Diesel's social media strategy and brand positioning analysis

Diesel Social Media

Diesel is a clothing designer and retailer based in Italy. The company is privately-owned. Diesel is a design house with an emphasis on casual clothing, aimed at younger consumers. The company also runs its own retail shops, in dozens of countries around the world. Diesel operates exclusively in the clothing business, and with their emphasis on consumers in their 20s and maybe 30s, Diesel has emphasized social media in recent years as a means of reaching their target market. The company has five social media platforms in addition to their website -- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. This paper will examine Diesel's social media presence to analyze its potential effectiveness.

The Brand

The Diesel brand was formed with the company in 1978. The brand has distinguished itself with Italian styling, American marketing and an emphasis on the younger consumer (Surendar & Roy, 2010). The brand image is focused on fashionability, blending the Italian and American concepts of youthful fashion. The brand is augmented by the fact that Diesel does runway shows and in many respects behaves like a high-end fashion house rather than mainstream clothing retailer. This raises the prestige of the brand in the eyes of the target market. Further, there are relatively few Diesel stores compared with many of its competitors, and the relative exclusivity of the brand helps to enhance its image as well.

Social Media Profile

Diesel utilizes five different types of social media. The company's Facebook page is the main conduit in social media. It has 3.5 million likes, which is fairly effective. The company uses the page to share news and photographs of clothing, rather than to specifically interact with its audience -- the Facebook page is essentially just a marketing channel rather than a two-way flow of information. However, the company does monitor the page and respond to questions, such as about pricing and availability. Facebook is one of the strongest social media sites for the ability to interact directly with consumers. Diesel does not seem to promote a strong brand identity aside from in the imagery, which mirrors that of the company's conventional advertising.

The Twitter site provides a stronger avenue for direct interaction and this appears to be its primary use. Images can be used on Twitter but less effectively than on other sites. While the Diesel Twitter site seems focused on outbound messages, again its moderators are willing to answer feedback from consumers. One tweet promotes the company's Google + page. The DieselPlant YouTube page features videos, again primarily in a one-way communication with the market, focused this time almost entirely on visuals and mirroring content that is available on other media. The company's Instagram page is similar, except of course focused on photographs. Pinterest is more or less the same.

The current campaign has many strengths, but a few weaknesses as well. The primary strength is that the social media sites are updated frequently. Social media requires constant updating to maintain relevance with consumers. Diesel does not ignore any of its social media properties. Another strength is that Diesel has created a coherent look and feel that can be seen across platforms. The company's strength is in its visual presentation, and this is something that can be clearly seen. There is consistency in the language as well -- despite being Italian and selling around the world the only language is English, the universal lingua franca.

A weakness is the verbal content of the campaign. While understandably fashion is a visually-oriented business, there is a disconnect between the brand image and the brand voice. The latter is very dry, and quiet. Diesel types very little besides press releases, and those have absolutely no personality. This contrasts with the brand image and while "playing it safe," this also does nothing to enhance the brand image among young people. Diesel's written copy is a significant weakness and this should really be remedied, especially on Twitter and Facebook where copy is much more important.

Conclusion

Diesel's social media campaign is functional but that's probably it. The visuals support the brand image, but the text does not. The visuals are good, but not overly striking. The company has a relatively bland presentation that neither speaks to high Italian style nor to any particular consumer group. Their need to appeal to a fairly broad geographic audience might contribute to this. Diesel wins points for regularly updating all of its social media, even if those updates are focused on press release material. The visuals are consistent throughout the campaign and that is also beneficial. It is somewhat difficult, however, to piece together a coherent brand identity. Diesel seems to want to be generic enough to appeal broadly, but present itself as unique. This is a broader brand identity issue that goes beyond social media, but the flaws in the social media campaign highlight this disparity between what Diesel is and how it wishes to present itself. At the end of the day, it seems that Diesel mostly has these social media sites because it is supposed to, and has not yet figured out how to present on them unique material that truly enhances brand identity and consumer outreach, two things where social media should outshine more conventional media forms.

References:

Surendar, T. & Roy, S. (2010). Diesel founder Renzo Russo knows what matters in fashion. Forbes India. Retrieved October 24, 2013 from http://forbesindia.com/article/cross-border/diesel-founder-renzo-rosso-knows-what-matters-in-fashion/14622/0?id=14622&pg=0

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DIESEL

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Diesel

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/diesel/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/DieselPlanet

Instagram: http://instagram.com/dieselpics