Social Listening

 For this assignment, the company I chose to analyze is Cider, a fashion brand with the instagram handle @shopcider. This brand started out with a lot of traction on the internet due to its wide range of unique products that cater to an audience of young women who want to dress in a certain fashion. I originally liked and supported this brand because the styles were some I’d never seen before at such a low price point. But upon ordering products from their store, and the reviews reflect this, the quality is cheap and is very clearly fast fashion. The clothes have the quality to only be worn once before being thrown away. 

The value proposition of this company is easily available fashion for any occasion, blending different cultures in their product line, and as is said on the website, “Everyday statement pieces for everyone, everywhere, in every mood.

People originally received Cider with excitement and intrigue, but quickly realized that it’s fast fashion with poor quality garments. Current customers rave about the idea of the products, dreaming about the outfits that they could make. It seems like the plus sized clothing is a big hit because, unlike so many brands, they didn’t change the style from the standard style. A lot of companies change the entire product to make it in plus sizes which, I’m sure, can be very frustrating for someone who wants a specific style in their size. As I mentioned, this company was a huge hit when it first launched, but has slowly fallen off. Their tiktoks used to rake in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of views, but now are getting barely 5,000 on a good day. Barely anyone interacts with their content via commenting or saving/sharing the video.

Cider is trying to promote its versatility and unique designs which, in my opinion, aren’t very versatile or unique. They are spreading the message that anyone of any size can wear cute, affordable clothing. They promote all of their clothing, posting upwards of five videos a day. Most of the content is silly “What should I wear to this wedding?” or “GRWM for date night with this adorable top from Cider.” They mostly reshare content from sponsors or post product images. 

Cider’s marketing aspects are basically confined to their social media accounts. I haven’t come across anything else, be it an ad on another website or even a sponsored search result through Google. It seems they were trying to do something remarkable with their product line, but their only point of remark marketing wise is the sheer quantity they put out. They are not using social media to their advantage, rather using it so spit out everything they can. I’ve seen no flash sales or individual product promotion. They seem to have lost the connection between the product and the brand identity. I think they had this wonderful idea but couldn’t keep up with demand. When the consumer base learned that this is a fast fashion company they lost interest. They’ve built a healthy brand recognition, but have done nothing to push its values or mission. They are fully not succeeding in the mission of providing cute fun clothes. If they have any chance of growing the company, they should be more interactive, more creative.

I commented on two of their videos on TikTok, and have gotten no response. They have responded to other comments, but they seem to only interact with maybe one comment per video. It’s usually a string of emojis or an answer to a specific question.

If I were the brand manager, my first action would be to cut back on the amount of content pushed. If you’re making 5 videos a day, your views will be spread across them instead of pushing up one video. I think one of the main problems Cider is having with social media marketing is that there’s too much content. When you make that much content, you don’t have nearly as much time to make each post the best it can be. Their posts are lackluster, repetitive, and lacking a cohesive theme. The videos and photos are taken from the people they sponsor, and the whole thing just reads as messy. That would be step one. I would respond to customers with the same approximate lingo they use. The brand is very based on current fashion trends, so using the “language” of the internet is a good way to communicate with the customer base in a format they find fun or familiar. 

With this assignment I learned that the amount of advertising you push doesn’t matter if your ads don’t stand out. Just because this company was making so much content every day in all corners of the internet, it doesn’t mean they are actually reaching anybody or convincing the people that do see it to purchase from them.