Social Media Marketing Project : Part 1
#BEANOUTSIDER Campaigns
"Be An Outsider" is an initiative that L.L.Bean took back in September of 2017 to emphasize that the outdoors are an accessible and happy place to enjoy with friends and family. This very much goes alongside the theme of their brand, which embraces hunting and fishing traditions. This was initially inspired by the namesake, Leon Leonwood Bean, who was a hunter and fisherman himself. His love of being outdoors inspired him to craft a waterproof boot that he could sell to others with the same passion. That passion lives on in consumers today and the company is desperately trying to revive people's desire to be outdoors.
The push that 'nature is attainable for all' comes in contrast with other outdoor recreation competitors who focus on the outdoors being something that needs to be conquered rather than just enjoyed. The "Be An Outsider" initiative definitely helps the company stand out from their competition. It's success has been followed by their branch off campaign, "Be An Outsider at Work". This movement was inspired by research that concluded that spending more time in the outdoors, getting fresh air and sunshine, increased productivity, creativity, and overall happiness in the work place. Through this campaign, the company is reaching out to more than just the typical nature enthusiast but to the majority of the nation; the 9-5 office worker.
L.L. Bean’s former President Leon Gorman explains: “Sure, we sell L.L.Bean boots, backpacks and fleece jackets, but they enable people to enjoy the outdoors and that adds value to their lives. What do they get from the outdoors? All kinds of physical and spiritual rewards.” People who are stuck inside at their desk jobs all day lack the natural benefits of the outdoors so L.L.Bean is trying to inspire companies to think about their employees and switch up the work environment by putting it into a natural environment! They have developed experiential working spaces, as well as easy to understand, digital instructive booklets which inspire employers to think about how their work space affects employees and suggests ways of increasing the use of the outdoors in their work space.
Although the brand does seem as though they genuinely care for their customers and have supported this movement for the betterment of people, there is some desire to increase brand recognition by slapping their brand name onto the movement. This century-old brand known for durability is putting a renewed focus on the fun of being outside as it tries to invigorate sales in a fast-changing marketplace. The longevity of the campaign speaks to the company’s genuine dedication to this get-outside ethos and a serious commitment to implementing its core company values. L.L. Bean has built out their campaign into a successful multi platform marketing vehicle anchored by strong digital content and storytelling.
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| "Experiential Outdoor Work Spaces developed by L.L.Bean" |
HOW DOES L.L.BEAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
YouTube:
For now, the company's following on YouTube is fairly low, with 6,626 subscribers. They tend to only post short, ad like videos, lasting between 16 seconds to a minute in length. Aside from those, there are occasionally mini documentaries, featuring people using their products in the outdoors. In total, their account has only posted 99 videos. Considering they have had the account for over 8 years, I can assume that they definitely don't put much effort into attempting to produce viral marketing videos, therefore landing YouTube as the least popular of their social media formats.Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram:
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| "Identical posts on the companies Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts" |
The @LLBean Twitter account has a solid 62,000 followers. They have a pretty big audience but they don't seem to be getting a whole lot of engagement from the groundswell. Sure, people may be seeing their posts but they are simply scrolling by rather than favoriting or retweeting.
Similarly, the L.L.Bean Facebook account has the most followers of all of their accounts online, with a whopping total of over a million. But similar to Twitter, I'm seeing a lack of engagement. This could be because the managers of this account are not as open to having conversations with consumers as they are on other platforms. For example, the Instagram handle can be seen in the comments very frequently, actively engaging with consumers by answering questions or commenting on previous mentions. This kind of 'conversation' between company and consumer can't be seen on Facebook.
Instagram is definitely the way that this outdoor recreation company is reaching people. Even though this account only has about a quarter (247k followers) of what their Facebook has, it receives the most engagement. While their other social media sites are receiving between 10 and 100 interactions (being likes, favorite, or retweets), identical Instagram posts are receiving over 1,000! Although 1,000 likes may not be a lot in the larger scheme of the groundswell, I think that the difference of engagements is significant and important. This platform has clearly provided a place for fans to vocalize their feelings about products and share their adventures with others.
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| L.L.Bean Instagram posts with direct links to products in the photos |
One thing that I found unique about the Instagram page was that posts often had directs tags with links to buy the products featured in the photo. I think this is a great way to snatch up a customer who sees something they like while they are scrolling through their own news feed. It easily and immediately pulls the consumer out of their Instagram and directs them to their website, where they can immediately put the product in their cart before returning to their typical feed scrolling. I wonder if this 'tagging' is what is making the posts more engaging to followers and is generally increasing the levels of engagement seen on Instagram more than any other social media platform.
Note that below, I used an example of engagement that is not related at all to the "Be An Outsider" campaign at all. This is because I could not find any posts that L.L.Bean had commented on which included the movements hashtag. The L.L.Bean account frequently shares their fans photos that have included the campaigns hashtags in their captions. All the comments on these re-posted, 'stolen' campaign posts from typical fans were just followers tagging their friends in the post, suggesting that their friends buy those products or go to the locations mentioned in the posts. The fact that the company is not actively taking part in opening up conversations for their own campaign makes me believe it's gonna lose steam over the long time period they have dedicated to it.
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| "Consumer Engagement through comments on L.L.Beans Instagram" |
ANALYTICS
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| Data Source : Google Trends |
There is a very distinct pattern throughout the years, consisting of a sharp peak occurring between November and December, followed by a bit of a valley from January until the summer. This correlates with the beginning of winter (aka the time of year when they need their Bean Boots so they can slosh through the snow) as well as lining up perfectly to the time of year when people buy each other Christmas gifts. At the end of the summer (Late August into September) there appears to be a pattern of a small bump. This is most likely correlated with the beginning of the school year and people buying new clothes, but especially backpacks.
In general, it seems as though the companies popularity is on a decline. Even it's peaks are consistently getting lower each year. Since the campaign began in September, 2017, I cannot see any sort of measurable rise.
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| Data Source: Google Trends |
I included data on the 5 least popular states which can be explained by both points: the weather of these states does not typically require the heavy duty, warm products that the company produces and they are some of the states furthest away from the manufacturers in Maine so word of mouth is particularly low.
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| Data Source: SocialMention.com Collected 10/3, 10/11, 10/15, 10/23 |
For these searches, I specifically wanted to look at the data surrounding the current campaign, so I searched "#beanoutsider"
Sentiment, displayed as the ratio of positive mentions compared to those that are negative, generally falls on the positive side, aside from on 10/3. After researching this date, I wasn't able to come to any conclusions as to why people may have been speaking more negatively about the campaign at this point in time.
Reach defines how many unique contributors you have. The percentage has remained relatively high over the past month, as well as the passion (the likelihood that an individual will talk about your brand repeatedly) for the campaign. This means that new people are engaging with the hashtag, but you also have consistent loyalists who post about to frequently.
CONCLUSIONS: L.L.Bean is present on all forms of social media. This is great because they can have large audience, especially because they share all the same content on all of the platforms. People who might not follow the Facebook page but do follow the Instagram page will receive the same marketing. However, I think there needs to be more attention made towards engaging with people on all the platforms and not solely the newest. I would also suggest focus on tapping into the massive Facebook audience that they have collected. Based on both the Google Trends and Social mention analysis, I see the brand and the campaign in a steady pattern, reflective of the past years. But with the campaign's goal being to increase sales and popularity, I don't see that happening. If they were to activate the groundswell in a positive manner across all platforms, they could increase sales and spread their brand name outside of just the North East of the US. 
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