A Social Media critique and analysis of the Prada Company
The Prada Company is a fashion and design company. Prada Company deals in shoes, bags and clothes. The company does not just believe in the production of these products, but it believes in the manufacture of quality products. Their productions go beyond the ordinary to fashion, style, and luxuries. The modernity and creativity of products remain crucial to the production of these products by the company. The company seeks to look at fashion through the lenses of the world while taking into account the various diverse cultures around the world. Societal patterns are also top towards Prada’s product development agenda. Through the company’s interaction with the world, the company has been able to come up with natural fashions. The owners of the company include Mr. Pertrizio Bertelli and Mrs. Miuccia Prada. From the date of its establishment, the Prada Company has made a significant stride in the fashion industry making it amongst the top companies in the fashion and design industry. High towards the realization of the enormous profits is the company’s ability to market itself to the potential customers. The people who manage Prada’s social media marketing department are Paolo Zollo, Lucia Zuliani, and Florence Prada. The company uses Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinintrest and Instagram for online marketing among others.
Online marketing has become an excellent tool of advertising in the modern world, and every company must make an effort to make itself relevant in the market. The best thing about online marketing is the ability of these platforms to provide ready customers to the companies. Fashion, involves lifestyle and the changing trends in the world and therefore, the social media acts as the tool to market the products of the fashion and design companies. Prada Company has not been left behind regarding the use of these platforms. The company has a Facebook page, a LinkedIn page, and a Twitter handle, a pin interest page, a YouTube page, and it’s also available on Instagram. The use of these social media platforms by the company enables it to reach a wider audience for the purpose of wooing customers. The number of people owning smartphones is increasing tremendously and there is therefore need for companies to adapt.
Facebook usage by Prada Company
Prada Company has a runs a Facebook page with a follower of about five million people. The need to keep customers informed about the new products is what necessitated the use of facebook. The company has sought to use Facebook because of a large number of people available on this platform. The 5.3 million likes of the page is truly an indication of the high number of people available on the platform. Through the page, the company engages the public on its available fashion products and designs. The engagement materializes concerning the comments on the posts. Through such kind of engagements and awareness, the company acquires customers every day and is ranked amongst the top companies that have been successful in the use of Facebook as a tool for online marketing. The company also promotes its fashion design events through Facebook. The 5.3 million followers on Facebook can tell when an event will become due to preparing themselves to attend. The engagement with most influencers has notably worked magic for the company.
The Prada Company uses videos, photos, and other posts to reach their audience. Celebs, models, and entertainers are used to marketing their products online. Recently, for example, the company has engaged Lea Seydoux, a renowned film performer in selling their dresses and bags. Lea is a performer in a movie called “Spectre.” Prada Company also runs videos titled “Prada inside me” in the Marketing of its products.
The use of Twitter by Prada Company
Prada runs a Twitter handle titled @ Prada. The platform is used by Prada to send hashtags to its followers about their upcoming events raising awareness about their new products. Just like Facebook, the company engages its followers and other people in the selling of its brands. The engagements take the form of comments, and those who feel pleased by their products are welcome to like. Links to other outside sources like blogs reflect on the Twitter handle. The company can direct its followers to blogs containing a vast volume of information. The use of the Twitter handle has proved successful for the company as it has been able to build a good reputation in the fashion and design industry. The opening of its shops worldwide also features on Twitter. Recently, for example, the company featured on its Twitter the opening of its third new retail shop in Macau. The followers are therefore able to know where to find the products for trial while at the same time maintain the loyalty of its existing customers. Prada’s Twitter handle has about six hundred and eleven thousand followers
The Use of Instagram by the Prada Company
The Prada Company has an Instagram page called, “PRADA.” The page has attracted about 5.6 million followers. The page is used to foster brand awareness through photos. Since the inception of the page, the company has been able to make 900 posts. The platform is majorly used to showcase Prada’s rich culture, inform its followers of the upcoming events and recruit more new customers. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, the Instagram page is used to display only the photographs of the company’s designs. Outer links are also posted on the Instagram page to enable the followers to navigate quickly to Prada’s website and blog. Some of the people who form the larger part of Prada’s followers on Instagram are the teenagers and the youth who are the target group for fashion products.
The use of Pinterest by Prada Company
Unlike the earlier discussed social media platforms, the Pin interest platform is peculiar in that the company uses fun to engage customers and followers towards buying products from the enterprise. Through the visual assets, the customers can identify and place an order on a given product. The company has about two thousand two hundred followers on pin interest with about five hundred about sixty-three pins. Pins of bags, fashion clothes, and bags appear on the page. Celebrities and models appear to show the public how luxurious the products are. In general, brand awareness and customer acquisition are key towards the utilization of this platform.
The use of YouTube by Prada Company
Prada has about fifty thousand, eight hundred and fifty-six subscribers on its YouTube platform. The platform assists in brand awareness through video formats. The videos get posted on a channel and customers can view the latest model. It is the most convincing regarding customer acquisition. Some of the videos featuring include the Prada inside me, Prada the postman dreams, the make-out and the battlefield. The videos are used to display bags, shoes and categorize as either men or ladies wear. Through such videos, the company engages the subscribers in buying its products while at the same time wooing new subscribers. If seeing is believing, then YouTube rates the best concerning brand awareness and customer acquisition for the Prada Company.
Despite the above analysis of how Prada has been able to use the various social media platforms for online marketing, the company has not fully exploited the potential of these platforms. It, therefore, necessitates that the business comes up with a social media presence technical plan to outdo other competitors in the market.
I therefore implore that the Company comes up with a clear and concise tactical plan to help boost its reputation and increase sales. One great move is to ensure all employees become part of the social media marketing scheme. Second, clear information about the targeted audience must be gathered. After identification, the sales agents for the company must be trained to meet the customer’s satisfactions. After that, the Company should move rapidly to setting up a social media policy and distributing to its employees and other relevant agencies. Lastly, all the employees and partners of the Prada Company should undergo a sensitization process on the need to participate on the social media platform and assist in tackling the queries raised on the Company’s wall.
Recommendations and social media strategy by the Company
Having considered the technical issues I recommend that the company comes up with objectives for each social media platform intended to be used. Different social media platforms give different outcomes and have a different target audience. YouTube, for example, is more entertaining and is good for attracting customers and educating them on the use of the products. Facebook, on the other hand, is suitable for the promotion of upcoming events because of its large following, brand selling, and discussion forums also thrive well on Facebook. Twitter is useful for sending and responding to a conversation about the objectives of the company, providing a forum for communication and is also helpful in the sale of brands.
Second, I recommend that the company initiates an action plan to meet its objectives. For example, the Prada Company should encourage its members to be partakers of this noble idea to also boost the morale of the customers. Online discussion groups also give a good room for deliberation and should be encouraged. It should be noted that these strategies do not need a heavy invested of capital for the objectives to be realized and the company should therefore easily embrace it.
The last recommendation is to implore upon the Company to start an online system of tracking its social media marketing progress. The approach to be used will take the form of a key performance indicator. Concise measure parameters must therefore be set up. The measurement of performance on the social media can be done through checking the number of likes on then status updated. The likes on the photos for Instagram and pin interest and the number of subscribers for YouTube. The measure is necessary in order to ensure that the efforts put to actualize online marketing do not go to waste.
From the above discussion, it is plausible to infer that the social media advertising today is an inevitable phenomenon. The digitalized advertising space must be properly utilized to boost sales and earn product reputation. Many social media platforms exist but the company must tactfully vet to confirm the best forums. Prada Company should therefore strive to ensure that switching between different platforms is effected to gain the maximum coverage possible. Indeed, online marketing through the social media cannot be wished away with.
Social Media Critique and Analysis Example