Consumer Analysis of Melody You, Justin Lee, Mari Sawamura, Angie Wijaya
Introduction The Converse brand is a shoe company founded in 1908, owned by Nike since 2003. Its recent “Forever Chuck. For Every You” advertising campaign features eight young and up-and-coming stars in the entertainment industry who have major impacts on today’s youth. ●
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Converse’s last campaign focused on its new web-series, Public Access (#ConversePublicAccess), in efforts (or what we felt like was a way) to rebrand Converse as a more edgy, mainstream, and hype brand. This marketing strategy, however, was not well-received by loyal customers. In fact, many of Converse’s followers have lashed out against the company’s change in brand identity and expressed their preference for the old classic image that Converse once had.
Through the analysis and observations of comments and posts of Converse consumers, this assignment focuses on discovering what the conversation between the customer and the brand reveals about the brand’s current image.
Social Media Channels Converse is a growing social media empire, with over 50,000,000 followers across 4 main social media outlets. Much of Converse’s social media success is due to its distribution of creative, relevant, and engaging content, as well as its partnerships with popular celebrity figures.
YOUTUBE
6,300,000 followers
43,795,993 likes
130,378 subscribers
1,080,000 followers
#foreverchuck
Brand Position & Philosophy ● ● ● ● ● ●
Converse’s new marketing campaign focuses on “Forever Chuck, For Every You.” We can see that from its new brand representatives, Converse is trying to target children and teens. All of Converse’s endorsers are celebrities with a massive following of people from the ages 8-18. With young stars from popular shows like Girl Meets World, Riverdale, 13 Reasons Why, and other rising entertainers, performers, and models, it is evident that Converse is trying to appeal to the youth. Converse’s “Forever Chuck” campaign delivers the message that its creation of the Chuck Taylor All-Stars Sneaker is still wildly popular, iconic, and an essential part of every teen’s wardrobe. Instead of representing its brand as edgy (as shown from its last campaign with Public Access), Converse is attempting to revitalize its past brand reputation as a classic and trendy shoe company.
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Converse’s new ad campaign, “Forever Chuck,” features notable celebrities like Sabrina Carpenter, Rowan Blanchard, Cole Sprouse, Taylor Hill, and more. The new figures of Converse’s campaign are diverse and spread out in various industries, whether it’s modeling, film/television, or music, but they are similar in that they’re very influential and popular with teenagers and young adults.
INSTAGRAM ●
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Back in August, Converse launched a social media campaign for its new web series called “Public Access,” which featured celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Maisie Williams hosting and discussing pop culture trends and phenomenons. The “Public Access” ads on Instagram generated predominantly negative reviews, with many people criticizing Converse for teaming up with controversial figures like Miley Cyrus. ● But after the development of the “Forever Chuck” campaign, Converse has received generally favorable reviews and positive comments, especially underneath its celebrity partners’ posts. ● This directly reflects how strong these celebrities’ fanbase is, as well as how effective Converse’s campaign is at generating brand loyalty.
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By changing its brand representatives from more controversial celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, to fresher and newer faces such as Sabrina Carpenter, Converse recognizes the impact of promoting specific figures that could serve as role models. Unlike the negative responses received by their last campaign that included “Good call on alienating yourself from your customers,” the return to the a more simple and classical style allowed consumers to feel comfortable being associated with the brand again. Through shares and reactions on the new posts, consumers seem to be appreciative of their focus on a more accepting by promoting how “whatever your style, however you feel, there's a Chuck Taylor for every you.”
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The new campaign “Forever Chuck. For every you” began with an updated cover photo and launch video to introduce their 8 new brand representatives. Each of these young stars have a large following on twitter and created an overwhelmingly positive response from the consumers and fans. Within a day, the video received over 1,000 likes and several dozen comments.
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The two biggest stars Converse is working with are Sabrina Carpenter and Rowan Blanchard, a duo on the hit show Girl Meets World on Disney Channel. The girls have an extremely large young fan base and their ship name is “Rowbrina.” All but a few of the responses to the ad were focused on the two girls being in the video together, and this response is reflective of the campaign's initial success and following.
YOUTUBE
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Since its release on November 9th, the “Forever Chuck. For Every You” campaign video has reached almost 4 million views in less than a week. The advertisement has received positive responses from young audiences who know who the featured celebrities are. This video reinforces the visual story and aesthetics that converse is going for. Although overall, YouTube can be an overly critical platform that gives an unreliable account of consumer insights.
This new campaign has already been significantly more effective than their last major promotional video, “Forever Chuck” - which focused too much on being edgy/trendy, instead of on its classic style and relatability.
Analysis ● ● ● ● ● ●
The comments from the Public Access campaign were mainly negative and showed that the consumers did not want the brand to change from its classic appeal. They felt that Converse had lost its touch and was trying to become something they are not (a “hype” brand). After receiving so much backlash, a new campaign was launched. Converse rebranded itself with young, up and coming celebrities who have a large influence among the youth. Converse used this new campaign to show that the brand is new, exciting, and a staple to any trendy outfit. By targeting a young audience, the company wanted to appear youthful, energetic, and fashionable. At the same time, Converse wanted to remain loyal to its older customers by utilizing classic branding of its original black and white sneaker through its “Forever Chuck, For Every You” campaign. The consumer insight we uncovered/determined is that the old fans of the brand want Converse to stay classic, original, and nostalgic, while the new fans view the shoe as something trendy and fashionable because young celebrities are wearing them.