Pleasant Surprise: Jos. A Bank (Discounts) vs. Men's Warehouse (Content)

Jos. A Bank vs. Men's Warehouse
Engage vs. Discounts

"What it is we say?
'Set the stage to Engage?'
The goals we set are reached by the kinda goo we mix,
The kinda goo that sticks, kinda goo that keeps us fresh.
Hey, I've wrong been wrong before,
Learn every day in this developing world.
The other day I'm learning,
Sunk on my couch,
I learned a little something that I felt I had to shout."

This semester we're doing our big project for the business school: Business Policy. Teams of 5 select a company, create a 5 year strategy with financial forecasts, and present it at a final presentation. Well, we choose Jos. A Bank, the Men's Retailer with the third highest margin in the industry. That's right, the "buy 1 get 8 free" retailer. Our competitor is Men's Warehouse. I didn't look into their Social Media presence until after we had built the whole presentation, finished the paper, and prepared to present. But, after finally digging in, what I found amazed me - and it shouldn't have. Turns out, Jos. A Bank sees 8x the interaction on Facebook as their main competitor Men's Warehouse, a competitor focused on younger markets. Their website sees 400k more monthly visitors than MW, with 5% of them coming from Facebook.

Take a quick look at each page. Considering all you've learned in SM, which page would you think is set to be more successful. Keep in mind, MW product line is targeted more towards the 18-25 market than ours:
https://www.facebook.com/Jos.A.Bank.Clothiers.Inc
https://www.facebook.com/MensWearhouse

Now, take a look at those PTAT numbers. MW is about .6% of total following while Jos. A Bank is hovering around 4%.

How? Duh: The discounts. The PTAT number includes people who have claimed an offer from the brand recently. Jos. A Bank's business model is marking up items and discounting them to entice customers. Even though they target an older demographic, they see more activity from college students. They are a natural fit for Social Media.

When I was starting a daily deal site for college students a few years ago all the research said that the #1 reason college students interact with brands is coupons. It was promising research for somebody starting a coupon site targeting college students and leveraging social features to tip the deal instead of x number of people needing to actually purchase the deal to activate it.

But, we do forget, and that stat didn't pop in my head for the entire semester, until I looked at the numbers.

Moral of the story: Consumers will be consumers. Saving money rules over talking with brands. I feel like this finding brings a little perspective. Sure, great creative engaging content can make a brand look less, well, brand-y, but at the end of the day consumers exchange cash for goods or services. If they can exchange less cash and get the same services, well, that's King, and social networks don't change it.

Note: Jos. A does have great content on their website, but it's not the focus of their social pages. The focus is their pages. If you're looking for really good timeless fashion advice for Men check out their Expert Advice pages.