Converse: Social Media Monitoring Project Part Two

The converse is an American shoe company that primarily produces skating shoes and lifestyle brand footwear and apparel. Founded in 1908, it has been a subsidiary of Nike, Inc. since 2003. From the previous study in Part One, we already know that Converse draws much attention through brand collaborations, especially on Sep.27th, the announcement of collaboration with Comme des Garçons again, just like that in the last decade. It obtained the greatest number of engagements on Instagram. There are interactions by its 20.87 Instagram users out of 1000.

Source: Socialbakers

However, when facing the diversified markets, industries, and sectors, Converse has more and less issues that need to be fixed. Today, we are going to talk about the distribution of Converse by comparing with its two major competitors, Puma and New Balance. We will also discuss its strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats via this SWOT analysis, and track the tendency of followers according to Social Mention.

Competitor

As the footwear brand, Converse has ample competitors. We selected two primary competitors who are also thrilling in the USA market, Puma, and New Balance. Let’s take a look at 12-months-trends of Converse and its competitors through Google trends. As you can see from the graph below, the search volume on the website of these three brands are on an average level, and their trajectories are very similar. Converse is just slightly ahead.

Source: Google Trends 

From the below distribution graph of three brands, according to google trends, we could know that Converse occupies upstream market share in most regions in the USA, especially on the west coast. However, on the east coast, New Balance and Puma have more market share. As mentioned in my previous report, Converse actives on the west coast and the weather factors might be the reason. From the statistics below, it is suggested that more campaigns by Converse shall be conducted on the East Coast for more potential market shares.

Source: Google Trends 

SWOT Analysis of Converse 

Strengths 

Strengths are defined as what each business does best in its gamut of operations, which can give it an upper hand over its competitors. The followings are the strengths of Converse: first of all, its price is very friendly. In comparison to its closest rivals New Balance, Converse is perceived as an affordable brand. Typically, the price ranges from USD 55 to USD 130, which is acceptable to average income people. The second, the design by Converse is unique and creative, sometimes notably collaborating with other outstanding brands. It helps Converse attract a lot of customers and engagement. The third, Converse, as a footwear company with a one-century history, accumulated a solid reputation and credibility around the world. The fourth, Converse cooperates with many famous sports celebrities and band members as brand ambassadors, who are very influential to customers. The last, Converse has been conducting many successful campaigns in order to appeal to the young generation. 

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are things that can make a particular project or a company less likely to succeed and areas where a company is notably lacking. Some of the critical weaknesses of Converse are: firstly, Converse lacks communication with their followers on each social media, and it hardly has interaction with its followers. It may consequently decrease the loyalty of customers. Secondly, the lack of diversity in Converse's single-form products leads to customer singularity. Although converse believes that they are facing different generations, their products and advertisements are more inclined to young people. For instance, all-star and chunk collections are designed too narrow and tight for most people to wear for a reasonably long time.

Opportunities

Opportunities are things that have the potential to increase profits, productivity, or benefit a business in some other way. As a world well-known company, opportunities for Converse could be just more aggressive advertisements and promotions through social media platforms to attract more customers. For example, on Facebook, people who follow Converse come from different countries, but all of them could purchase converse shoes on their homepage. 

Threats

Source: New Balance account of Twitter 

Threats are the final element of SWOT analysis; they have the potential to harm a business. Some of the threats include: in comparison with competitors, the customers of Converse are not very diversified in categories. Some of them may be distracted by other emerging brands.  Lack of two-way engagement will reduce customers’ loyalty to the brand with a potential result in reducing the market shares. As a Converse competitor, New Balance has excellent two-way engagement with followers.

                                                   

Social Mention Analysis of Converse

Source: Social Mention
Sep.29th VS Oct.21st 

From the above metrics, we could know that on Sep 29th, the passion of customers is the highest due to the new collaboration announced. However, by looking at the regular days after the campaign, the tendency of fewer people being willing to talk about Converse repeatedly poses a threat of losing the brand customers’ loyalty. The reason behind it may stem from the fact that the followers could hardly gain a response from the brand. In other words, the followers are found difficult to engage with Converse within the Groundswell. The strengths and reach of converse have been declined after the announcement. It is my assumption that the regular launch of new product will not be able to attract many customers.

Recommendation

Create active conversations with customers

As previously mentioned, Converse lacks two-sides interactions with customers. They almost don’t respond to their customers on each platform. If customers feel that you don’t care about their user experience, they will lose their loyalty to the brand. According to Li and Bernoff, if the brand wants to succeed in Groundswell, basically, they should listen to customers and then talk to customers. Converse could just simply reply to their followers’ questions and encourage followers to provide feedback on each social media platform. At least, Converse could let customers know that the brand cares about how they feel. 

Source: Converse account of Twitter, Instagram,and Facebook

Build a Converse community on social media platforms 

No matter on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, I didn’t find that Converse has a community on its homepage. As Li and Bernoff mentioned, the best way to energize with your followers in your brand is to build a community, where people could share their user experience, and interactive with each other passionately. The staff form converse could also join in the discussion in the community. Furthermore, according to Li and Bernoff, embracing your customers could inspire their enthusiasm and engage them in your brand. The engagement of customers is definitely important for Converse to understand word of mouth about their product and service, and it will stimulate a brand’s growth quickly. Community is really a good place where for enthusiasts to share their real opinions about the product and services. 

East coast market shares 

As mentioned above, in comparison with New Balance and Puma, Converse has less market shares on the east coast of the USA with the potential cause of climate. From this video, “the mountain club,” it appears that Converse already realized the importance of market diversity. It is my strong suggestion that Converse really should do more campaigns and market promotions on the east coast.