specific groups (Facebook, Twitter and Google+). Google+ users show mostly the positive sentiment, Twitter and Facebook users are more neutral.

Comments on Facebook are mostly text-oriented, the Twitter comments reveal as a combination of a picture, a link, and a text.

2. Target Audience

According to the data from Alexa.com, we can see that the tomford.com visitors spend about 3 minutes daily, and the percentage of single page sessions is increasing. In comparison, people spend 3.5 minutes on Chanel.com, 4 minutes on Gucci.com, Armani.com, and Burberry.com. The audience demographics proves that website visitors are educated females who have a job. As far as the website is available in English, the site's visitors are located in the USA, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and Italy.

3. Comments and responses

I’ve checked a lot of comments on Tom Ford Facebook page, Tom Ford Twitter, Tom Ford Instagram and haven’t found any response on behalf of the company.

Comments on Black Orchid campaign are numerous and most of them seem to be rather gratifying. However, there are some statements where people are criticizing the excessive provocative act of Tom Ford's perfume campaigns. A group of female customers will not be disappointed if Tom Ford creates less "naked" campaign because they value an exceptional quality of the product, whereas, in contrast, some male customers are really appreciate the chosen campaign style and ask the company to follow this direction in the future.

All in all, social media accounts are lively, people are responding to each other. But one important detail catches the eye: the company prefers to keep silent below its posts.

Unisex perfume?

It's been a question for years. For a long time Tom Ford Black Orchid has been marketed as a female scent. Probably, it's finally being accepted as a unisex fragrance, and it can be proved by its presence in the men's fragrance counters at cosmetic stores. As one of the customers said "Made for a woman, perfected on a man".

 Questions

And there is still no answer.

Conclusion

The Digital Age has affected all spheres of our lives, and everything you say can be shared immediately.  And luxury brands are not the exception. The smart phone gives a great power and to customers who want to make right and thoughtful product choices. "Social media has become the preferred tool in many instances to create and share experiences as well as knowledge".

Recommendations:

1) To admit the importance of responding to customers on social media.  As practice shows, Tom Ford doesn't want to respond to his customers no matter if it's a question, a positive or a negative comment. But if a company created an account on social media and stall wishes the prosperity, it has to follow this simple social media rule. Customers want to be heard and want the company to be supportive.

2) To focus on diverse visual content. Tom Ford's team creates a very intriguing and high priced visual content. It's very interesting to look at, to enjoy its aesthetic qualities.  But it doesn't mean that the same content has to be multiplied every social media. As a customer, I expect a valuable and unpredictable content. In addition, the diversity in content is becoming a competitive necessity, users want to read something new and relevant.

3) To create a sense of exclusivity online. "Brands need to prove their worth online". Luxury brands are afraid of losing the sense of desirability and in order to prevent it they have to find the golden mean to stay prestigious while adopting a social media mindset and embracing the groundswell.

The Rise of Corporate Blogging and Connecting With the Groundswell

“You can’t force executives to blog – hence the eight months of waffling. You can take someone who wants to blog and build a strategy around him”

(p. 222, Groundswell)

Reading the chapter 11 of the Groundswell, I’ve found out a range of strong points on how to connect with the groundswell properly by means of blogging.  But it’s not “just a blogging”, it’s a very well-judged blogging strategy that must be involved in developing continually.

There are so many examples of outstanding corporate blogging on the Internet!  The best corporate blogs in this world are belong to Google, Disney, LinkedIn, Dell, BBC, Flickr etc. The Official Google Blog is phenomenal, it collects the insights from all over the company. If we take a look at a person who is keeping the Official Google Blog, we’ll not find a specific individual who is responsible for the content. An incredible activity comes from bloggers from all areas of the Google Company (“very diverse crowd”):

Eventually, this corporate blogging strategy (since April 2004) brings true success and the feedback represented by 13,173,202 subscribers (including me).

So, I’ve decided to choose something less expected to be written about such as a Bigelow Tea Blog (this blog was included in that “successful list” too).

‘The effective corporate blog has one central goal - to connect with the target audience's interests, needs and pain points"

 Paul Salvaggio, 

director of marketing services and technology for Backbone Media

Well, let’s analyze Bigelow Tea blogging success. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s a really effective blog. What is more interesting for me is to learn how the Bigelow Tea Blog has found a way to be in “Top 40 Successful Corporate Blogs”.

First of all, authors of the Groundswell suggest to start small. Indeed, if we take a look at the previous posts, they can amaze with their unobtrusiveness. We can observe that a very rich content of the Bigelow Tea Blog has been creating and “growing up” for years. Currently, the blog is divided into categories:

 

The content comprises 8 categories and 19 subcategories that can be evaluated as a meticulous work.  A reader may enjoy a great variety of topics. And I’m sure that this blog has the loyal but silent readers.

Get the right people to run your strategy

So, there is no need to “pick the person who has the most passion about starting a relationship with your customers”. Cindi Bigelow, who is the 3^rd generation President & CEO of family-owned Bigelow Tea, is one of the most passionate professionals in this company. She is promoting the Bigelow Tea company by means of new media channels (especially social media) to prove Bigelow Tea “is accessible everywhere, 24/7”.

 

Plan for the next step and for the long term

As I’ve already mentioned, the blog has many tea themes to write about. I would like to add that the blog is updating with a noticeable frequency. For instance, during October 2015 Cindi Bigelow created 9 posts! What an inexhaustible source of inspiration!

One more observation

According to the comment policy, we cannot just leave the comment. It will be moderated, and it cannot be guaranteed that our comment will be published. And if we have any customer service issues, we shouldn’t talk about them right here.  Well, it looks like a good explanation why we don’t see a hot discussion below the post. 

Cindi prefers to collect the customers’ comments or pictures from the rest social media and to share them on the corporate blog. All in all, she is listening to, talking to, energizing, supporting and embracing the groundswell and following her own strategy. 

What do you think about the Tea Blogging (if there is the end of ideas or no)?

TOM FORD BLACK ORCHID: Social Media Monitoring Part 1

Introduction

In 2008, I got acquainted with the perfume Tom Ford: Black Orchid, and I couldn't forget it. And what is more, I've never expected to write a whole post about it and share it on my blog.

History

Tom Ford is a fashion designer who was the creative director of Gucci from 1994-2004. After French multinational company (Pinault Printemps Redoute) bought Gucci in 2004, Tom Ford resigned from the company. In 2005 he founded his own fashion company. Nowadays, Tom Ford International, LLC (is based in New York) designs menswear and womenswear, offers fragrances and eyewear for men and women, footwear, cosmetics, treatments, and private blend products. 

Black Orchid

Black Orchid is a luxurious perfume for women which was created by Tom Ford in 2006. "It's a dark and sensual fragrance, featuring notes of black truffle, dark chocolate, amber, and balsam". The bottle was designed by Doug Lloyd.

"This isn't so much about the fragrance, though it's a wonderfully heady scent, but the man himself. With any product developed by Tom Ford comes an air of drama and that glamorous quality women associate with both the man, and the brand"

Since it regards the name of the designer and the perfume "Black Orchid" as inseparable, I'll analyze the existing information about both of them, highlighting the key points of the Black Orchid promotion.

Social Media Overview

1. Website

Tom Ford International, LLC website is used to post the latest information about the brand. We can evaluate how stylish it is and how perfectly it underlines the vision of success, attractiveness, and mysteriousness. The website is intuitively simple, you can easily find the necessary information. For instance, I was looking for these buttons:

2. Facebook

Likes: 1,108,182
(Active since July 18, 2014)

The Facebook page of Tom Ford International provides both: the most recent campaign information and the archives.

3. Twitter
Followers: 47,900
Tweets: 356
Favorites: 18
(Active since February 18, 2014)
The official Twitter account of TOM FORD represents exactly the same content. The same powerful words and provocative photos.

4. YouTube
Subscribers: 13,908
Views: 2,445,919
(Active since July 25, 2012)

As it turned out, the official YouTube account of TOM FORD is designed for menswear and womenswear presentation, and I haven't found any information about the Black Orchid perfume. However, you can find a lot of Black Orchid video reviews provided by users.

5. Tumblr
(Active since May 1, 2014) 

So, you can find all the same pictures on Tumblr as you've already found on the rest social media.

6. Instagram
Posts: 364 
Followers: 1.2 million
Following: 0

People's hands holding the bottles of Tom Ford Black Orchid perfume is an example of a high level of engagement. And the fact that these amateur pictures were taken on cell phone cameras is (the "first hand" effect) is a very unifying and supportive force.

According to the picture above, the hashtag #tomford is more popular than #tomfordblackorchid, the  #tomfordblackorchid is more popular than #tomfordperfume, and finally, the #tomfordperfume is more popular than #tomfordfragrance. Again, it seems that "this isn't so much about the fragrance, but the man himself".

7. Pinterest

Pins: 539
Followers: 6,800
Following: 0
The latest fragrance update was 3 weeks ago. Tom Ford keeps reminding us that the Black Orchid perfume will be challenging and desirable forever. 

8. Weibo
Followers: 10,264

This microblog and the presence of Tom Ford's company on Chinese social media platforms is truly a great discovery for me. Tom Ford is expanding his business in China and he makes efforts to meet the needs of potential customers throughout the entire world.

9. Google+
Followers: 136,779
Views: 3,474,462

To everyone's amazement, TOM FORD International is very active on Google+.

In this picture we can see 4 posts on Black Orchid fragrance promotion which demonstrate the "reminder advertising" strategy. Probably, Tom Ford wants to keep the relationship between Black Orchidand customers intriguing and interesting, and less annoying.

Positive and Negative
The reviews are mostly constructive (it doesn't matter if it's a positive or a negative review), people tend to explain their point of view and even give recommendations. Once again, it proves the high level of involvement with the brand.

 Target Audience

Source: Fragrantica (an online encyclopedia of perfumes, a perfume magazine and a community of perfume lovers)

In this picture we can see that the Black Orchid perfume is in demand among women who have reached the age of 25 and older. What is more, this site gives us a lot of useful information about the customers' reflections on this scent. For instance, we've learned that Black Orchid is more likely to be the fall and winter perfume (so, customers will be ready to buy it during these seasons). In addition, the majority of people gave their votes for "night" scent.

Tom Ford describes his female customer:

"My customer has her own sense of style and knows herself well. My goal is to help women become the best version of themselves"

Tom Ford 

Current Metrics
1. Social Mention for "Tom Ford: Black Orchid"
The results are the following:
1) the ratios of mentions that are generally positive to those that are generally negative are 2:0, 1:0, and 1:0;
2) the number of unique authors referencing Black Orchid divided by the total number of mentions is 1 %;
3) a small group of very passionate advocates doesn't text about Black Orchid repeatedly, these people post images instead;
4) it's a very low likelihood that Black Orchid is being discussed on social media.

Social Mention for "Tom Ford"

1) the ratios of mentions that are generally positive to those that are generally negative are 2:0, 12:0, and 0:0;

2) the number of unique authors referencing Tom Ford divided by the total number of mentions is 62 % in microblogs and 38 % in images;

3)  some passionate advocates post about Tom Ford in microblogs repeatedly (50 % of passion, 31 unique authors);

4) it's a very high likelihood that Tom Ford is being discussed on social media.

As we can see, the creator is much more popular than his creation.

2. Google Trends
According to Google Trends, the searches for Tom Ford peaked in 2014. Regionally, searches came from New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, London, Sydney, Vancouver, Melbourne.

   3. Meltwater IceRocket

In conclusion, I'm beginning to think that TOM FORD INTERNATIONAL aims to reach all the existing social media platforms. And it doesn't seem to care a lot about the repetitiveness of the content. I guess even loyal customers who follow TOM FORD on every social media, one day will become really bored by this repetitiveness.