A not-so-Iconic social media strategy

A not-so-Iconic social media strategy

Two months after we asked Iconic about their in-store music selection, all we got back was a link to the site. Not cool.

December 7, 2011 9:32 by kippreport

In October, Kipp put tested the social media strength of a few local brands and found a mixture of responses. While there were a handful that were quick to reply and showed an understanding of social media communication there were others that, frankly, left us wondering why the brands ever bothered being ‘social’ at all.

We’ve rated and ranted on some of the brands that took a couple of weeks to respond. But one brand takes the cake. Landmark group’s Iconic store has a twitter page and a new and supposedly improved Facebook page and yet it took TWO WHOLE MONTHS to respond to a query our own Eva Fernandes asked them back in October 2. The response was given December 1 and it wasn’t even an actual answer. It was just a link to their new page.

Eva: i was at the Iconic store in DCC a week ago and I REALLY loved the music…i asked a staff member what tape was playing. He told me that it was actually an in-house DJ. Now I wished I asked for his name…any chance you’d still know? And…do you have any plans on getting more DJs playing in-house?

The response from a “Bautista Aicila” who didn’t introduce herself as an Iconic staff, but she seemed to conduct herself as one since she responded: “Hi EVa (sic), lease (sic) check the link thanks..” and then added the link to the new Facebook page.

Uhm. Really Iconic? Not even a “sorry we took so long” followed by a self-deprecating joke of some sort?

A response like this isn’t acceptable at all from any brand. But we do have to say we wouldn’t be as shocked if this kind of communication came from a brand that doesn’t necessarily require to be ‘down with kids’ like, oh oil and gas maybe? But Iconic aligns itself with the “very young and fresh” so one would think that this social media is something that be at the forefront of its communications and not an afterthought—a two-month afterthought.

Tags: brands, communication, Iconic, local brands, marketing, PR, Public relations, Retail, social media, strategy

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2 Comments

Giuliana Lonigro on December 8, 2011 12:26 am

Wow, their response ranks right up there with “Please contact our 800 customer service helpline!” I checked, and their Facebook page has about 37 likes; maybe they haven’t staffed up their social media efforts because they’re not seeing a lot of activity and page “Likes” yet. It’s interesting that several companies responded to your inquiry in a more timely fashion. I’m always curious about how social media works in the rest of the world; it’s so easy to focus on what’s happening in the US, but social media is a global phenomenon.
p.deleon on December 8, 2011 8:12 am

Glad you found the article interesting. We were just as pleasantly surprised that there are some regional brands that know what to do with the social media platform. But mostly, it’s true that social media marketing has been a chicken-and-egg dilemma for businesses here in the Middle East. (proof of returns before they invest in something their teenage kids use ‘for fun’). Some brands rarely think beyond opening a Facebook page and a twitter page. And because of that they don’t know how to take this ‘new way’ of communicating with customers further.