Branded! : How Retailers Engage Consumers with Social Media and Mobility

Consumers have become technology savvy: they blog about product reviews and customer service, instantly do comparison price checks from their mobile phone in a store aisle, become fans of their favorite retailers and brands on Facebook, show off their purchases on YouTube, and provide accolades—or vent complaints—to their friends and to the masses on Twitter. Successful retailers must not only find ways to differentiate merchandise strategies and stores, but also to engage with consumers where they are already spending a lot of their time: blogging, friending, tweeting, and surfing. Now is the time for executive management to jump into ongoing conversations about their companies and participate rather than sitting on the sidelines. Branded! helps you harness the power of social media and mobility to its fullest potential. Sharing their decades of experience in retail and technology, Bernie Brennan and Lori Schafer demonstrate how social media and mobility can substantially improve a retailer's market share and brand position. Loaded with examples, Branded! provides comprehensive reviews of leading retailers who are successfully implementing social media and mobility. Written through the eyes of retail and technology executives, Branded! explores: How your world is changing. Customers are now in charge. Retailers who fail to engage will be bypassed The powerful impact of social media, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, private social networks, and social gaming The lightning speed in the growth of smart phones—connecting retailers and customers—regardless of time or place How analytics helps you listen, quantify, and react to the impact of massive volumes of conversational data The strategies of leading-edge retailers, including: Starbucks, Zappos, Wet Seal, Macy's, 1-800-Flowers.com, JCPenney, Pizza Hut, and Best Buy How open culture and transparency are the hallmarks of these leaders Unlock the mystery of these rapidly emerging new channels of communication and commerce and strategically engage your customers with Brennan and Schafer's Branded!