Trying to understand what people are talking about retail brands, Simplify360 picked top 5 Retail brands and went deep into their conversation. The report tries to understand what people talk about these Retail Brands.

1. 1
Social Media and Retail Industry
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2. 2
Retail Industry
Confidential
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recipients agree that they will use the information only for their own use and
will not divulge any such information to any other party without In-Rev or
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modification / adaptation thereof), in any form or by any means whatsoever
under penalty of law.
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Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com

3. 3
Abstract
Retail Industry is one of the most active industries on Social Media. Retail
Brands like Walmart and Target are among the top 20 brands on Facebook
with the highest number of Facebook fans.
Recent Comscore research shows that 54% of the referral traffic to retail
websites comes from Facebook, 30% from Pinterest and 8% from Tumblr.
Among the many use cases of social media, marketing is the top priority for
Retail Brands. Amplification of their marketing message makes the huge
chunk of their overall social media strategy. Besides marketing, customer
support is another key activity on social media.
In this report, we will explore the conversation trends around the best US
Retail brands as listed by Interbrand. Interbrand is one of the largest
branding consultancies. The brands are ranked based on the BrandValue1
which is calculated using Financial Performance and Role of a Brand Index.
The keyword combinations used for the research: (Region Target: United States)
 “Walmart”, “Target”, “The Home Depot”, “CVS.Pharmacy”, “Best Buy”
Note: The report is based on the social media conversations. The brands chosen for the
research were not commissioned by any organization. The research was carried out with
the sole intention of showcasing Simplify360 and the power of social media research.
1. Brand Value Details: This means that our method takes into account all the many ways in which a brand touches and benefits its
organization -- from attracting and retaining talent to delivering on customer expectations. The final value can then be used to guide
brand management, so businesses can make better, more informed decisions. http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-
brands/best-global-brands-methodology/Overview.aspx
Simplify360
Social Media Management Copyrights 2012 Simplify360
Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com

4. 4
The Top 5 BEST US Retail Brands chosen for the Research
The top 5 US Retail Brands 2012 below are ranked accordingly to their Brand Value.
Walmart is the most valued Retail
Walmart 139,190 $m Brand in the United States,
Target 23,444 $m followed by Target according to
The Home Depot 22,020 $m Brand Value scoring.
CVS/Pharmacy 17,343 $m
Best Buy 16,755 $m We can clearly see that Walmart
*Source: Interbrand leads with a high margin.
Which Brands are most talked about on Social Media?
By taking only a sample data set of around 4K, Target (53%) and Best Buy (24%) are the
most talked Brands in United States. Most of these conversations are happening on
Twitter and on Facebook. Twitter captures almost 85 % of the conversations.
5%
15%
24%
Walmart
Target Twitter
0% The Home Depot
Others
CVS Pharmacy
18% 53% Best Buy
85%
66% Distribution of conversations based on
different platforms.
10% 14%
6% 2%
1%
Blogs Other Facebook Flickr News Video
*Note: In the social media conversation data only Public Facebook conversations are considered.
Simplify360
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Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com

5. 5
Which regions are most actively talking?
Minnesota
3% Michigan
3% New York
5%
Pennsylvania
3%
California North Carolina
18% 3%
Georgia
3%
Florida
5%
Texas
Alabama
8% 3%
The above MAP distribution shows that most
of the conversations are coming from
CALIFORNIA around 18%
Other Then we have Texas with 8%, and NewYork and
46% Florida with 5%.
Based on this small sample size data, region
wise distribution can only show us the online
activity of consumers and not their
preferences in details. More data could give us
clarity on the Brand preferences and
sentiment distribution as well.
Simplify360
Social Media Management Copyrights 2012 Simplify360
Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com

6. 6
How are people talking about Retail Brands?
Unlike in other Industries where the number of
Link No messages with Links is higher than number of
Link messages without Links, in Retail Industry we
see the opposite.
No RT 34% 44%
RT 9% 13%
Around 44% of the conversations are mentions
Types of Tweets of the Brand without any RT or Links. This
shows that the mentions are more related to
brand experiences than simple
Negative 16% news/information.
Positive 44%
In terms of sentiments of the conversations,
44% are positive and only 16% are negative. The
Neutral 40%
trends in sentiments are very similar to other
Industry Sentiment distribution.
Sentiment Distribution
Example of Conversations
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@aj_toledo I gotta take it to Best Buy hopefully they can recover my shit
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@apexonline did u tell him no offense, but ur only a register dude at home depot not even a real
handy man???
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Oh my gulay. I need to go to target since they sell @onedirection school supplies.
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Poop in the target hallway? #Hahaha
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Why is it every time I go to Target I spend way more than I was supposed to.Went in for one
thing came out with a cart load.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@saraherod237 best buy and if you want one I'd get it from like radio shack it's cheaper 50$ for
the 4 and 100$ for the 4s
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Simplify360
Social Media Management Copyrights 2012 Simplify360
Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com

7. 7
What are the most talked about Topics in Retail Industry?
EVENT 25%
EVENT 25% EVENT 17% EVENT 3%
SERVICE 2%
SERVICE 1% SERVICE 1%
SERVICE 2%
EXPERIENC
EXPERIENCE 20% EXPERIENCE 12% E 14%
EXPERIENCE 21%
PRODUCTS
PRODUCTS 36% PRODUCTS 35%
PRODUCTS 57%
36%
LOCATION 12% LOCATION 10% LOCATION 22%
LOCATION 21%
COST 6% COST 16% COST 1%
COST 6%
Note:
CVS has a very negligible EVENT: Any campaigns or events around the Brand.
amount of conversations SERVICE: Conversations related to services of the Retailer.
for any relevant analysis EXPERIENCE: About experiences of customers.
to be carried out. PRODUCTS: Around products offered by the Retailer.
LOCATION: Conversations related to Check-ins.
COST: Conversations around the prices of the Products.
Simplify360
Social Media Management Copyrights 2012 Simplify360
Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com

8. 8
Summary of the conversation analysis around Retail Brands:
 The comparison charts above shows that most conversation around Retail Brands
revolve around the PRODUCTs.
 BEST BUY has the highest conversations of 57% around PRODUCTs followed by 16%
conversation around COST.
 On the other hand, TARGET and WALMART have more conversations around Retail
Experience than BEST BUY.
 Among all brands, TARGET and HOME DEPOT have the highest conversations
around LOCATION, which means people like updating their location details when
they are in TARGET or HOME DEPOT than in any other Retail outlets.
What else are people talking about Retail?
One more Thing:
JOBS
Beside all the other kind of conversations, the analysis also
show many conversations related to JOBS and
The Best Buy 22% EMPLOYMENT.
Home Depot
Out of this, more than 90% conversations were around ‘jobs’
28%
and remaining were around people updating about the
employees working at the Retail Store.
Target 20% ---------------------------------------------------------------
Eg: this girl working at home depot has a 69 tattoo....
WalMart 22% lolwhy.
---------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to general updates, there were around 5-6%
conversations related to PARKING spots at Retailers. PARKING
This shows the relevance of parking in overall Retail
Experience. 20% 5%
WalMart
Target has the highest conversations of 58% related to
Target
PARKING, followed by The Best Buy which has around
20%, whereas Home Depot has only 17%. Home Depot
The Best Buy
Eg: Sitting in the parking lot slappin pandora and
everyone coming out of home depot just staring.
17% 58%
#Akward
Simplify360
Social Media Management Copyrights 2012 Simplify360
Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com

9. 9
Are people loyal to Retail Brands?
Looking at the conversations between TARGET, THE HOME DEPOT and THE BEST BUY, we
see that there are very few overlapping people talking about these BRANDs.
Out of a sample of 3187 conversations between TARGET, THE HOME DEPOT and THE BEST
BUY, we found the following:
1%
22.5% 0.1% common people
61.1% 0.3%
talking about all three
brands.
0.2%
14.8%
 The above diagram shows that only 0.1% people are talking about all the brands at
one point of time. This is a very low number indicating that people are generally
exclusive about their Retail preferences.
 In addition to this, BEST BUY and TARGET are the most associated Retail Brands
compared to others.
 Home Depot and Target only have 0.2% common people talking about them, and
Home Depot and Best Buy have around 0.3%.
Simplify360
Social Media Management Copyrights 2012 Simplify360
Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com

10. 10
Simplify360
Social Media Management Copyrights 2012 Simplify360
Application for Social Business www.simplify360.com