Do fashion brands need Facebook?

Facebook being one of the social media sites with the highest traffic worldwide, I was curious to learn how strongly fashion companies are using the site within their online marketing strategies. According to Mediapost.com, fashion brands need Facebook, as it provides fashion companies a unique environment that is more powerful than traditional marketing. As also discussed by Mike Moran in his book ‘Do it wrong quickly’, Web marketing through social media allows customers to segment themselves based on their needs which he calls marketing personalization. And Facebook is a great example for this.

But to what extend do fashion companies need Facebook? I think fashion companies should not rely too heavily on sites such as Facebook, as it cannot replace traditional media. However, it is important to not underestimate the importance of having a facebook presence. Marketers need to consider this channel as a messaging opportunity next to other channels leveraging the fact that their customers have deliberately decided to become a fan of their favorite brand.

Pink, a Victoria's Secret Brand, is a great example how an apparel retailer can use Facebook effectively to reach a specific segment. Pink was able to attract almost 1.5 million fans by uploading for example fun videos about two guys travelling around USA. Some of them are really funny and definitely worth watching:

H&M's way to get fashion blog exposure

H&M is another fashion retailer that is successfully using e-marketing to its advantage. The Swedish company is using global online experience involving social media applications to help push its Autumn Fashion collection. This social media application was developed as part of the new website concept. This application, which is available globally on H&M’s website is called ‘Blog This’ and includes an easy to use tool that allows the user to create a collage out of their favorite clothes in the most recent H&M collection.

This is an example how it could look like:


Once the collage is done, the user can click on 'Post To Blog' and receives an image that can be posted on the fashion blog:


I see this social media application as a highly innovative and creative idea that will help H&M to increase its blog exposure. Besides that, users can put together their favorite outfits and automatically receive the total purchase price of the outfit. In countries such as Germany this seems to be an important feature, as customers can use the webshop to buy their favorite outfits right away. Good job H&M!