ALDO - A Social Media Critique and Analysis

ARBUS 300 - 001

ANNIE QUE 20424645

JIA XING LIU 20430568
YOLANDA CHEUNG 20473956
ISOBEL TSANG 20372560
MEGAN DAWE 20472350

MARCH 15, 2015

ALDO - A Social Media Critique and Analysis

Introduction
ALDO is a Canadian company specializing in branded fashion footwear and accessories,
founded by Aldo Bensadoun in 1972 in Montreal, Quebec. Since their establishment in 1972,
ALDO has now grown to over 1,450 stores in 80 countries around the world, with a heavy focus
on Canada, the U.S.A., and certain regions of Europe. Bensadoun set out to build a different
kind of modern company, one founded on compassion and ethics, aiming to influence society in
both fashion and social responsibility (Who We Are). Their three core values of respecting
diversity, committing to excellence, and caring from inside out, drive ALDOs vibrant, energetic,
and socially responsible brand image.
Social media helps further ALDOs mission by allowing them to influence the fashion
community and society at large in unique and colourful ways. As the world is becoming more
digitalized, the footwear and fashion industry is making use of social media to promote brand
awareness and product desire. According to Marketing Zeus, a business strategy consulting firm,
57% of apparel sales in 2012 were web-influenced (King, 2012). In fact, 64% of social shoppers
turn to message boards or blogs for inspiration before making a fashion-related purchase
decision (Storms). The strong influence of social media on fashion inspiration and research has
made strong online identities a standard necessity for the leading competitors in the industry.
Companies like Nine West, DSW, and H&M are active across all popular social media
platforms. In order to maintain their success and competitiveness in the fashion industry, ALDO
is also integrating social media into their marketing strategy as an important tool to raise brand
awareness and influence consumer inspiration and desire.

Summary of Social Media Use

Social media engagement is not a new phenomenon for ALDO. Over the years as social
media platforms became more popular, ALDO has developed an integrated, consistent, and
active social media presence that spans across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and
YouTube. Currently, ALDOs Customer Contact Centre maintains each of these platforms to
promote their brand and social initiatives, through the identification, management, and
facilitation of the customer experience (ALDO Shoes - Pierre Yves). Strategically, ALDO has
leveraged its social media presence to raise awareness and influence desire in their potential and
current customers. For example, one of their most recent campaigns #aldofightsaids is used to
raise money for HIV/AIDS programs through the sale of bracelets. This campaign highlights
both ALDOs commitment to unique fashion as well as social responsibility beyond the fashion
industry. This blending of their commitments is present in all of their social media platforms to
generate the best possible impression of their products and company brand. Using bright and
vibrant colours to attract consumer attention, social media helps ALDO deliver a young and
creative image that is consistent with their promise to keep customers worldwide up-to-date with
the latest trends and products that reflect individual personalities and desires (ALDO - mission).
Facebook
Since May 2009, the ALDO Shoes Facebook page has amassed 1,857,767 likes and
27,399 visits. The page serves to update the Facebook audience on the latest products and
initiatives, and drive traffic to ALDOs other social media platforms by providing relevant links.
ALDOs Facebook presence exemplifies their overall brand image with the use of vibrant
images and conversational tone. Each post is themed, containing a picture of the featured product
and a short conversational caption (see Appendix A). As Facebook users are becoming more
visually oriented, the pictures and captions effectively attract the audiences attention, and builds

desire for the featured product by connecting it to a specific fashion identity and a relevant
product campaign like #perfectpair. ALDOs activity on Facebook is frequent, posting usually
twice daily at the times when users are most likely see the posts. The Facebook page effectively
raises awareness and influences desire with a consistent image and frequent activity.
Twitter
ALDO created their Twitter account in October 2009 and has posted a variety of text,
photos, and videos in the form of tweets in order to draw attention to their products and
marketing campaigns. Since then, they have acquired 106,000 followers, and tweeted 16,100
times on their account. The primary purpose of using Twitter is to amass a significant number of
followers and tweet with hashtags to advertise ALDOs brand image. This allows ALDO to raise
awareness and desire for their products, as well as participate in an online conversation with the
footwear and fashion community, and their customers.
Twitter is a conversational platform for ALDO to share new products and marketing
campaigns such as the #perfectpair, as well as their more philanthropic campaigns like
#friendsfight, which promotes the fight against HIV/AIDS. ALDO uses hashtags on Twitter to
promote catch phrases in order to categorize and effectively market their products. Twitter users
can simply search for a particular hashtag catch phrase in order to efficiently sort through the
tweets that they wish to view.
Instagram
Instagram is a relatively new social media tool in comparison to the others. ALDOs
journey on Instagram began on July 2012 and has served effectively since as a pictorial update of
products and campaigns to customers. As of March 8, 2015, the shoe company has accumulated
over 300,000 followers and posted almost 1,300 photos. Instagram is a challenging platform as

user interactions are limited to likes and comments on the photos. ALDO uses Instagram
mainly for posting pictures relating to their products and social projects, both with an emphasis
on friendship and positivity.
ALDOs posts steadily increased from roughly 0.5 posts per day in August 2012 to about
1.5 posts per day in February 2015 (Appendix B). Through the use of these photos, ALDO
promotes their marketing campaigns, especially their 40th anniversary celebration, #friendsfight
campaign, etc. For example, last months ALDO Fights AIDS campaign utilized the hashtag
#aldofightsaids, #friendsfight and #vfiles to raise awareness for the companys fight against the
disease. Despite their frequent activity, ALDOs Instagram is not very integrated with its other
social media platforms. Similar pictures and post contents also appear across ALDOs other
platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, instead of sharing the Instagram image post.
Pinterest
ALDO takes advantage of Pinterest as a pictorial site that acts as a personalized media
platform for both consumers and companies (Pinterest). ALDOs account has 17, 200 followers,
883 pins, and 7 boards. Their account is designed to be a destination for style-conscious shoppers
to not only browse ALDO products but also to see how they are used in everyday life. Recent
statistics show that 27% of fashionistas costume jewelry, special occasion and casual clothing
purchases are influenced by Pinterest, an idea that ALDO takes advantage of in their use of the
site (Storms). None of their boards are solely dedicated to images of their products, but rather
their occasion and use. Some examples of their boards include: ALDO by You, ALDO Rise, and
ALDO Meets I Do (Appendix C). The ALDO by You board showcases real people who
purchased their shoes and the various places they have been in them, while ALDO Rise focuses
on their shoes presence on the runway and fashion shows. ALDO Meets I Do highlights

wedding ideas, featuring shoes, dresses, styles, and event ideas for a wedding. It can be inferred
from these examples that ALDOs main purpose in Pinterest is to influence desire in potential
customers, by showcasing of their shoes in action and including quotes about everything that
shoes and fashion can do for a person on the boards. They are promoting and enticing people to
join their ALDO culture through the display of their products. Pinterest is used to popularize and
differentiate their business so that their offerings will be even more desirable to consumers.
YouTube
ALDO's YouTube channel, ALDO Shoes, is the first social media account the company
created other than its website for the companys information and online purchases. ALDO joined
YouTube on February 22, 2008 and has 2,835 subscribers and 2,949,363 views. YouTube is a
video-hosting channel for ALDO to distribute advertisements and event highlights to strengthen
brand loyalty and enhances their quality and energetic image. It is able to showcase ALDO's
products in videos, which helps bring consumers into the ALDO community.
ALDOs YouTube channel, available in both English and French, is updated seasonally,
simultaneously along with their seasonal footwear fashion collections. ALDO has created and
organized their videos in different playlists, such as Give Me ALDO Fall 2013, ALDO40 Happy
Birthday to us!, ALDO Mens 2012 Summer Fashion Collection and ALDO Shoes Catwalk 2012
Summer Fashion. These playlists allow viewers to find videos of interest and further explore
related ones. In addition, ALDO casted a variety of models from different ethnic backgrounds for
their #perfectpair campaign, ranging from the U.S.A., Canada, Poland, England, and South
Korea. ALDO effectively achieves diversity by casting models with different backgrounds and
creating specific playlists to appeal to different target audiences.

Assessment and Recommendations

Overall, ALDO uses the five key social media sites - Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter,
Facebook, and Instagram - quite effectively to showcase their brand, products, and campaigns.
Through the consistent brand image, campaign representation, and meaningful content across all
of their social media platforms, ALDO encourages brand loyalty by creating a resonating online
community. However, there is room for improvement in ALDOs audience engagement, activity
frequency, and cross-platform integration. (Appendix D details a SWOT breakdown.)
The greatest strength of ALDOs social media presence lies in the consistency between
their overall brand and the social media platforms. The concurrent use of vibrant colours and
conversational tone across all platforms distinguishes ALDOs social media presence. Their
marketing and product campaigns are also well-represented across the various social media
platforms. For example, the #perfectpair campaign is designed around finding the perfect pair of
shoes for any situation. The #perfectpair tagline is integrated into all of ALDOs latest Facebook
posts, YouTube videos, Twitter hashtags, and Instagram captions (Appendix E).
Not only has ALDO been able to establish a consistent brand image, they have also been
successful in tailoring the content of each platform to be meaningful to the audience. Their
product mission of reflecting their customers individual personalities and aesthetic (Who
We Are) - is evident in how ALDO connects each of its posts to a specific fashion identity.
Customers who relate to the identities are then influenced in their desire for the products. This
builds brand loyalty by promoting a sense of belonging in ALDOs virtual communities on each
platform.
Although ALDOs social media platforms are strong in brand consistency and content
relevance, there are some areas of improvement. Firstly, the level of audience engagement needs

to be increased. For example, there is no conversation between ALDO and its followers on
Twitter and Instagram currently. ALDOs inability to maintain ongoing dialogues in social
media lays waste to the huge potential of instantaneous customer social engagement and
influence on the virtual platforms. By responding to posts, tweets, pins, and re-gram1-ing on
Instagram more frequently, ALDO can demonstrate that they appreciate their customers
opinions, and promote user participation in their online community. This will paint the
companys image to be less of a corporate machine, but more of a trusted friend to whom
customers can turn for fashion advice.
Secondly, while ALDO posts relatively frequently on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram,
they should be more active on YouTube and Pinterest. ALDOs YouTube channel is only
updated on a seasonal basis, when there is a change in their seasonal footwear fashion trends.
This does not allow for frequent engagement with their customer base and ALDO cannot
effectively leverage the strengths of using YouTube as a marketing tool. Furthermore, ALDO
does not utilize Pinterest to its full potential. Limited to seven Pinterest boards, ALDOs pins are
infrequent and irrelevant to their marketing campaigns, as evident in the lack of hashtags such as
#perfectpair and #aldofightsaids. ALDO is about unique styles for every occasion - they can
create new boards for more frequent activity and to showcase the styles and marketing
campaigns not currently featured. For example, a new board can be created to include images of
current products that customers would see online and in-store. This is what Pinterest is the best
for - multiple visuals about a topic in a central location to inspire ideas. By increasing the
frequency of activity, ALDO can generate more interest for their products on those specific
platforms, and appeal to the audiences that may mainly only use one platform to discover new
fashion and ensure all their platforms are current.
1

Re-gram: an action where ALDO would re-post a user contributed photo on their official Instagram account

Finally, ALDO should improve on its integration across platforms with regards to the
content. For example, it would be beneficial for Facebook to link YouTube videos. ALDO or
consumer-generated photos and images posted on Instagram or Pinterest, can be the source of
visual content for the other platforms. With the integration of content across platforms, it can add
to cross-platform consistency and increase ALDOs audience on each platform. This can raise
awareness of ALDOs existing social media presence, and increase engagement by lending them
the ability to inspire others.
Conclusion
In summary, ALDO has a fairly good grasp on social media use, as evident in the amount
of subscribers on each platform. Despite their achievements, ALDO still has room to improve.
Through the implementation of the recommendations mentioned, ALDO will be able to increase
the effectiveness of their social media platforms, raise consumer awareness, and create desire for
both their products and their company culture, and thus instill brand loyalty. In the long run these
recommendations will improve customer service communications and lead to a more positive
view of the company as a socially responsible fashion brand.

References
ALDO Shoes (@aldo_shoes) Instagram Photos and Videos. Instagram. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
<https://instagram.com/aldo_shoes/>.
ALDO Shoes (@ALDO_Shoes) | Twitter. Twitter. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<https://twitter.com/aldo_shoes>.
ALDO Shoes (aldoshoes). Pinterest. Pinterest, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2015.
<https://www.pinterest.com/aldoshoes/boards/>.
ALDO Shoes. "Pierre Yves, Customer Contact Centre." YouTube. YouTube, 24 Sept. 2013.
Web. 07 Mar. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBXjPoYuzGE&t=18>.
ALDO Shoes. YouTube. YouTube. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<https://www.youtube.com/user/ALDOshoesVideos>.
Pinterest. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest>.
Storms, Danielle. 10 Social Media Stats Affecting the Fashion Industry. Social Media Link.
Social Media Link, 28 Oct. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
<http://socialmedialink.com/blog/56>.
Who

We

Are.

ALDO

Corporate

Culture.

<http://www.aldogroup.com/about-us.html>.

N.p.,

n.d.

Web.

10

Mar.

2015.

Appendix A - Sample ALDO Shoes Facebook Post

Appendix B - Instagram Activity Analysis

Time

Posts per Month

Posts / Day
(Month = 30 Days)

Feb 2015

45

1.5

Aug 2014

38

1.27

Feb 2014

32

1.07

Aug 2013

35

1.17

Feb 2013

25

0.83

Aug 2012

16

0.53

Appendix C- Sample Pinterest Page

Appendix D - SWOT Analysis of ALDOs Social Media Presence

SWOT Analysis on Social Media Presence
Strength

Weaknesses

- Marketing campaigns are well-represented in all

platforms
- Consistent identity and brand image across
platforms allows for self-identification amongst
customers
- Generating meaningful content which influences
desire in segmented target audiences
- Pinterest can have a catalogue style board
- Encourages loyalty by creating a brand identity
and community that the customers can resonate
with

- Low audience engagement in all platforms

- Low activity frequency in Pinterest and
YouTube
- Pinterest not used to its full potential
- Little to no cross-platform integration (e.g.
Using one social media to make the user
aware of the existence of other social media)

Threats

Opportunities

- Companies like Nine West, DSW, H&M all are

active across popular social media platforms
- Intense competition amongst its parent company
and external competitors
- Competitors are more engaged with their
customers on social media, responding to their
posts, proving that they actually read them. In
doing so they have been able to gain large
followings, unlike ALDO who still has a
relatively small following.

- Improve active audience engagement (all

social medias)
- Ongoing conversation on Twitter
- Re-grams on Instagram
- Frequency of activity (YouTube & Pinterest)
- Better Integration between platforms
- Facebook & YouTube for videos to help
drive traffic to YouTube channels
- Facebook & Instagram for picture sharing
- Pinterest can reference other platforms

Appendix E - #perfectpair Campaign on Social Media

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

YouTube