Social Media Measurement & Analysis:

Urban Outfitters

Laura Ene

Brand Overview

• Urban Outfitters was started in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1970 and was originally called the“Free The People Store”. It was known for “funky fashion” and household items.

• The clothing and products sold are known for being a mix of vintage, bohemian, retro, and hipster.

• Its target market is men and women 18-30 years of age.

Urban Outfitters

Social Media Presence

• Urban Outfitters main social media outlets include: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Blogs, and Foursquare.

• Twitter by far has the highest activity among all other types of social media outlets.

Urban Outfitters

Social Media Analysis:

Twitter• Urban Outfitters has a large Twitter

following and it is one of the brands strongest social media outlets.

– Followers: 611,882– Following: 1,099– Tweets: 4,008

Urban Outfitters

Twitter• The conversation around UO via Twitter is mostly positive,

with users posting links of items they like from the website, sales and deals they have found, and just their overall enjoyment of the brand.

• Like all major retail brands, there is some negative feedback from customers regarding certain fashion and products.

Urban Outfitters

Twitter• More positive feedback via Radian 6 and orginial twitter

search:

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Twitter

• Some negative feedback via Radian 6 and organic Twitter search:

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Twitter• Below is a graph via Radian 6 of the overall positive,

negative, and mixed feedback of UO social media posts

• Feedback is mostly positive• Looking through a real-time twitter feed of posts mentioning

and tagging “Urban Outfitters” also shows much more positive than negative commentary.

Urban Outfitters

Social Media Analysis:

Facebook• Another area where UO thrives online is

the brands Facebook page. Here they posts pictures, contests, and events in more detail.– Likes: 1,568,849– Talking about: 38,720– Were here: 36,451

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Facebook

• While conversation around UO is much less on Facebook compared to Twitter, the brand still gets mentioned by users. Most of the status posts found are positive.

• Example of negative Facebook post:

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Facebook

• Graph comparing positive to negative posts, much smaller scale versus Twitter findings.

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Social Media Analysis:

Blogs• Urban Outfitters is mentioned in a variety

of blogs and the brand even has its own blog connected to their website.

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Blogs

• Example of a positive blog post:

• Example of a negative blog post:

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Blogs

• Graph comparing positive, negative, and mixed blog postings:

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Social Media Analysis:

Instagram• The newest form of social media that brands have been

becoming a part of is Instagram. For a retail brand like Urban Outfitters, this is a great way to post pictures of new products, advertisements of sales and discounts, and any fun info relevant to products that users would be interested in.– Photos: 692– Followers: 554k– Following: 85

Urban Outfitters

Instagram

• Usually all posts and commentary via Instagram are positive.

• The most common types of Instagrams for UO are users taking pictures of their products and hashtag the brand in the caption.

• The most popular tags for the brand include:– #UrbanOutfitters– #UrbanOutfittersUK– #UrbanOutfittersUSA– #UrbanOutfittersNailpolish

Urban Outfitters

Instagram

• The brand does receive some negative posts on Instagram, usually customers complain about certain products and post a picture of the product.

Urban Outfitters

Social Media Analysis:

Foursquare• Another more recent trend in social media is Foursquare.

Location based services and media are becoming increasingly popular and retail brands gain a lot by putting their various locations on this type of application. Users can check in to almost any location around the country, even achieving things like being “mayor” of a certain store.

Urban Outfitters

Foursquare

• Its easy to see that most conversation around a social media site like Foursquare would be positive, since most customers who have a negative view on the brand would not likely “check in” to the location.

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YouTube• Urban Outfitters also has a significant Youtube presence online,

with users posting videos after shopping hauls, Black Friday deals, and other events. There are also parody's made regarding the brand, like “Shit Girls Say: At Urban Outfitters”

Urban Outfitters

Conversation Cloud

• Urban Outfitters Conversation Cloud via Radian 6• Date Range: 30 days• Data from: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Blogs, Comments, Images, Videos

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Conversation Trends

• Graph of trend by number of posts for the month of November via Radian 6

• Highest on days of sales or discounts (Nov. 17th – Online sale began on specific items, Nov. 22nd – Black Friday)

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Brand Controversy

• A topic of controversy regarding UO came up in late October regarding the brands sale of Che Guevara T-shirts.

• Che Guevara is an Argentine-born guerrilla leader and thought of by many as a communist.

• UO has since stopped the sale of all Guevara items.• Links to the brands website and Guevara items are no

longer active and “Che Guevara” no longer produces any search results on the brands page.

Urban Outfitters

Brand Controversy

• An article headlined “Urban Outfitters Buys Yard Sale Clothes In Bulk And Resells Them To Hipsters As 'Vintage‘” on Business Insider also raised a lot of controversy recently. The topic was originally posted on Reddit and had a large amount of feedback.

• The brand is accused of purchasing clothing items from discounted yard sales and reselling the items as “vintage”

• No commentary from UO was found in the article, and the accuracy of this claim is up for debate.

Urban Outfitters

Competitors

• The brand has a wide variety of competitors, some in different price ranges and types of purchasing outlets (for example: online only).

• Major competitors include:– American Apparel– Top Shop– Akira– Tobi (online)– NastyGal (online)

• Other competitors in lower price ranges:– H&M– Forever 21

Urban Outfitters

Competitors

• When comparing the amount of social media conversation of what I found to be Urban Outfitters main competitors (American Apparel and Top Shop), UO had significantly higher engagement.

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Competitors

• There were also many examples of competition among Urban Outfitters and different brands on social media.

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SWOT Analysis

• Strengths– The conversation around the brand is always mostly

positive, with users posting about their favorite products and deals.

– A strong Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram following make the brand relevant in the online community.

– There is a constant mention of the brand via real-time Twitter feed.

– The promotion of discounts, 20% off sales, Black Friday, contests and more are hyped up via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.• Ex: on Election day, if you brought proof that you had voted

(sticker), you received 20% off your purchase. Promoted with a picture via Instagram.

Urban Outfitters

SWOT Analysis

• Weaknesses– Certain products and advertisements the store

has had are criticized by consumers:• Slide 22 gives the example of the Che Guevara t-shirts and

items UO once sold. The brand caused a lot of controversy by selling these items of the once communist leader. Since the controversy, the brand has taken down all products pertaining to Guevara.

• Slide 17 shows an Instagram of a glass sold by UO which says “Who Cares 2012” in regards to the election. Many people found this offensive, saying that the brand was encouraging young people to not take part in the voting process.

• Slide 10 shows a post by a mother on Facebook. She posts about being upset over the use of hair spray as a fire torch in the brands magazine catalog.

Urban Outfitters

SWOT Analysis

• Weaknesses Cont.– Much of the negativity surrounding the brand on social

media is also due to the high prices of products. Many users compare items UO sells to much cheaper products of the same quality or style.

– Users taking their view to social media allows unlimited amounts of people to also view the negative feedback, and maybe change their opinion of the brand.• The person who posted the instagram of the “Who Cares 2012”

cups also posted it to Twitter and tagged Urban Outfitters on Foursquare. Instead of releasing the negative commentary to one social media outlet, it went to three.

Urban Outfitters

SWOT Analysis

• Opportunities– The opportunities are endless for UO to increase customer

following and positive commentary on social media. – Taking advantage of newer apps like Instagram and Foursquare will

keep the brand relevant in the continuing change of social media outlets.

– Monitoring negative feedback on products and advertisements is key to changing the views of people who look at the brand negatively.• Once a negative post is found, UO customer service should respond

immediately, attempting to fix the damage..• If enough negative feedback surrounds a product or advertisement, it should be

taken away.

– Increasing activity on blogging might be a great away to get more customer interaction, since this method of social media is now becoming increasingly popular.• The brand could monitor Twitter, Instagram, or FB users who regularly post

about the brand and chose a person to become a regular blogger for the brand.

Urban Outfitters

SWOT Analysis

• Threats– One of the main threats that Urban Outfitters faces is other

competitors becoming more relevant in the social media world.• Keeping up with discounts and contests online and engaging in

conversation with users will help avoid this.

– Not addressing negative feedback immediately could lead to many consumers noticing and changing their views on the brand.

– Paying too much attention to one social media site may lead to others becoming irrelevant.• Twitter is UO’s most popular social media outlet, but not keeping up

with Facebook could lead to a loss in customers that are primarily on that site.

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Recommendations For Next Steps

• The brand is mostly handling the ever-changing social media world correctly. It is engaging in conversations with users, promoting deals and discounts, and posting about new products daily.

• For the next step, the brand could build up its interaction with customers to reach its full potential of social media conversation and relevance.

• For example: taking full advantage of the brands Twitter following will help bring people into the store and to shop online.– A contest of some sort would be useful to hold on Twitter. That way

current followers will become involved, and it may also lead to their followers engaging in the brand conversation as well.

• One thing UO must change is its response to negative feedback. Taking the time to individually handle each consumers problem, if possible, will help bring the brand to achieve a higher positive following.

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Methods• The date range used for most of the posts were from the last 30 days,

(November 1st 2012 – November 30th 2012) using Radian 6.• Sites like Social Seek, Hootsuite, Social Mention, and Edgekick were used

to analyze conversation.• Over the past few weeks, looking through live Twitter feeds containing the

phrase “Urban Outfitters” and the hashtag #UrbanOutfitters was also used to pull Twitter examples.

• The keywords and hastags used in the report included:– “Urban Outfitters”– “UrbanOutfitters”– “UO”– “UrbanOutfittersCo”– “Urban Outfitters Co”– #UrbanOutfittersCo– #UrbanOutfitters– #UO– Hipster– Trendy– Urban

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Executive Summary• Urban Outfitters has a relevant social media presence, the brand is

frequently active on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Blogs, and Foursquare - which are some of the top social media outlets today.

• Consumers constantly post about the brand via Twitter, using #UrbanOutfitters as the main hashtag. They also comment on Facebook posts and share the brands posts on their walls. There are a large amount of Instagram posts of UO products with the caption #UrbanOutfitters. Consumers also check into different UO locations around the country via Foursquare.

• Consumer feedback is mostly positive, with users posting pictures of products, commenting on styles they enjoy.

• Negative feedback is small, and if handled better in the future can most likely be largely eliminated. Negative commentary is usually related to controversial products and overly priced items.

• New ways of promoting the brand like contests, giveaways, and incorporating more blogging will increase brand awareness and overall positive feedback from consumers.

Urban Outfitters