Social Monitoring of Kiehl's

Before beginning my graduate study in the U.S.A, I have already become a big fan of Kiehl’s. Kiehl’s was founded as an old-world apothecary in New York’s East Valley neighborhood in 1851. Today, they serve patrons around the world skin and hair care formulas derived from the finest, most efficacious natural ingredients. By combining tried-and-true methods with the latest innovations from Kiehl’s chemists, they assure the high level of quality and efficacy their customers have come to expect from Kiehl’s for more than 160 years. Since Kiehl’s was built as an apothecary, it dedicates to bringing the safest and the most effective products to its customers. If anyone comes into a Kiehl’s shop today, you will find that the store looks like a chemist’s shop and clerks also dress medical uniform. And if you know anything about Kiehl’s, you will know Mr. Bone, the life-size teaching skeleton and Kiehl’s icon appears in all their shops. Today, Mr. Bones represents Kiehl’s pharmacy heritage, commitment to customer service, education and science. In addition, Kiehl’s also promised that they won’t test on animals, which is another reason I admire this brand.

I have been monitoring the social media works of Kiehl’s from September 30, 2012 to October 19, 2012. In the last three weeks, I used several tools below to finish my monitoring work, Social Mention, Facebook Insights, Ice Rocket, Google Insight, Twitalyzer, Tweetstats, Famecount and Alexa Web Infromation Tool . From the data, graphs, website I collect during this monitoring, I have a further understanding of how Kiehl’s, a brand that has a long history, thrives on groundswell. In addition, though overall, Kiehl’s performs well in social media, I still figure out something that Kiehl’s should pay more attention on and improve them.

 

• The presence of social media platform



The appearance of Kiehl’s products is simple, not as gorgeous as other cosmetic brand. This kind of style is also showed in different aspect of this brand, such as its r social media platform, facebook, twitter, or youbube. According to the snapshots of website, an obvious feature is general appearance of snapshots don’t seem colorful. The design keeps consistent with brand’s tradition and also its formation of target audience--almost half consumers are male.

• The landing page of “Kiehl's” official website

 

•  The target audience



From Alexa Web information tool, we can see that unlike other cosmetic brand, male customers cover almost half of the website visitors in Kiehl's. However, the major customers are females who are in the age between 25 to 34. Most of them have children and brows  from school or work. According to the chart, about half of them receive college education.

• The followers of twitter and facebook

 



 

  

                                                                                                                                                                                          From the tools facebook insight and twitalyzer, the number followers of Kiehl’s drop down and almost keep the same since October begin. From the graph, we can see that from Sep 18 to about Sep 25, the number of people talking and new likes increase sharply and then showing a reduce trend after that. Considering I haven’t began to monitor social media work till September 30, I check on the internet and know that a 20% off big sale, friends&family, was held from September 18 to September 24. However, after the big sale, without any other campaigns or promotions, the increase of followers in facebook and twitter become very slow and almost stay the same.

 

• The social memtion analysis

 

Through observation from social mention, besides on october 14, the strength reach 17%, the percentage in sep 30, October 5 and October 19 are almost the same. Obviously, sentiments on that four days show a similar trend as strengths do. The majority of the mentions are neutral. From the graph, it’s very obvious that besides passion, the percentages of strength, sentiment and reach are much higher than the other three days, which is attributed to an introduction of sales promotion through facebook on October 8 and October 14 is the last day.

• The citation in blog

The blog citation begins to rise from Oct 11 and reach to the top on Oct 12. However, the overall graph looks relatively smooth instead of noticeable up and down. Speaking of blogs, the blog of Kiehl’s doesn’t show interactive communication with its  consumers.

     

The blog of Kiehl’s doesn’t be updated very frequently and I find something special that I can’t add a comment in the blog except sharing it with other social media tools. Consequently, maybe the major mission of this blog is talking to its consumers. Because of limit time, I just take a glance at the content of blogs. About half of the blogs are about Kiehl’s products, and the rest are the campaigns of this brand. Perhaps Kiehl’s doesn’t need to collect feedbacks of its consumers from blogs. However, interactive communication is not just to collect information from customers. More importantly, it can encourage engagement of consumers with this brand. And it’s not difficult to open comments function in the blog

• The campaigns of Kiehl's

Many campaigns launched by Kiehl’s are about Kiehl’s Gives. For more than 160 years, Kiehl’s since 1851 has been committed to the betterment of the communities where it serves its patrons. Kiehl’s Gives is an ongoing global, philanthropic initiative that supports Kiehl’s three pillar causes — HIV/AIDS research, environmental issues and children’s well-being.

“Kiehl’s Gives is a celebration of our causes, our customers and our communities.”

--Chris Salgardo, Kiehl’s U.S. President  

 

                                                                                    



In this campaign, customers are encouraged to like this post to show their support of children’s health, which is a good example of talking and energizing with the groundswell.

 

The data show that the number of people like this is much more than those actually share stories with others. Maybe Kiehl’s should make some improvement on engagement of customers with this campaign.

 

Sharing your stories with others

Every female is dedicated to keep a younger looking in her whole life. There is no doubt that cosmetic products, just like Kiehl’s, provide a chance for us to have a healthier skin. Besides that, something in your life keeps you young at heart are also important. Kiehl’s tries to attract its audience psychologically through this campaign.

• Conversations in facebook and twitter

No matter the comments are positive or negative, Kiehl’s replies its customers in a short

 

I still find something that Kiehl’s needs to pay attention on. That is some foreigners don’t use English to comment in facebook. If Kiehl’s can use these customers’ spoken language to reply them, which is a good way to get closer to foreign customers.

• Conclusion 

After monitoring Kiehl’s social media marketing, I make a conclusion as below. Obviously, Kiehl’s is a long history brand and a good reputation among its customers. Consequently, the most important thing for Kiehl’s is to increase loyalty of its customers and then develop prospective consumers. It’s good to see that the tradition of Kiehls, pharmacy heritage and commitment to science, pass from generation to generation. The major way Kiehl’s talk with the groundswell is from facebook and twitter. Actually, they have done a good job. According to my monitoring, Kiehl’s upgrade its facebook and twitter to introduce its new products and its campaigns. As a matter of fact, Kiehl’s is not a brand have new products very frequently, because some formulas of its start products have been existed for a long time and texted by the time and customers. In addition, besides high quality products, Kiehl’s also provide good service. No matter the comments are positive or negative, almost every comments can get a reply in a short time.

 However, compared with twitter and facebook, Kiehl’s blog seems gaining little attention from customers. It surprise me that the blog can’ be acted a comment, which reduce engagement of customers. Actually, besides the 20% off big sale, the campaigns launched recently didn’t generate enough buzz in the groundswell, which doesn’t be shown in the noticeable increase followers in facebook or twitter and   remarkable raise in blog citation observed in ice rocket. Especially in the facebook, there are few comments under the campaign. As far as I am concerned, as a long history brand and not attracted by customers with its frequent new products and nice design of pack, especially male customers cover almost half of its market. The most important thing is to raise royalty and engagement of its target audience. An old brand also need some fresh air and learn how to thrive on groundswell

In the next few weeks, I will continue to monitor this brand Kiehl’s about its social media work.