Leah Redwine Carters Gymboree

GYMBOREE V. CARTER’S A SOCIAL PLATFORM ANALYSIS

Leah Redwine Published March 26, 2015

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Gymboree: 500 Howard St, San Francisco, CA 94105 Carter’s: 3438 Peachtree Rd NE, Ste 1800, Atlanta, GA 30326

Table of Contents

¨  Executive Summary……………...............….3 ¨  Platform-Specific Counts…………………..4 ¨  Current State of Each Company

¤  Gymboree……………….………….………..5 ¤  Carter’s………………………………………6

¨  Overall Social Media Presence ¤  Social Mention Explanation…..……………….7 ¤  Social Mention Statistics……....………………8

¨  Comparative Evaluation by Social Platform ¤  Website………………………..........…...…….9 ¤  Facebook……………………………………11 ¤  Twitter………………………………………13 ¤  Pinterest…………..…………………………15 ¤  Instagram……..……………………………..17

¨  Conclusion……………………..…………19

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Executive Summary

Social media marketing is a form of marketing that utilizes platforms on social media to influence consumers toward a company, website, product, brand, service, or person. The ultimate goal of social media marketing is typically a conversion. Conversions can be measured as a subscription to a newsletter, the purchase of a product, registration for an online community, or any other desired action of the consumer. This comparative analysis will discuss the social media marketing strategies of two brands: Carter’s and Gymboree. While both brands are part of a family of brands, this paper will specifically focus on the baby and children’s apparel line for each brand. Each brand will be evaluated based on quality, cadence, user-friendliness, relevance, maturity, and purpose of their posts on their most active social media platforms. There will be a winning brand for each platform in addition to an overall “winner” of social media marketing strategy. At the conclusion of this paper, the reader will have an understanding of effective social media marketing strategies and ideas for improving existing social channels.

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Platform-Specific Counts 4

Gymboree and Carter’s have accounts on the social media platforms listed in the table below. In an attempt to distinguish effective platform-specific practices, this paper will specifically analyze the following platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, as well as their proprietary website.

Followers/Likes/Subscribers

Gymboree Carter’s

Facebook 652.1K 2,495.3K

Twitter 24.2K 13.7K

Pinterest 9.0K 22.7K

Instagram 21K 114K

YouTube 0.16K 1.2K

Google+ 2.2K 1.8K

LinkedIn 11.4K 13.1K

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Gymboree is a brand of children’s apparel based out of San Francisco, CA. Founded by Joan Barnes in 1976 as a learn and play program, Gymboree Play and Music is a leader in early childhood development classes with over 550 locations. The Gymboree Play and Music programs grew so popular that the company entered the apparel industry in 1986. The Gymboree brand is sold in over 630 retail stores.

Current State of Business:

The stores are owned by The Gymboree Corporation, a specialty retailer that operates under the brands Gymboree, Gymboree Outlet, Crazy 8, Janie and Jack, and Gymboree Play and Music. The corporation is a private company owned by Bain Capital.

The Gymboree brand distinguishes itself as the “official sponsor of childhood” by carrying apparel for children from newborn to age 10. They aim to design apparel that will withstand children’s active play, and each product portrays the uniqueness of children as individuals.

Current State of Business:

Carter’s is a manufacturer of children’s apparel headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Founded in 1865 by William Carter, Carter’s is now owned by the publicly traded company Carter’s, Inc. (CRI). Carter’s, Inc. brands include Carters, OshKosh B’gosh, Just One You, Child of Mine, and Genuine Kids; these brands are sold in national department stores as well as over 600 company-owned retailers. Carter’s, Inc. is currently the largest branded marketer of children and baby apparel in the U.S.

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Carter’s centers its philosophy around celebrating childhood, and its designs represent the love and joy that children bring into each family.

The Carter’s brand alone manufactures over 10 products per each baby born in the nation. In keeping with their motto “Count on Carter’s,” the brand manufacturers apparel sized for newborns to age 7. The brand prides itself on its quality, innovation, and value of their products.

Overall Social Media Presence

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Social Mention is a social media search engine that monitors over 100 social media platforms to compile a single source of information that allows its users to monitor the online conversation about their brands. Social Mention uses the following metrics to gauge online conversation: •  Strength: The likelihood the brand is being talked about on the

social web •  Sentiment: The ratio of generally positive to generally negative

comments on the social web •  Passion: The likelihood that people who talk about the brand

online will do so repeatedly •  Reach: The number of unique individuals talking about the brand

divided by the number of mentions to measure range of conversation

Monitoring the conversation around a brand is crucial to generate leads, build relationships, and protect the brand’s reputation.

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The above social mention statistics were calculated as an average of scores from tracking 5 days of social mention results.

As indicated by the strength scores, users are more likely to be talking about Gymboree. The reach statistic also demonstrates that there are more unique users mentioning about Gymboree’s brand. These statistics raise question because Carter’s has more followers than Gymboree on almost every social platform.

While they may not mention Carter’s as frequently, Carter’s customers on social media are more likely to have positive discussions about the brand. The lower ratio for Gymboree’s sentiment score implies that there are more user complaints about Gymboree than there are about Carter’s.

Carter’s has a higher passion statistic, meaning that the same authors mention Carter’s repeatedly. While it is important to have strong brand advocates, it is also crucial to continuously engage new users.

*The statistics from Carter’s may be slightly corrupted due to the commonality of the name “Carter” on the internet and the difference in results when searching or posting “Carter’s” versus “Carters.”

28% strength

31:1 sentiment

64% passion

13% reach

54% strength

16:1 sentiment

44.6% passion

38% reach

Overall Social Media Presence

Website

The home page of Gymboree’s website showcases solely price-centric promotions. The clothing tabs are organized by gender and age range, but require the user to click through the website many times to access pages of clothing. Gymboree boasts the perks of their membership program, where members can earn “Gymbucks” when they spend money. The users can save their Gymbucks on their phone, which optimizes their content for mobile utility. Although they primarily promote prices on their home page, Gymboree does not compile all of their current promotions onto one page for easy navigation by the user. I recommend that Gymboree makes their website navigation easier and more efficient for the users to ensure that traffic does not leave their website due to difficult navigability.

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Website 10

Carters’ website’s primary page advertises one promotion followed by “You May Also Like” suggestions and “New Arrivals” based on items that consumers browsed in previous visits. This tactical use of data is tactical because they are able to better target their audience. Their home page also organizes apparel by gender and age range. In addition to a spending rewards program and a promotion on the home page, Carter’s provides a single page with all of its valid coupons, promotions, and events, which allows the users to discover additional savings without overwhelming the user with too much initial information. Carter’s makes navigation through its website easy for the user by requiring fewer clicks and a site map option to help the user find exactly what they are looking for.

Carter’s is the winner of the website category because they display products that are relevant to individual consumers, they compile price promotions without overloading information, and they allow the user to navigate easily through the page.

Facebook

Gymboree’s Facebook page shares a mix of price promotions, sweepstakes, engaging questions, and blog posts. The variety in content keeps the readers entertained. For example, they host “Make It Monday” blog posts with craft ideas for children. On Wednesdays, they engage users and promote user generated content by asking customers to share their photos for a “We Love You Wednesday” feature. Because Gymboree often receives negative feedback from customers, they are quick and personable in their responses to maintain their quality brand image.

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Gymboree is the winner of the Facebook category because they share a variety of posts to inform and entertain their users, they drive engagement, and they are charismatic in their complaint responses.

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Facebook

Carter’s uses its Facebook page primarily as a platform to share price promotions featured on its official website or as a reminder of their current sweepstakes. Nearly every post contains a link to direct traffic back to their website. While these keep the consumer in the know about deals, they are extremely repetitive.

Carters’ Facebook previously compiled “Fan Friday” albums that shared user generated content and created a sense of community around the brand. The brand has not yet published an album in 2015.

Carters’ customer relationship management is lacking in personality, helpfulness, and regularity in responses. I recommend that Carter’s improves its engagement and varies its posts and responses to consumers.

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Gymboree utilizes Twitter as a platform to share their blog and Facebook posts. While these links may ultimately lead users back to the website, they fail to drive significant traffic because of the multi-step process to reach Gymboree’s website. The cadence of Gymboree’s Twitter posting is steady, but the variance in subject matter needs improvement.

Twitter

Other than occasionally re-tweeting a customer’s photo, Gymboree does not directly engage its audience on Twitter. They use Twitter as a customer conduit system, and they have a quick average response time to keep their customers informed. I recommend that Gymboree should create content specifically for each platform they wish to utilize, because every social media post is not necessarily appropriate for every platform.

Carter’s is the winner in the Twitter category because they interact with industry influencers, engage their audience, and strategically partner with other pages.

Twitter

In addition using Twitter as an outlet to repost content that was already shared on Facebook, Carter’s practices impersonal customer care tactics on Twitter. Carter’s should post more heartfelt, individualized responses to customers.

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Carter’s engaged with its audience by using the #SpringIntoCarters campaign, which that engaged with Retweets and interaction with influential pages in the industry, such as @MomCentral. This campaign was successful in influencing conversations and building brand advocacy.

To start a conversation with its consumers, Carter’s teamed with JCPenny to host a question and answer session for mothers with young children. Partnering with JCPenny for the #CartersChat increased Carter’s Twitter followers, so they can strengthen their brand recognition and increase word-of-mouth sales.

Pinterest

Pinterest allows users to “opt-in” for different types of posts without seeing every post from the account. While some pins contain apparel from Gymboree, many of their posts are not affiliated with Gymboree products. They merely build the brand image and inspire customers. Their boards stick to specific topics, and the pins contain beautiful, enthralling images.

Gymboree does an excellent job of choosing topics that mothers, their largest customers, would be interested in. For example, some of the boards are titled Back to School, Let’s Get Crafty, Playdate Guide, Cooking With Your Little One, and Nurseries and Kid Rooms.

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Pinterest

Similar to Gymboree, Carter’s also uses Pinterest to share pins with images that inspire consumers and strengthen the brand’s image. It is important for companies to remember that customers do not want to only look at pins that promote the brand’s goods. Pinterest is also a good way to humanize a brand. Carter’s Pinterest features similar craft inspirations for mothers with children, but it pins more style-concept boards for the brand than Gymboree.

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Gymboree is the winner of the Pinterest category because their boards focus on inspiring their followers, not sharing the inspirations for their designs.

Instagram

Instagram is an image-centric platform that Gymboree uses wisely by posting high quality photographs. The account has a strong cadency with posts at least three times per week. They use Instagram collaboratively with Facebook and their guest blogs for crafts because they post pictures and direct people to the websites. While these posts are redundant, they slightly differ from pictures on Facebook because the images include no writing, which upholds their quality photography.

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Gymboree’s Instagram account successfully tuned into the “Throwback Thursday” Instagram trend through #tbtGymboree. This tactic promotes their brand’s history and helps them compel user generated content. While both brands have a strong cadency, use high quality photos, and share user

generated content, Carter’s wins the Instagram category because they have more posts that differ from their other platforms.

Instagram 18

Similar to Gymboree, Carters’ Instagram account shares pictures that can be found on their Facebook and are linked to their website, but Carter’s Instagram posts differ from their Facebook posts more than those from Gymboree differ. They have a strong cadence and share only high-quality photos.

Carter’s reserves posts from craft blogs solely for Instagram, which is important because that gives users a reason to tune into multiple social channels. Unlike Gymboree, Carter’s shares occasional video clips on their account to increase post variety.

Carter’s also shares user generated content and followed the Instagram trend “Outfit of the Day” or #OOTD to promote their clothing.

Conclusion

Carter’s is the overall winner of the social media analysis because its platforms are more mature and strategic in its posts. While both brands’ social accounts were often repetitive about promotions, Carter’s distinguishes itself through its user-friendly navigation and more platform-specific posts.

Both brands should implement variety in their cross-platform content. Carter’s needs to improve its customer relationship management on social media, while Gymboree needs to improve its ease of navigation.

I also recommend that each brand invests in a brand-owned blog. While there are industry influencers that mention their brands in blogs, Gymboree and Carter’s are not controlling that content. Through a regularly-updated blog, the brands could deliver relevant, desirable information for their customers, who would then reward the brands with their business.

Overall, both Carter’s and Gymboree are fully evolved in digital content marketing.

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Winner

Gymboree Carter’s

Website +

Facebook +

Twitter +

Pinterest +

Instagram +