• How to Increase Social Media Followers and Sales? Ask Uniqlo

    Growing sales is an important goal for every retailer. How do you do it in a foreign country and a huge market where you are relatively unknown? How do you leverage social and mobile media? If you are thinking along the lines of conventional strategies such as run promotions using social media and create a contest, think again. In the Chinese market, Uniqlo, the Japanese fast fashion retailer, used a simple but powerful idea, comprising the following principles.

    • Be relevant to everyday life of shoppers through social and mobile media.
    • Use physical stores to let shoppers try out its clothes, take selfies and pictures against exotic backgrounds, and share with their friends.
    • Create buzz and excitement around the brand through fun associations.

    The results were impressive; WeChat (China’s ubiquitous social mobile app), users doubled and sales of some items rose by as much as 30%.

    Lessons learned? Be relevant, keep it simple, and think different. 

  • Leveraging Social Networks and Social Media

    This course is designed to give you a good understanding of the fundamentals of social networks and social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Youtube and how to leverage them to achieve strategic marketing and sales objectives for the organization.  The focus will be on understanding and application of social network and media concepts and tools in the form of presentation, discussion of real world examples, and breakout case exercises.  The course will emphasize the following key elements: 1. Strategic Analysis of Social Networks and Social Media: Issues of focal concern include analysis of the four Cs of social networks and media: connect, create, consume and control and their implications for strategic marketing and sales management. 2. Strategic Marketing Decision Making Process: This process enables executives and managers to systematically organize the learning from social networks and media for effective marketing and sales strategies.  The major emphasis of this process will be on application of the relevant analysis tools to make strategic decisions.