Vivian Huang
JMS 496
Davis
May 15, 2013
Case Study: J. Crew
Known for its “preppy” style, J. Crew has been an iconic American brand since it made
its debut in 1983. According to its retail site, J. Crew “offers the highest quality” men’s,
women’s and children’s clothing including shoes, jewelry and even bridal gowns. What started
out as a clothing catalog made its way to becoming a flagship store in New York’s South Street
Seaport. Today, J. Crew has expanded to both retail and outlet stores nationwide, in addition to
its online store and continuing catalog business. Its clothing has been sported by all sorts of
celebrities and public figures including Michelle Obama, Kelly Ripa and Reese Witherspoon,
and has made its way amongst everyday people who believe that timeless classics are fashion
must-haves. Compared to its competitors, J. Crew has been slow to jump on the social media
train. However, many of J. Crew’s consumers are brand loyalists and do much of their social
media marketing for them. In this case study, we will examine the strengths and weaknesses of J.
Crew’s current social media use and develop ways in which it can improve to become a social
branding guru.
Currently, J. Crew utilizes five main social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr,
Pinterest and Instagram. At a glance, J. Crew’s social media sites reflect the brand’s image by
having clean-cut, aesthetically pleasing layouts and images – they do a great job showcasing who
they are and what they have to offer. However, the brand does not appear to have a great amount
of consumer interaction and instead, sends out a large number of one-way communication
messages to its audience. One can consider the fact that maybe, J. Crew feels like it doesn’t need
to have constant brand engagement with its consumers. After all, the goal of brand engagement
is to create customers who will drive the business forward, and J. Crew seems to have just that
with its A-list celebrity and blogger clientele.
J. Crew’s fashion merchandise, by itself, seems to drive many into brand loyalty without
any direct prodding from the company. The problem is that J. Crew does not address or engage
its everyday customers, who make up a large amount of its overall consumers. The fashion scene
is constantly changing, and luckily, for the past 30 years, J. Crew has been able to keep up with
the trends while remaining true to its brand. But it is quite possible that one day J. Crew will be
seen by the new generation as outdated and out of style. What J. Crew will want to do, especially
with the millennial generation, is to increase its social media presence and engage with the
younger population so that in the future, they will be just as eager to spread the gospel of J. Crew
and inspire others to shop in their stores.
Another problem J. Crew has is that there is inconsistency between its social media
platforms. Though the brand has slowly been improving its social media efforts, the
improvements have been inconsistent across the board. J. Crew has the tendency to focus on one
social media platform and constantly updating it and then sporadically jumping to another one of
its social media platforms and keep that one updated. Though it is not for certain, it seems that J.
Crew either has multiple employees, each overseeing a specific platform, which is causing the
inconsistent updates and brand engagements, or J. Crew has one main social media person who
is overseeing all of the platforms and therefore cannot commit to consistent updates and
engagement with the fans. Due to the inconsistency between its social media pages, it is also
difficult to tell what exactly J. Crew’s social media goals are. Is it customer engagement? Is it to
give its fans a glimpse into the brand lifestyle? Is it simply to showcase its products and current
offers, or all of the above? To better answer these questions, let us examine each of its social
media platforms individually.
J. Crew currently has two Facebook pages, their main page called J. Crew and a separate
page for their outlet store J. Crew Factory. Statistically speaking, its main page seems to do
relatively well with 1,002,275 likes and 8,756 people “talking about it” (Figure 1). Its factory
store page doesn’t fare nearly as well with only 160,716 likes and 1,484 people “talking about
it.” Compared to one of its main competitors Banana Republic (970,260 likes), J. Crew seems to
be faring relatively well. Unfortunately when compared to its other competitors, J. Crew falls
behind both The Gap (4,387,265 likes) and Ann Taylor (1,007,583 likes). So what’s the reason
for the big number gaps?
Figure 1
Well for starters, you will notice that the first thing that distinguishes J. Crew’s Facebook
pages from its competitors is that no one has “been there.” And by that, I don’t mean that no one
shops at J. Crew because we all know that’s not true, but according to its Facebook page, no one
has ever checked-in at J. Crew. The reason for this is that J. Crew doesn’t have check-in
locations linked to its official Facebook page and therefore when someone attempts to check-in
to the store, they will have to make up a check-in location or select from probably a long list of
“J. Crew locations” made by other J. Crew fans. When you access the Facebook pages of J.
Crew’s competitors from your mobile phone, the very first things you will see are nearby
locations (Figure 2). This allows fans to simply click on the location that they are at and checkin with ease; the check-in will then of course appear on the Newsfeed of every friend of said fan,
and what J. Crew’s competitors have just now obtained is free advertising. By not having the
official locations feature, J. Crew is losing out on a lot of potential social capital. Fans of J. Crew
want to help promote the brand but they need the tools to do so. If J. Crew would supply them
such a simple tool as an official location to check-in at, the company could potentially generate
more page views, more “likes” and more fans.
Figure 2
Another thing that you will notice on J. Crew’s Facebook pages is the fact that neither
one of them give consumers the option to write or post on their Timeline. There are limited
interactions between J. Crew and their fans. The only way fans can post on the Facebook pages
is by commenting on a post that J. Crew has already made. Often times J. Crew’s post is
completely irrelevant to what the fan has to say and even more often, many of these ideas or
suggestion go un-responded (Figure 3). This leads to two things: 1) there is no interaction
between J. Crew and their fans and 2) J. Crew is not considering nor encouraging feedback from
their fans. They are, essentially, breaking the first rule of groundswell by not listening.
Figure 3
According to Li and Bernoff (2011), “your brand is what your customers say it is.”
Companies throw away millions of dollars a year on advertising and spend all of their time
carefully sculpting an image of what they want their brand to be. Their biggest mistake is
thinking that because it is their brand, the brand is whatever the company wants it to be. Wrong.
As we are moving forward into this digital age, companies no longer have the say of who or
what their brand is – that, is up to the consumers. If J. Crew took the time to listen to what
consumers had to say, they could better tailor their products to their fans. Although J. Crew
already has a large fan base, they are not addressing the thoughts, ideas or opinions of their fans.
If a customer has a terrible experience at J. Crew, the company would never know about it
because they don’t offer the customer any options in regards to sharing their experience. The
customer’s negative experience will then go unaddressed, potentially skewing their view of J.
Crew and ultimately can lead to the customer becoming not a fan of J. Crew. But this is just one
bad customer experience, right? Well let’s say that the customer then in turn posts a Facebook
status or Tweet about their negative experience with J. Crew. Now this negative image of the
company has conspired and from one bad experience, J. Crew has lost a handful of former J.
Crewaholics. With all of the possible negative experiences combined, J. Crew has potentially lost
hundreds of people who could have been brand advocates if their thoughts and opinions had been
heard.
Fans of J. Crew want to interact with the brand. They want to share with the world their
love for J. Crew and in return, they want to J. Crew to acknowledge and appreciate their
presence. Looking over J. Crew’s Facebook posts, they average at no more than 30 comments
per post, with the exception of one. On May 5th, J. Crew shared with its fans three different
designs that their team has come up with for the Teach For America J. Crew T-shirt contest. The
company asked fans to cast their vote for their favorite design and the winner would be made and
sold in stores and online over the holiday season. With this call to action, J. Crew received an
astonishing 860 comments and 145 shares. This particular post showed J. Crew fans that the
company values their opinions and therefore the fans were quick to respond (Figure 4).
Figure 4
If that single Facebook post isn’t convincing enough that J. Crew fans want to become
advocates for the brand, J. Crewaholics will change your mind. J. Crewaholics is a blog started in
2008 by Siv Lam. Lam was a recent college grad with a degree in public relations, who was
learning the ropes of social media. Lam was just your typical fan, with no association with the
brand, but she wanted to start a community for people with a passion for J. Crew. If J. Crew
wanted a competitive advantage over their competitors, they would have been the ones to start
the J. Crewaholics community or at the very least, endorsed Lam and found out what she needed
in order to grow J. Crewaholics. J. Crewaholics’ Facebook page again affirms the fact that fans
feel a disconnection from the brand. Many fans post on the J. Crewaholics Facebook page,
thinking that they might reach someone at J. Crew corporate (Figure 5). Posts include praise and
ideas for J. Crew, but also negative experiences that people have had with J. Crew that have gone
unaddressed because J. Crew is not actively monitoring when their brand is being mentioned on
the web.
Figure 5
According to the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) marketing strategy, negative comments
in it of themselves are not that detrimental to the brand. It is when those negative comments go
unaddressed that they become important touch points for an individual when deciding whether or
not they should make a purchase. By not managing their social media in real time, J. Crew loses
out on a lot of customers and a lot of potential customers.
Moving on to Twitter, J. Crew has one official account @jcrew. @jcrew has 139, 827
followers, trailing just behind Gap (192,922 followers) but far ahead of both Banana Republic
(98,822 followers) and Ann Taylor (44,194 followers). In this case, J. Crew should be utilizing
their large following to their advantage. Unfortunately, that is not the case. J. Crew’s Twitter
handle has been “active" since April of 2009 but is undoubtedly their most inactive social media
platform. While all three of their competitors have well over 5,000 Tweets, @jcrew sits at a
measly 303 Tweets. Looking over J. Crew’s Tweets, they have some great content. One of the
best may very well be their “Shiny Ponies” video which showcases their extensive line of shoes
and gives us an insight on Jenna Lyons, J. Crew’s creative director. The video is fun and
personable, filled with bright colors and prints and definitely encourages any woman with a shoe
fetish to go out on a shoe spree after watching the video. However, the video is simply a rare
gem of an attempt to do something that followers would find engaging found amidst J. Crew’s
Tweets.
Prior to December 2012, @jcrew’s last Tweet was dated all the way back to December 9,
2011. It was not until Barry Hott, an account manager at Likeable Media, tweeted at J. Crew
congratulating the company on a year passing since their last Tweet did the J. Crew social media
team realize their neglect for their Twitter account and revived it from its ashes. The rebirth of J.
Crew’s Twitter activity occurred with a re-Tweet of Hott’s Tweet (Figure 6) – and this was the
first time ever that J. Crew had engaged with a fan via Twitter. When active, J. Crew’s Twitter
page is very similar to its Facebook page in that it does a wonderful job showcasing the brand.
On occasion, J. Crew also uses Twitter to engage with designers, magazines and influencers, but,
they don’t really respond with anyone else. Arrogance is certainly not the look that J. Crew is
looking for, but it’s the feel that they could potentially give off by ignoring their fans. Lack of
responsiveness discourages users from mentioning and further attempting to engage with the
brand, causing J. Crew to again lose out on a lot of word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.
Figure 6
One thing that sets J. Crew apart from its competitors in the social media sense is that
they have a Tumblr. And the good news is, their Tumblr page is updated at least once or twice a
week, unlike their Twitter. What’s great and innovative about J. Crew’s Tumblr profile is the
overarching theme they seem to have created with their microblogs: giving the consumers and
insider’s look on the brand. J. Crew’s Tumblr features everything from inspirations for their
clothing lines to personal stories and interviews from the J. Crew staff. For true fashionistas with
a passion for the industry, these blogs are pure gold. The blogs change J. Crew from just another
clothing brand to a company with a voice, a company with personality that their fans can relate
to. Occasionally, J. Crew does blog about their apparel with tips on how to wear and accessorize,
including links to their website where you can purchase what you see in the pictures, but they do
so sparingly so that their followers don’t feel like they are just shopping on the site. Overall, the
J. Crew’s Tumblr page does the best at conveying to readers the brand’s personality and keeping
the readers engaged with their styles and products.
While perusing on J. Crew’s Tumblr page, you will also discover a spectrum of socialsharing buttons and it is there that you will see that the brand does not only have three different
social media platforms as advertised on their J. Crew website, but seven. In addition to
Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, J. Crew also has a Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Google+ and
RSS Feed. It would be advantageous for J. Crew to link all of their social media sites on their
website to drive more traffic. The fact that their Tumblr and primary website are the only places
that link their social media profiles shows a lack of cohesiveness between the platforms. After a
review of these additional social media platforms, it is evident that many of these platforms serve
an even smaller role in terms of consumer engagement. J. Crew’s Google+ page primarily
functions like their Facebook page. In fact, you will find identical postings on both pages.
J. Crew’s YouTube page stands just above their Google+ page as far as engagement goes.
The primary focus of J. Crew’s videos is similar to its Tumblr theme of giving consumers an
inside look on the J. Crew world – in fact, J. Crew’s YouTube name is jcrewinsider. So why is J.
Crew’s YouTube page not one of their stronger social media platforms? Well for one, the lack of
monitoring. There is virtually no monitoring of comments posted on J. Crew’s videos and
therefore no conversation being formed between J. Crew and their YouTube viewers. Ironically,
at the bottom of their “home page”, you will find a widget titled “Join The Conversation,” with a
box that allows you to add comments via YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. The concept of this
widget is great – J. Crew is finally calling the fans out to engage with them, or so it would seem.
Browsing through the “Fan” section under that comment box, you will find nothing but links to
Tweets made by J. Crew, usually conversing with magazines or fashion editors. The single fan
comment that was made was not addressed at all by the J. Crew team (Figure 7)and remains a
standalone comment because it is highly likely that fans are turned off by the lack of
responsiveness from J. Crew. It seems that J. Crew does not actively monitor its YouTube
account due to the fact that for them, it is merely a server to host their videos so that they can
share it to their other sites.
Figure 7
Now looking at J. Crew’s Pinterest page, their message is clearly outlined in their profile:
“Color with character. Prints with a story. Fabrics with history. Follow us for a look inside our
world.” We sort of begin to see this overarching theme building around a few of their social
media sites, which letting the audience get a glimpse behind their brand. Looking statistically, J.
Crew has a huge following on Pinterest (41,383 followers). Now let’s look at why. J. Crew’s
Pinterest page set out a message that their goal is to let their followers inside of the J. Crew
world. Because they have set that goal for themselves, they are able to successfully utilize their
Pinterest boards to tell as story. Between their 14 boards, J. Crew shows their fans where they get
inspirations, but also they tell stories that are appealing to people who shop at J. Crew by
centering their boards to create a J. Crew “lifestyle.” J. Crew’s Pinterest offers diversity and
simple entertainment, which allows them to better engage their consumers.
Last but not least, J. Crew’s newest social media tool: Instagram. J. Crew’s Instagram
account was created in November of 2012. So far, they have posted 109 photos and have over
128,000 followers. J. Crew’s Instagram pictures convey a story and don’t focus primarily on
marketing the products themselves (Figure 8). Their Instagram page is actively engaging
followers by addressing comments that need to be addressed (Figure 9) and also by having
social media challenges. J. Crew is able to form communities from its followers by utilizing
hashtags (Figure 10).
With Instagram, we see the same motto: “Color with character. Prints with a story.
Fabrics with history.” So what we can conclude is that whoever is managing some of J. Crew’s
newer social media accounts wants to help the brand reconnect with its base. They have set an
open motto for the brand to live by and the motto is being exemplified by their social media
actions. So now, the next step that J. Crew has to take is simply to transpire the same message
across all of its social media platforms.
Figure 8
Figure 9
Figure 10
After examining J. Crew’s different social media uses, it is evident that there is a
discrepancy between their social media platforms that needs to be fixed. First, social media
managers at J. Crew must begin by listening, which can be done in one of two ways. The
company can choose either to set up their own private community or begin by brand monitoring
(Li and Bernoff, 2011). Ultimately, either one of the two methods will help J. Crew keep track of
when their brand is mentioned and allows them to analyze both positive and negative feedback.
What this will do is improve the company’s self-awareness and help them determine the overall
goals and objectives for their social media use.
In order to create consistency, J. Crew can integrate all of their social media platforms by
utilizing the revised Groundswell approach. The revised Groundswell approach uses Li and
Bernoff’s (2011) methodological approach of POST (People, Objective, Strategy and
Technology) and takes it a step further. The revised Groundswell approach begins with goals and
objectives before moving onto people, strategy, tactics and technology (Davis). What is great
about the reverse approach is that it allows J. Crew to properly analyze what it wants to achieve
with its social media platforms before tailoring its tactics to the people.
J. Crew must first ensure that their goals and objectives are SMART – meaning that they
are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based (Davis). Taking into consideration
the eagerness of J. Crew fans wanting to interact with the brand, the company should set an
overarching goal of increasing customer engagement to a specific level periodically. Say for
example, that J. Crew’s current customer engagement lies at 10%, a viable objective would be to
increase J. Crew’s customer engagement level to 20% within the next six months.
Moving forward with this objective, J. Crew must now look at their people. It is
important for the company to have insight on the attitudes and beliefs that their target consumers
hold about the brand, and also the attitudes and beliefs that their target consumers hold about
social media use. By having a clear understanding of who their demographic is, and what they
seek out of social media, J. Crew will be able to take social media actions that the fans will see as
more “valuable.”
So once J. Crew has set their goals and determined their demographic, the next step is for
them to determine the proper strategies. The strategy should be a general description of how the
goals and objectives will be achieved with the identified target group of people (Davis). For J.
Crew, it is clear that their strategy should be to develop consistency over its social media
platforms. Each of their social media sites had varying levels of involvement, but in order to
have an increase of customer engagement overall, every single one of their social media sites
need to be on the same page. In addition, J. Crew should want to ensure that all customer
complaints and questions are properly resolved and encourage positive customer experiences.
Finally, J. Crew can determine the tactics they will use to achieve their goals and
objectives. This is where J. Crew will have to shift from the one-way communication marketing
that is present on many of their social media platforms to two-way communication
tactics/conversations. What J. Crew should do is designate a social media team that is
responsible for monitoring all brand mentions and social media activity 24/7. The team should
personalize responses and seek to address every customer concern and/or negative experience as
they come up. In addition, the team should also be keeping track of ideas and input from the fans
so that they can take that feedback and put it into consideration the next time the company makes
a decision. All great ideas should be recognized and rewarded to help turn J. Crew shoppers into
brand influencers – brand loyalists will love to feel like they have made an impact and therefore
will become more likely to support the brand in the future (Sysomos).
Lastly, J. Crew should keep up with the social media conversation. At the moment, many
of their fans recognize that J. Crew is “not listening” to what they have to say – but, what if the
company has been listening all along? Well the idea is that unless J. Crew makes it known that
they are listening to their fans, and by that I mean responding and engaging their fans, no one
other than the people within the company would know that they are actually listening (Evans and
McKee, 2010). Ultimately, J. Crew wants to have an active presence over their social media to
create an environment in which J.Crewaholics feel comfortable and passionate about advocating
for the brand.
Overall, J. Crew should not allow its retail success to overshadow the importance of
engaging with their community. Social media marketing and tactics is the next generation of
business engagement and in order to stay competitive, J. Crew must embrace these new ideas
with open arms. It is clear that the company is trying to re-connect with their audience with their
newer social media platforms. In the past, there has been some misses in J. Crew’s social media
strategies but there have been hits as well. What J. Crew has to do now is to simply level the
amount of customer engagement between their social media and establish a theme to create
consistency across all of its platforms.
References
Davis, Joel. "Class Notes/Discussion: Groundswell." 31 January 2013.
Evan, D. & McKee, J. (2010). Social Media Marketing. Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley Publishing
Inc.
Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social
technologies. Bostom, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.
Sysomos. (2012). “How To Get Social Media Influencers Talking About You.” <
http://www.sysomos.com/campaign/tip/pdf/Sysomos-TipSheet-Influencers.pdf>