Blog 5 - A Social Profile That Fits

Established in 1993, Jay Jays is one of Australia's well known clothing outlets, catering towards a younger age bracket. As time has passed, the subsidiary of the Just Group has effectively evolved it's marketing strategies to its audience, but of late could be doing more to reach a larger customer base, through the use of newer Social Technologies.

At this point in time, Jay Jays is active on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, as just about every retailer is now - and needs to be - and they use each of these platforms in their respective manner - YouTube to advertise their ads, Twitter and Instragram in combination to post pictures of new products and sales, and Facebook as a hub for all of these, with more return channel feedback.

When compared against McKinsey's 10 Social Technology levers, Jay Jays fulfills some of these, but could do more to generate and foster sales and revenue. They currently use social platforms as a means to derive customer insights, for marketing communication, as well as provide customer care (as evident through the public feedback on their Facebook page). If Jay Jays were to develop an smart-device application, it could be argued that this would greatly boost sales.


A report published by Adobe displays a clear increase in the number of users who are using mobile technologies (smartphones and tablets) to make purchases, and that being able to browse through stores online strengthened their connection to the brand. But developing and supporting an application does not nessecarily mean requiring an e-Commerce component. As Nicole Hambleton writes about in her blog post Mobile Apps: Increasing Retail Customer Loyalty, as apps have started to flood the smart-device market, competition is high and applications are better used as a way of marketing, and strengthening brand identity, rather than be seen as a means of making money.


While eCommerce has been shown to pay off greatly in a number of different situations, sometimes just having a mobile catalog, which is regularly updated with products, deals and news is enough to encourage users to download and use. This new tactic would also provide some leverage for Jay Jays as other clothing outlets like City Beach or Quiksilver don't have an application like this (Quiksilvers' application is used for their sports branch).

Today, having social media integration is only one part of what makes up a company's online persona. With the emergence of eCommerce, consumers now have the power to shop globally, and word of mouth is stronger than the old 'bricks and mortar' advertising schemes. Smart-device applications should be utilized in a way which can provide leverage over competitors, once their ROI has been realised through 'splash-back' avenues of returns.