We Play in Traffic

I hate to pick on individual retailers, but sometimes the best way to illustrate a point is to use what someone has done, both positively and negatively. There’s a bit of both in this.

Joe’s Jeans is a retailer and manufacturer of what I would call high-end jeans. They sell for about $140 to $200 are worn by people like Beyonce. Joe’s Jeans has four stores: San Francisco, Orlando, New York and Chicago. In addition, their jeans are sold through both brick & mortar retailer such as Neiman’s, Nordstrom and Macy’s. And through a handful of online-only retailers.

Joe (if I may be informal), has created four Facebook pages, one for each of its stores.  They recently held an event exclusively for their Facebook friends and promoted it through messages, wall posts, and their Facebook page. In theory, a great idea because one would assume that someone who has become a “friend” on Facebook is a more qualified customer.

Joe has 178 Facebook “friends” in San Francisco. 100 in Chicago.  407 in Orlando.  And 144 in New York.

Just as point of reference, Facebook friends for other Joe’s: Trader Joe’s – over 4,000; Eat at Joe’s (band) – 130; Joe’s Crab Shack – a few thousand; Papa Joe’s in Basil, Switzerland – 5,344 friends.

The Joe’s Jeans Facebook exclusive event consisted of a 20% off sale, as well as a drawing for a free pair of jeans to all those that responded and attended.  Plus free hors d’oeuvres and drinks.

Joe reported that, of the 407 Facebook friends in Orlando, only 29 RSVP’d and less than half that came in.  In Chicago, 14 RSVP’d and literally no one turned up. The other markets were somewhere in between.  Not good.  The employees, post-event, wrote on Facebook“…since no one showed up, we drank all the booze, ate all the food, and generally had a good time…”

So what happened?  I think a few things.

I’m not sure how “friendly” Facebook friends are.  It’s pretty easy to become a Facebook friend, and then to pay no attention to that individual (or store).

With some Facebook accounts (increasingly so, my own), there’s too much to pay attention. My Facebook page is cluttered with people I know writing things like – “I spent an hour this morning looking for a great egg-salad recipe.”  Great.

But I think the real issue might be this:  nowadays, 20% off doesn’t feel like much of sale.  Especially an exclusive sale. I might be wrong, but it seems like Nordstrom, Macy’s and Neiman-Marcus have “20%-off-anything-in-the-store sales” (less jewelry) episodically.  And I also found Joe’s Jeans at online retailers for less.  With these, would I really make a special trip to a Joe’s store to save $30? No. $50? Maybe.

Joe went to a lot of trouble with social media.  But forgot this basic idea: start with something truly promotable.