Sandro: Marketing Campaign + Suggestions

Because Sandro's lookbook is its most graphically interesting commodity, it should be used to generate discussion and interest in the French brand. The images are French and cool; the styling represents the brand better than any of its brick-and-mortar stores and the majority of its website. Because the lookbook is not seen outside of the Sandro website, it is a great missed opportunity. As part of the marketing campaign, Sandro should send a digital copy of the lookbook to blogs like FabSugar and Refinery29 (with whom it already has a relationship) and they will publish the book on their blogs. It is a common practice for these two blogs in particular to educate their readers about the newest lookbooks from the hottest brands, like Zara:

There is a link at the bottom of the picture that goes directly to the brand's website. Even if the current lookbook does not match the product offering on the site, publishing the book on a well-known blog will encourage users to visit the site. Through linkage agreements, it is easy to track how many customers respond to this style of marketing. If successful, there should be an increase in online purchases in the products featured in the lookbook.

Additionally, Sandro should send digital copies of its newest lookbook to all the clients for which they have email addresses. They have so many email addresses accumulated and currently do little to retain their customer base. By sending the lookbook as a PDF file to its customers, it may remind customers why they purchased from Sandro and give insight into their future products. Through linkage agreements, it is easy to track how many customers respond to this style of marketing. If successful, there should be an increase in online or in-store purchases in the products featured in the lookbook.

Next, Sandro should invite bloggers like the Man Repeller to style their windows, as she did for competing brand, Maje in the beginning of the summer:

It is an interactive way to involve a blogger who clearly loves Sandro, as she posts about wearing their clothes often. Instead of providing monetary compensation, Sandro can offer Leandra Medine (the Man Repeller) a gift card to use at Sandro. The hope is that Medine will feature the clothing on the blog and, through a linkage agreement, link it back to the Sandro website. Sandro can easily measure the effectiveness of this event through the amount of merchandise that is purchased due to the links on Medine's website. Additionally, Sandro can measure the increase in foot traffic, and the demographics of foot-traffic that enter the store which Medine decorates.

Finally, it is imperative for Sandro to be more involved with social media, particularly Pinterest. Their Pinterest account currently has just over 330 followers. That is not nearly enough to generate the traffic that they need. A good way to increase their Pinterest following is to hold contests where users create outfits based around the key item of the newest Sandro campaign and pin it to a board that must have a specific name. A condition would be that the user must follow all of Sandro's boards. A social media coordinator at Sandro's headquarters can easily search all of the entries by the specific board name or hashtag, and choose a winner. There should be an incentive for the winner - perhaps another gift certificate to Sandro for a specific dollar amount. This is a popular contest used by many brands, including Victoria's Secret.

The beauty in this contest is its ease in measuring metrics of success. Sandro can easily see how many users participate in the contest by looking up the board. Additionally, this contest should directly correlate to the number of users that follow Sandro on Pinterest, since the user must follow Sandro before being allowed to participate in the contest.

Sandro is already popular on Facebook and Twitter, but its involvement and globalization can't stop there. Both accounts are primarily published in French. Instead, the brand should translate each post to English and post twice. Vogue Paris does this, and it ensures that many more users can follow and understand their Twitter. Sandro makes a point of having both a European and American website, so it must cater to its English-speaking, American customer. An easy way to measure benchmarks of success is to calculate how many more Americans follow their Facebook or Twitter. Each user provides their primary location, so it will not be a difficult or time-consuming calculation.

Additional Suggestions

Sandro is shooting itself in the foot by refusing to show complementary and similar products on its website. Inserting pictures is simple and the opportunity for increasing dollars-per-transaction and units-per-transaction is great. If successful, there will be an increase in the amount of complete outfits (shown together) purchased online.

Though it may be a great cost, Sandro needs to invest more money in its homepage of its website; it needs to be changed more than two or three times a year. Having the homepage look identical for four to six months out of the year does not suggest that there are new products being offered. A customer sees that and immediately signs off; there is no stickyness. Even if it just means pulling another look from the lookbook, Sandro should change its website once a month. Its page could include seasonally appropriate verbiage and graphics to entice the shopper. Finally, Sandro needs to measure the ratio - minutes spent browsing the website to the amount of product purchased per user. It will allow them to calculate their stickyness.

Because social media is the most effectively way to inexpensively generate discussion about a brand, it is important that Sandro integrate its social media more closely with its website. When logging on to the site, it is impossible to know that Sandro has a Pinterest account. Like their Twitter account, the Pinterest should be integrated directly into the site so the newest post is at the bottom of the screen on the start page.