Microreviews

Wal-Mart and Target are unarguably two of the biggies of organised retail in the US. Wal-Mart began its journey in 1962 with its first discount store at Roger’s Ark, got incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores Inc on the Halloween of ’69, got listed on NYSE 3 yrs later and is at present the largest private employer across the globe with a  fiscal ’09 sales of $401 billion. Target Corp. on the other hand started its journey way back  in 1902(Minnesota) as the Dayton Dry Goods Company(the culmination to the name target Corp happened only in 2000), slowly but steadily climbing up the ladder and is ranked at No. 28 on the Fortune 500 as of 2009. The two stores have over the years employed several business strategies(coupled with hard work of their employees ofcourse) to reach where they stand today.

But post the Internet era, a vital part of their viral Marketing campaign featured Social Media and its tools. By the time Social Media gained its grounds, Wal-Mart was already big -  big enough to have generated a lot of resentment,hate and criticism(particularly for its labor practices). Wal-Mart thought of clearing the air through the two-way platform that Social Media is. But Wal-Mart’s efforts hardly bore any fruits, infact backfired, generally due to their lack of research (on the medium) and specifically due to their overall attitude.

So where did Wal-Mart go wrong :

• Facebook fiasco : Wal-Mart tried to resurrect its Corporate reputation via its Facebook page. But the people who handled the campaign didnt seem prepared to face the the full dialogue there. They didnt put up a discussion board and limited all comments and feedback to the wall posts.Generally the attitude was non-responsive. Result – Wall posts were flooded with negative comments and hate communities.
• Tryst with Twitter : Wal-Mart got this partially right. They integrated their Twitter page within their Website, listing their entire badge of official twitterers, thereby preventing the fake Twitter profiles. They also set the customer expectation through their Discussion Guidelines page. But just setting the profiles cannot be enough.Their official twitters have only of late started to become active but still a lot  more promptness is desired. But the primary point of concern is : no follow back from the Wal-Mart team, thereby defeating the very purpose of Social Media as a two-way platform.
• Blogging blunders : Wal-Mart ran into much criticism for staging their blog, that turned out to be a PR stunt. Also Wal-Mart have a bunch of Mommy bloggers. Only God would know how genuine they are.

For a company [Wal-Mart] that thrives on the LOGO of “Save Money Live Better” , one would have definitely expected a little more in their efforts on customer engagement.

While Wal-Mart committed mistakes galore on all Social Media platforms, Target‘s efforts were lauded. Target unlike WalMart, made a study of the underlying idea of engaging with its customers, did their background research and so in spite of joining the race late, came out with good results (read customer engagement). Target Corp. in principle believed in a two-way dialogue, were positive in their intent and the results were there to see.

Target made the right moves :

• An Engaging Facebook page : Target have a more engaging Facebook presence in the sense that (apart from the usual Wall) there is a discussion forum, a Reviews board, Events etc and this is clearly reflected in the no of its fans which is way more than WalMart’s. This is a classic case of one party [Target] engaging is a dialogue as opposed to the other party’s [WalMart] engaging in monologue. Target’s charity initiative on Facebook sometime back was much appreciated.
• Target company profile page : Target have a separate portal wherein they showcase all the relevant information that a customer/investor/marketer would need. Here at this page one gets all the press news/carrer info and the like.
• Blogs : Target unlike WalMart’s Mommy Bloggers do not run any paid blogging programes. Instead there are users who have  a dedicated blog for their favorite store.
• Twitter Presence :  This is one area where Target could have done better. There is no official list of its Twitterers [like WalMart]. Instead there are a bunch of Twitterers that use the Target logo/store name. Target need to get this act right.
• Unofficial community : This is a Twitter like unofficial support setup – Get Satisfaction, that came across as a surprise to us. This platforms lets users/customers to ask questions/share ideas. There is a bold message at the top that declares “Target is not affiliated with Get Satisfaction“. If that is the case, it just goes to show the extent to which customers are attached to their favorite retail chain.

To conclude things, in this Web 2.0 world, its imperative for brands to engage in Social Media Marketing but this should perhaps be said with a caution caption : ‘If one cannot ensure a two way customer engagement with positive intent, its better to stay away from it‘.

For social media help, I would recommend people to get in touch with Aditya Prakash and Prasaad K S. You can also email them here and here.

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Team Microreviews as always solicits reader’s opinion.

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1. Consumer and Influencer engagement through Social Media
2. Social Media – The Power Unleashed
3. Social Media-Segment in Focus: Luxury Market (Part I)
4. Social Media Presence of Indian Telecom Majors- Part 2- Twitter Presence
5. Social Media – the Big Bang.!!

Tags: blogger, Blogs, customer engagement, Facebook, Marketing, Retail, retail Marketing, Social Media, Social Media India, Social Media Marketing, target, Twitter, WalMart, web 2.0