Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2013 - 38

2013 KPMG ROUNDTABLE

Bruce Dinan: "We have taken a new approach to
marketing. We took a white sheet of paper and
said, 'What would our marketing department look
like today if we built it from scratch and there were
no legacy issues and no barriers?' We learned a
lot from this process, although we aren't moving
our entire print budget into social media we have
structured ourselves differently to address our marketing spend shift. That being said, social media is
important to us, and we interact with our customers via these channels. The endorsements in social
media mean so much to our business, and these
help us compete with larger businesses. It helps
level the playing field for smaller companies."
Terry Beauchamp: "I am pleased to see the number of people who have found us via social media
over the last two years. Tools such as Facebook
and Instagram have allowed people to source us
and others to recommend and endorse our product
through the same tools. Even for us, social media
is huge and it's only going to get bigger."
David Margolis: "Social media is quite complex when deciding how to allocate dollars. The
combination and frequency of 'Google pounding'
versus which words are important and how to
navigate through this digital/social landscape is
challenging. Smart people invest in SEM/SEO."

38 |

Doug Campbell: "Online and social media are amorphous
living spaces that will always develop and change. The key
to having a successful presence in either is content. When
advertisers seek sites in which to participate, they seek sites
with great content. People will follow where the conversation goes in social if the content is good. Investing in a
great Facebook page may not be as important as having
good content. A retailer like Sears may elect to build up the
content on its social media sites or to park content somewhere else and just make it sponsored by Sears. Regardless,
whatever content you build, and how you channel it needs to
be good because it is a definition of who you are as a brand."
SOCIAL MEDIA AT A GLANCE
* 300 MILLION-1 BILLION (233% INCREASE) in Facebook
* 1-4 BILLION (300% INCREASE) in YouTube views per day
* 2.5-340 MILLION (13,500% INCREASE) in tweets
-According to Google data, increases between 2009-2012

Chris Hodgson: "When we look at companies engaging
with consumers online, there is a deep complexity which
can sometimes paralyze people. You have to test and try,
and then try again. You also have to understand the different reasons why people choose to use particular platforms
in certain situations. Social networks are not homogenous
things across the board. Some are performance-led, some
are for engagement, and some are geared toward branding.
First, you have to understand why the community is there to
begin with. Ultimately, retail is all about driving sales and
we should never lose sight of that objective."

canadian retailer | holiday 2013 | www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnretailer

Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Canadian Retailer - Holiday 2013