Facing up to the new way of trade

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Business reporter Amy Wilson-Chapman gets an insider look into Perth’s new General Pants and Co and their expansion plans in WA.

NEW SHOP: General Pants Co. creative retail director Rodney Misso gave PerthNow a sneak peak of the new store. Picture: PerthNow
Source: PerthNow

NOT JUST THE BIG GUYS: WA retailer Pekho has been using Facebook to build support. Picture: Facebook
Source: Supplied

RETAIL giants General Pants Co and David Jones are turning to social media to reach new customers, along with the little guys.

The importance of the new media was highlighted by General Pants Co’s decision to use Facebook to announce its new Perth store and invite customers to yesterday’s opening. 

General Pants Co’s creative retail director Rodney Misso said social media was a big part of the company’s marketing.

And given a recent Nielsen survey found social media was the most common activity for 73 per cent of online Australians it’s no wonder David Jones also signed up.

The national department store quietly started on social media last month, using Facebook and Twitter to offer new advertising in addition to traditional promotions. “Media consumption by our customers has changed and social media is becoming a very highly utilised channel for our customers,” David Jones’ digital marketing and e-tail manager Georgia Chewing said. 

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“We see that it provides an opportunity to engage with our customers and develop far richer experiences and relationships with those customers in order to engage and build loyalty.” 

Ms Chewing said David Jones believed the “more engaged” customers were with the company and the “deeper” the relationship, the more likely they were to shop there.

Socialite Media managing director Tenille Bentley said of social media: “It’s listening first and selling second.”

Socialite is helping about 30 WA companies use social media to reach customers.

Deloitte online consulting director Michael Scott said social media was an important tool for businesses because of its reach.

And it’s not just the big names who are dabbling in the market. Plenty of small local companies are embracing the technology.

“I think Facebook is a good way of reaching people who aren’t necessarily walking past the shop,” said Buffy Murray, owner of Fremantle shop Pekho.

She launched a Facebook page as soon as her lease was signed and work on the store started.

 ”I thought documenting the transformation would be a bit of fun and create a bit of excitement,” she said.

 The ability for customers to “like” pages and quickly share information was invaluable for any business, he said.

 The medium’s wide reach was highlighted by Deloitte’s recent success with a client who received a 35 per cent increase in job applications after switching from paper brochures to social media.

 Subiaco-based Em Clothing’s director Claire Cherry said she used Facebook to give customers a sneak peak at what they could expect in store.

“The way people spend and the way they look for stuff is changing,” she said.

Ms Bentley said the biggest problem facing companies was a lack of education.

She likened the medium to a “barbecue conversation” where it was important to build a rapport and have a casual interaction with customers before doing the hard sell.

“All you’re doing is talking to real people. You’re humanising your brand with people and that’s where, if you can master, that you’re doing it well,” she said.

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TAT expands online marketing

TOURISM

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) says it will use more technology and the internet to increase the effectiveness of its marketing and promotion campaigns.

The TAT’s Amazing Thailand Facebook page has attracted 201,392 followers to date.

“More online campaigns should be launched as international tourists look up information from the internet,” said Thapanee Kiatphaibool, the TAT’s director for the marketing information technology group.

At present, the number of internet users worldwide is estimated at about 2.1 billion and that of mobile users is 1.4 billion. Smartphone users are projected to number around 450 million next year.

“We will also apply customer relationship management (CRM) on many channels such as websites, social networks, mobile applications and games. Good CRM will help us collect data to create more targeted marketing campaigns in future,” she said.

It is expected that attractive marketing campaigns will help increase tourist awareness and drive the number of repeat visitors to Thailand.

The TAT’s key “quality” markets include families, generations X and Y, women and senior citizens. Primary markets are medical, wedding, eco-tourism and golf, while alternative markets are Mice and expatriates.

Ms Thapanee said the TAT would do country-specific marketing campaigns. For example, the TAT has collaborated with local travel agents in China to promote Thailand destinations on well-known blogs.

At present, page views of most national tourism organisations worldwide are decreasing because tourists and internet users prefer to gather information on social media or blogs. Therefore, the TAT is focusing more seriously on social media.

“Our Facebook page has links to all TAT portals. This helps draw visitors to our website and we hope that will motivate them to travel in Thailand,” Ms Thapanee said.

This year, the TAT expects the number of page views for its website to increase by 20-25% to 58-59 million and unique IPs will rise by 18-20% to 7.5 million. In July, TAT website drew 6.45 million hits and unique IPs of 927,673, compared to 4.422 million page views and 665,568 unique IPs in June.

In terms of traffic, the top five national tourism organisations in the region are those of Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia respectively.

Mobile application development is also important because mobile apps could help reach the high-end market, said Ms Thapanee.

The TAT will highlight applications via iPhone, iPad and Android-based devices, focusing on the wedding, medical and golf markets.

The agency has invested 10 million baht in social media. It has 253,010 fans and followers via Twitter and Facebook, up from 112,801 last September.

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About the author

Writer: Chadamas Chinmaneevong
Position: Reporter

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