Canadian Retailer - Fall 2014 - 36

2014 kpmg WomEN IN REtAIL EXEcutIvE RouNDtABLE

the power of social media

With so much research generated today regarding social
media usage around the world and here at home, the value
of leveraging the medium to reach customers and appeal
to them where they are gathering is not lost on most retail
executive teams.
"Take for instance recent statistics gathered by Canadian's
Internet Business which reveal that Canadian's rank highest in
the world in social media network penetration and twelfth in
hours spent on social media each day," states Kruh. "And think
about how quickly things are changing. Google at one time
was a just a search engine; they, like Facebook, Twitter and
Pinterest have now become advisors to retailers and key drivers of consumer behaviour and innovation. Given this context
and the rapid evolution of social media today, how is this new
reality impacting your organizations?"
"Social is huge for us," says Anna Martini,
%
President of Montreal-based retailer Group
Dynamite Inc., whose customer-base, between the ages of 12 and 19, had already been
intuitively communicating on the retailer's
message boards long before the explosion
of Facebook, Twitter and other social media
sites. "Today, a significant portion of our marketing dollars go to social media. The impact
that it has on our business and the relationships with our customers is massive. A lot of the girls who shop with us are on
Instagram. This site alone provides us with the opportunity
to extend our brand presence and communicate our products
to our customers in a way that is true to Groupe Dynamite
and which resonates with the girls who shop at our stores.
We've been able to capitalize on the opportunity to really get
to know who our customer is through the use of social media,
allowing us to communicate with them in a way that is mean-

ingful to them."
At Roots Canada, the company recently
harnessed the power of social media to market its wares in a unique and innovative
way. Rather than simply posting or sharing pictures of their collections as worn by
models, the iconic Canadian brand decided
to dress real people, fashion influencers, including designers, graphic artists, bloggers
and philanthropists in Roots apparel and
leather goods for their latest campaign. The
response, according to Wendy Bennison,
Roots' Chief operations officer, was overwhelming and reflective of the widespread
marketing capabilities of the medium.

36 |

cANADIAN REtAILER | fall 2014

82% of Canadians use a
social network.

55%

55% of online Canadians
(19,000,000) are active
on facebook.

SOURCE: Canadian`s Internet Business

"It's an unmistakable opportunity for us
as retailers to build our brands," she says.
"All of our customers are in the social space,
sharing their ideas, opinions and suggestions concerning everything, including our
product and the experience that they enjoy
with us. Armed with the intelligent use of
social media, we can extend our presence
by allowing our customers to do a lot of our

Canadian Retailer - Fall 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Fall 2014