DaveLindberg.net

With all the news and research going into the development of marketing techniques for web 2.0, it’s kinda scary to find experts who are still having trouble figuring out what to do with the social web. In a recent article, eMarketer.com points out the influence that apparel sites have on social users, but bemoans the apparent lack of influence that social sites have on apparel purchasers.

The article, Marketing Apparel on Social Networks, cites research from comScore that “heavy U.S. visitors to social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as music, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories, consumer electronics and apparel.”

Quoting comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni:

There appears to be a natural synergy between the leisure categories and social networking sites. People typically enjoy sharing their experiences with these products, whether it’s to talk about their new iPhone or the pair of designer jeans they just bought. Social networking sites offer the venue for those conversations to occur.

No surprises here, really. It’s encouraging to see the results of this kind of quantitative research.

But from here. the eMarketer.com article pretty much falls apart, as different opinions are offered about the relative merits of advertising apparel on social networks. Most of the numbers presented attempt to minimize the influence of these sites on the purchasing process. There’s a reference to a Doubleclick survey which points out that only 1% of US web users said they checked social communities as part of their apparel purchasing decision, with a caveat that consumers who “take their buying cues from social networks… represent a tiny fraction of apparel shoppers.”

This isolated view of the market shows a striking inability to apply segmentation and personalization thinking to your market or to the purchasing process. The users of the social web are showing far greater levels of involvement with — and more willingness to communicate openly about — brands and products that have an impact on their lives. As Bryan Eisenberg lists in “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?” the purchasing decision includes the following phases:

1. Awareness of a Need
2. Search for Possible Solutions
3. Evaluate Criteria
4. Decide to Buy
5. Purchase
6. Reevaluate

Branding efforta are aimed at predisposing your customers to be aware of your product as they process their need and to influence the way they decide to find a solution. Until a true social shopping experience develops online, social network marketing is all about helping to move the emerging [Phase 1] customer away from the network and toward the key retail sites [Phase 2] for additional product research [Phase 3]. As the Doubleclick research shows, 74% of US net users refer to manufacturer’s or retailer’s sites in the evaluation process. Which brands get researched? Those which had visibility as the need became apparent: via blog posts, on friends’ wallpapers, in groups and chats.

Given the astounding growth of these media, marketers who dismiss or minimize their value are in real danger of becoming invisible — or worse, irrelevant — to key prospects. As a respected industry source, it’s a pity eMarketer.com doesn’t take a wider view of its market.