The brand that I have selected for this Social Listening blog is Forever 21 because it is a brand I happen to be quite familiar with as I do some of my clothes shopping there from time to time. I also chose it because I have heard some controversial things about it before, like how it went bankrupt back in 2017. Despite that however, I still see their stores open at every mall I go to and people still seem to be buying products from them, myself included. From what I have gathered from social media about what people are saying about it, it seems to be a mix of good and bad. There are lots of people who are excited about new items they are bringing out and how much they love shopping there, and there is others who seem not as satisfied with their items or customer service.
According to Forever 21, their value proposition is "to inspire all customers shopping experience by providing a captivating and exciting store environment with a never-ending flow of fun, on-trend fashion at a great value." And while it seems that they provide that kind of store environment for their shoppers and clothes at a great value, there are still people who seem to think otherwise.
I came across these two comments while looking on Instagram from two people who are clearly upset with their experience of shopping there. The first comment is stating that Forever 21 is the worst place to shop online, which is a pretty big claim to make. However, they did end up replying to that person and giving them their email so that they can get in contact with them directly which shows that they are responding with their customers. The person who wrote the second comment seems to have never gotten what they ordered, and are even going so far as to say that they probably blamed it on Ontrac, a company that provides regional shipping services. I think it is also important to note that Forever 21 did not respond to this person's comment. It also sounds like Forever 21 has had issues with shipping products to people before which is not a good look for their brand.
This next comment I found is expressing how they dislike that the Forever 21 near them does not have a plus size option for clothing. Again, it is good to see that they are responding to their customer's comments and are expressing that they appreciate their concern. It seems that for the most part they are responding to people who might have a more negative comment and are responding with a helpful comment back.
And finally, I came across a comment like this where this person is saying that Forever 21 is their favorite store to shop at, and there are plenty of other comments like that as well. I will say that a majority of the comments Forever 21 gets on their posts are ones that are positive and are people showing their love for the brand. But there are the occasional ones too like the ones shown above where people have expressed issues they have come across while shopping there.
What Forever 21 is seen promoting on their social media channels is sponsorships they have with other brands/people, new clothing items they have in store, special collections they have come out with, sales they have going on, and giveaways. All of those things relate to the brand's marketing efforts because there is nothing people love more when shopping than things like sales and giveaways that allow them to get items for half off on completely free. So they use that as a way to target their audience and get people to buy their products.
One thing I really liked to see while looking through their Instagram posts was how much they were responding to people's comments that should have definitely been responded to, especially if it was regarding an issue they had while shopping. It seemed like they make an effort to respond to people's comments which is something that as a customer, I definitely want to be seeing and it makes me feel good about shopping there. However, as seen in the first screenshot, I did notice that they did not respond to someone asking about their order which is not the best customer service. So it appears that they do not always respond to people's comments about a question or concern that they had. But overall, they seem to be fairly consistent with their responses to their customers. If I was a brand manager, I would most certainly do all I could to make sure that people who were writing questions and concerns on our posts would be getting a reply from the brand. I understand that when there is lots and lots of people commenting, it is hard to find ones that need responding to. But I would definitely want to make sure that I could go above and beyond for my customers and respond to them as much as I can.
What I have learned from this assignment is that it is important to pay attention to what people are saying about your brand, good and bad, and to acknowledge what they are saying by sending them a response.
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