The big story in the past week has been the announcement that Lush UK is closing all social media channels. The reasons; Lush say they want to engage with consumers directly, and they’re tired of fighting with algorithms. The brand will, however, continue to support Lush personalities - people who are connected with the brand.
We asked our Digital Designer, Adam Copeland for his thoughts on the matter…
“My prediction in the near future is that these brands, who all have browser and app notifications, will move to more frequent push notifications to direct users to their own rich curated content in the form of themed pages or ‘look-books’. For example, brands could choose to push their own content relevant to what the consumer’s searching for - perhaps a specific look around one product, or a recipe based on an ingredient.
Brands seem to be getting the talking to customers bit right but can feel hampered by complicated rules and algorithms about what you can and can’t post on social media platforms. Moving away from those platforms would provide a great opportunity for social teams to create more meaningful content for their own channels. This could prove to be a major plus point, as providing meaningful content tailored to the individual rather than simply serving yet more homogenised content has the potential to dramatically increase brand affinity in the target audience.
The potential cons… It could eradicate the community feeling, by removing a digital place for consumers to share their opinions on a new product. Conversely, maybe this would encourage the formation of real, more physical communities again. The retail experience at Lush is interactive and engaging, so perhaps consumers will come together in stores.
We’re all following this with interest and I’m particularly interested to see what Zuckerberg’s next move is going to be with this information. Sure, it’s only one brand taking this action for now, but if it’s a success, I’m sure we’ll see more following.
We wrote a piece last month about the need for retail experiences, something that Lush does incredibly well. Their brand is well placed to build a physical community, with a strong bricks and mortar approach already.”
What do you think?
