Introduction
Within the last decade, marketing strategies have significantly evolved. The expansion of social networks and digital communication revolutionised content creation (Margulio, 2019). Several years ago, businesses were adapting the traditional approach of sending messages to their target markets, intending to push the audience towards services or products they offered (Dakouan et al., 2019). On contrary, the new marketing strategies, namely Inbound Marketing, aim to pull people towards the brand. The means of achieving that, is creating captivating content that prospective customers find valuable and useful. Through social networking, podcasting, videos and blogs, marketers intend to inform and entertain viewers with the content they search for by themselves (Aljohani, 2020). The purpose here is to appeal to the target markets, get them attracted to the offer and then ‘convert them into paying customers’ (HubSpot, n.d.). According to HubSpot (n.d.), the methodology of Inbound Marketing consists of four phrases: attracting, engaging and delighting customers to gain their loyalty and make the business grow. Attracting refers to successfully appealing to the targeted audience with interesting content and inspiring them to engage with the brand. Engaging, on the other hand, means offering solutions and insights that respond to their needs, so they are more likely to make a purchase. Lastly, delight stands for providing support and help to ensure that the customers make the best of their purchase (Popova and Viljanen, 2019; Lam, 2018; HubSpot, n.d.). This report aims to explore, review and compare the inbound marketing strategies of two brands, which are well-established in the outdoor gear and apparel market – Patagonia and The North Face, against the above methodology.
Patagonia’s Approach to Inbound Marketing
Patagonia has been on the market since 1973. Apart from the premium-quality outdoor clothing, the brand is also well-known for its sustainability and environmental consciousness, deeply rooted in Patagonia’s DNA. According to Deshmukh (2021), the brand marketing approach has been ‘the polar opposite of other popular apparel retailers’. What is striking when it comes to the promotional strategies used by the company, is the almost invisible product promotion as such. Patagonia took the inbound marketing a step further. The brand not only predominantly concentrates on content creation but also sets its stories on backgrounds touching environmental or social causes. In that way, Patagonia tries to draw its audience's attention to the problems of the contemporary world, rather than feature its outdoor gear in picturesque settings. The brand is also known for adapting the 5Ps marketing strategy by adding ‘Purpose’ to product, price, place, and promotion, which constitute the 4 Ps of the marketing mix (Deshmukh, 2021). With beliefs rooted in a love of nature, the company endeavours to build high-quality products while causing minimal harm to the planet.
ATTRACT
The main component of the ‘attract’ phrase of Patagonia’s inbound marketing strategy is the website. It strikes visitors with photographs of breath-taking landscapes, that emphasise the brand’s dedication to the preservation of the natural environment. The layout of the website is simple – the products and the content are clearly categorized. Therefore, the side is user-friendly and easy to navigate. That encourages visitors to stay longer and explore it.
Patagonia also runs a blog linked to their website. However, instead of using the term ‘Blog’, the brand calls their articles ‘Stories’. The well-thought use of words applied here appeals to be more alluring. On seeing a subpage titled ‘Stories’, the curiosity of the potential customers is triggered. Consequently, they are more likely to be turned into leads.
Besides, Patagonia is active on social media with almost 5m followers on Instagram and over 500k on Twitter. The brand is regularly posting meaningful content representing the company’s values instead of showcasing the products it sells. Patagonia’s Instagram feed features stunning wildlife and nature photography, reels appreciating outdoor activities, advice on how to reuse or fix clothing and much more. The variety and regularity of content the brand creates for its followers is definitely a strong ‘attract’ factor.
Patagonia has also a popular YouTube channel with over 350k subscribers. The videos are posted in a timely manner and touch on topics such as environmental issues, natural beauty and outdoor activities. They also present Patagonia’s products, explain their features and advise how to make the best use of them.
Lastly, the brand is visible during various ecological and environmental happenings, which it supports. In that way, the brand can attract the attention of people who are committed to such cases and for whom the ethically sources materials and sustainability carry utmost importance when it comes to making a purchase.
ENGAGE
The ‘engage’ phrase of Patagonia’s marketing strategy is mainly visible through their strong call for action. On the company’s website, there is a tab called ‘Activism’ (Patagonia, n.d.), where visitors can learn how Patagonia is living its mission to ‘save the planet’ (Patagonia, n.d.). The website helps to navigate current initiatives in the chosen location and serves as an advisory for those who are looking for getting involved in environmental activism close to where they live. For instance, through Patagonia’s website, it was possible to find the initiative in Edinburgh, Scotland. Besides, Patagonia not only encourages its community to donate to support the preservation of the natural environment but also, advises on how to find help for financing similar initiatives.
Another way of engaging with the audience is Patagonia’s educational content. The company is actively committed to creating documentaries about different wild places they strive to preserve. The videos are done to make the audience care about those places in a personal way and inspire them to want to take an action. Besides, the company promotes webinars on a variety of topics, ranging from outdoor activities, culture and heritage to curiosities about the world of nature. Patagonia’s website is also a great place to search for topics concerning environmental education as the brand promotes credible sources related to the subject. According to Slater (2014), ‘the process of sharing expertise and knowledge’ results not only in attracting prospective customers but also facilitates establishing a meaningful relationship with them. Therefore, Patagonia’s educational content serves as an effective means to engage with its audience.
Patagonia uses email, phone lines and chatbots to provide customer support, which is a vital part of their inbound marketing strategy. The brand’s representatives are easy to reach, and the waiting time to connect with them is relatively short. They are happy to provide advice on the planned purchase, answer general questions about Patagonia’s products and also touch on topics of environmental activism. Besides, the brand manages a biweekly newsletter, which is abundant with interesting content. The emails include presentations of the newest Patagonia’s ‘stories’, updates on initiatives the brand supports, recommendations for webinars and videos as well as information on products sold by the brand.
Lastly, Patagonia regularly posts on Instagram and Twitter and is really responsive on the latter one. The brand’s activity on Twitter includes engagement in various environment-related conversations as well as replying to its followers in a timely manner, which, creates a community around the brand and strengthens brand loyalty (CyberClick, 2022).
DELIGHT
Patagonia’s approach to the ‘delight’ phrase in their inbound marketing strategy can be considered practical. Besides using its influence to increase awareness of ecological issues, Patagonia asks its client to take mutual responsibility for the life cycle of its products through repair, reuse, and recycling. One of the company mottos sounds ‘If it's broke, fix it’ (Patagonia, n.d.). It is brought to life in a program called Worn Wear. Through this initiative, Patagonia encourages its consumers to take care of their broken clothing and either fix or resell them. The Worn Wear campaign offers store credit for any piece of clothing brought in for repairing or reusing (Hood, 2019). In that way, Patagonia supports customers long after purchase. Not only does the brand offer repair but also, it provides help in recycling damaged apparel and gear. Apart from that, Patagonia willingly fixes products of other brands as well. It is visible that the ‘delight’ component in the marketing approach adopted by Patagonia is based on ‘selling’ solutions. By encouraging customers to repair their gear, providing repair services and showing them how to do it on their own, the brand sends their clients the message that they will always be there for them. This kind of reassurance fosters the customer-brand relationship and leads to the enhancement of brand loyalty. The Worn Wear program is Patagonia’s unique way of showcasing its continuing care for its customers, devotion to sustainability and mindful shopping. Besides, consumers can share their stories on the Worn Wear blog and Instagram channels. Engaging with customers through such a practical and much-needed mission, the brand creates additional value and makes customers ‘delighted enough to be willing to share their experience with others’ (Lam 2018.), which definitely increases visibility and enforces a positive image of the brand.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Inbound Marketing Approach Used by Patagonia
STRENGTHS
One of the principal strengths of Patagonia’s inbound marketing strategy is its precision in market segmentation. The brand targets a specific audience- people who relate to an environmental ethos deeply rooted in its DNA. As Patagonia’s apparel is inseparable from environmental advocacy, the brand attracts like-minded clients who don’t respond to classic marketing triggers of promotion and price reduction. Environmentally concerned consumers believe that Patagonia represents a purpose higher than just making a profit. They are emotionally inspired to involve with the brand because it stands for their values. By grounding its marketing appeal on the emphasis of the prioritization of the environment and communities over money, Patagonia has nurtured a strong and loyal customer base. Regarding market segmentation, the SEO of the brand seems to be well-optimised as well. While searching for ‘sustainable outdoor gear’, Patagonia’s website appears at the top of Google results. This means, that the company makes sure that they carefully target the right market.
Patagonia is also a pioneer in driving profit by applying counterintuitive marketing strategies. The brand has been actively encouraging people to think about their consumption habits in terms of their impact on the environment. Following that, Patagonia started a ‘buy less’ campaign to discourage customers from buying its new outdoor clothes and suggest looking for second-hand apparel instead. Such an unusual strategy resonated with an environmentally-conscious target audience, who has remained loyal to the brand throughout the years.
Another strength of Patagonia’s inbound marketing is undoubtedly the content created by the brand. Through telling stories that matter, Patagonia inspires a change by standing at the frontline of environmental and social initiatives. This increases discoverability and evokes customers’ sympathy for the brand. Inspirational storytelling featured on Patagonia’s website and social media often relate to particular topics such as geographic locations, environmental issues, sports or activities. A rich, well-categorised selection of articles targets various interests of the audience and the same segments of the market even more. Additionally, Patagonia’s stories feature average people, passionate about certain sports or devoted to a particular case. Publishing accounts with those protagonists makes the reader relate to the story, and feel inspired and empowered. This authenticity definitely adds value to the content as it appears more inspirational and engaging. Additionally, Patagonia’s content is designed to educate and serves as a credible source of information for those, who would like to broaden their knowledge on environmental activism, sustainability and ecology. New stories appear on regular basis and in a timely manner, which responds to the expectations of the audience and fosters their engagement with the brand. According to Patrutiu-Baltes (2016), inbound marketing can be explained as a form of marketing that requires careful targeting of the audience and custom communication via high-quality content. In Patagonia’s strategy, those components are definitely present.
A strong call for action is another factor that stands out in Patagonia’s marketing strategy. The brand successfully creates a sense of consciousness regarding the environment. Subsequently, Patagonia makes every effort to inspire its audience not to be passive and get involved in any of the multiple initiatives supported by the brand. As an eco-friendly company, Patagonia lives the idea of sustainable development and applies this approach in its business. It serves as a role model for its eco-conscious customers inter alia by donating 1% of its share to environmental initiatives. The fights for the cause of the environment have earned the band widespread recognition and the promotion of ecological activism positioned Patagonia as a trustful company, which is worth investing in. Lastly, the customers might see the call for action as a personal message to them from the brand. Getting involved in a meaningful case hand in hand with the company whose philosophy they relate to, definitely enhances clients' loyalty and engagement.
WEAKNESSES
Management of Patagonia’s social media could be considered a principal weakness of the brand’s marketing approach. Firstly, there are no links to the company’s social media on its website. The lack of promotion of social sites is definitely a missed opportunity. Since many customers who shop in Patagonia’s online store might be interested in engaging with the brand on various social channels, not being able to access them through the website might discourage those clients from doing it at all. The brand should leverage its website traffic and make it easy for the customers to find their social platforms. It is especially important, as nowadays many people prefer to consume content on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter rather than reading through lengthy blog articles.
Following that, Patagonia’s engagement level with its Instagram community I much lower than the other outdoor brands’. Patagonia is not very responsive to its followers. Many questions are left unanswered and comment unrecognized. The brand is not initiating discussions or trying to connect with its community by asking them questions or encouraging them to share their opinions. Patagonia’s Instagram feed, although filled with eye-catching pictures, attractive reels and inspiring posts, seems to be a way of presenting the philosophy of the brand rather than serving as a means of connecting with its audience. The one-sided approach towards social media, Instagram in particular, poses a threat that the audience gets demotivated to connect with the brand. Their commitment and loyalty can be also negatively impacted.
Another weak point of Patagonia’s inbound marketing strategy is limited advertising. The content created by the brand relates mostly to environmental causes, which is justified as sustainability constitutes the core of Patagonia’s DNA. However, the company rarely launches advertising campaigns that speak to the audience for whom ecology is not the major factor when choosing their gear. There is very little product presentation within the brand. Considering Patagonia’s pricing strategy, the audience should receive more exposure to the apparel they might intend to invest in. Also, the brand marketing strategy lacks themed advertising campaigns that are launched simultaneously in all of Patagonia’s online spaces. According to HubSpot (n.d.), ‘inbound marketing campaigns are designed around one goal, across a variety of connected channels.’ They are crucial in creating an impact and spreading brand awareness, as they lead from the company’s website to their social media and another way round. Unfortunately, limited advertising campaigns are a significant weakness for the brand.
The North Face’s Approach to Inbound Marketing
The North Face is an American company that produces outdoor clothing, footwear, and equipment. It was established in 1966 in San Francisco and within years has expanded to the global market. The North Face is respected for its expertise in technical clothing designs, which resulted in perceiving its products as symbols of status in many regions (Luedeke, 2016). This positive attitude towards the brand results from the carefully-designed, complex and inclusive inbound marketing strategy. Through its promotional efforts, The North Face aims to be perceived as not only a leader in the outdoor clothing market but also, as an ethical company, with strong roots in volunteerism, non-profits and giving back to the community.
ATTRACT
The ‘Attract’ component of the inbound marketing strategy of The North Face is realised in multiple ways. Firstly, the company’s website is designed to draw the attention of its visitors. The apparel featured there is staged on picturesque backgrounds, which triggers the imagination of potential customers. While seeing The North Face’s jacket worn on a stunning mountain trail, the audience can envision themselves experiencing a similar adventure. Through exposure to attractive visual content, they associate a piece of clothing with intangible values such as the sense of freedom or exploration and the beauty of adventurous destinations.
Moreover, The North Face’s website is organized by activity instead of by equipment or apparel categories. Customers interested in climbing, skiing, snowboarding or running can easily find products suitable for them. In that way, the brand acknowledges the needs of its target markets. By providing a visually appealing, user-friendly, easy to navigate website, The North Face is attracting sports lovers who are looking for a new purchase.
However, the carefully-categorized and well-presented product range is not the only ‘attract’ component of The North Face’s inbound marketing strategy that involves the company’s website. The brand is also running a blog, called The North Face Journal, which features articles related to the sports supported by the company. The blog posts are accompanied by relevant photography and videos, which increases its attractiveness even more. The success of the blog content created by The North Face lies in the topic they touch on. In its Journal the brand is exploring activities, some of which might appear extreme to an average outdoor lover. Yet, through its articles, The North Fac demonstrates a more ‘human’ side of professional climbing or ultra-running. The risky sports are presented from the perspective of their performers without omitting personal struggles or life-changing events such as becoming a parent. Arguably, this genuine component differentiates The North Face’s content from similar writings. It allows the reader to associate with the protagonists of the Journal and inspires them to explore the brand.
Besides, The North Face attracts its potential customers through the YouTube channel, which contains videos on a rich selection of topics. Ranging from interviews with inspirational athletes, through documentaries featuring places on an exceptional natural beauty, to instructional videos on how to embark on different sports, the content created by The North Face undoubtedly attacks people interested in any of those subjects.
Similarly to YouTube, the brand is also active on other social media, Instagram in particular. The content-rich, visually attractive and creative feed had already generated The North Face over 5 million followers and counting. To leverage their content, even more, the brand is adopting a strategy of distributing similar content on all the channels they use at the same time. In that way, The North Face ensures its message is received by the right people at the right time (Dakouan, et al., 2019; Patrutiu-Baltes, 2016). Also, all the brand’s social media as well as their website, are connected by visitable links, which increases visibility and customer accusation and engagement.
Lastly, the prominent factor of the ‘attract’ strategy of The North Face, is all the content designed around the keywords, which makes it SEO-optimised and same, more accessible. According to Operana and Vinerean (2015), this is one of the crucial elements of the successful inbound marketing approach.
ENGAGE
Arguably, the ‘Engage’ component is the most powerful factor in the inbound marketing strategy of The North Face. The brand has succeeded in building an active and loyal online community. On Instagram, The North Face directly interacts with its audience. Descriptions of the photographs, the reels and stories always encourage the followers to express their opinion or simply react to the feed even with one click. Also, the brand replies to comments and frequently asks questions, engaging the followers in extensive conversations. In fact, The North Face likes or responds to every comment left on its social media sites. In that way, the brand makes its audience feel acknowledged, valued and listened to.
Moreover, the brand is committed to creating as much value for its audience as possible. It organizes various contests, which are easy to participate in for everyone interested. One of the examples of such endeavour is offering the prize for the best picture of ‘the most extreme place you’ve ever slept’ (The North Face, 2021). The North Face ran this particular contest in 2021 and offered their backpack as a prize. Besides, the brand is practising user-focused engagement on social media platforms, offering $100 gift cards for the best user-submitted photos every week. Launching a successful online contest can engage the audience even more. The competition makes the followers excited about the brand and the potential of winning. Often this enthusiasm leads to increasing not only brand engagement but also loyalty (Vossen, 2015).
Moreover, through building the virtual community around the brand, The North Face focuses on families and individuals getting out and getting involved in outdoor activities and events in their area. On the company’s social site, the viewers can meet like-minded people and get involved in discussions on the topics they are interested in. To make the content more visible and inspire engagement, The North Face Journal is open to comments and easily sharable. To increase interest in the brand and increase customer acquisition, The North Face launched several collaborations. The athletes representing the brand record videos and write blog posts about their experiences, inspiring millions of fans and new customers to participate in the extreme outdoor lifestyle that the company promotes. Through inspirational articles and talks from athletes, the brand shows its audience that most of us, regardless of the circumstances, can enjoy the outdoors. And there is another crucial element of The North Face’s ‘engage’ strategy - the focus on people and call for action, which in that case aims to encourage the fans to enjoy the outdoors and incorporate more activeness into their lifestyle.
Lastly, the brand’s email marketing strategy also contributes to an increase in the customers’ engagement. The North Face sends out a newsletter, which features their products and informs the audience about the updates on the blog and YouTube. The newsletter often contains special offers available only to its subscribers. However, this can also be a part of the ‘Delight’ phase debated below.
DELIGHT
Aiming to establish ‘human-to-brand’ connections with its audience (ReThink Retail, 2019), The North Face is trying to approach customers individually. Therefore, direct-to-consumer communication is particularly suited to the ‘delight’ component of the inbound marketing strategy of the brand. The company fosters relationships with personalized deals and messaging while delivering products to its audience. For example, the brand has launched a rewards program, which features exclusive, members-only collections, special discounts and other benefits. In that way, The North Face wins customers’ loyalty. Additionally, this particular strategy makes the clients realize that the company has a lot for them to offer and cares for them even after the purchase (Hood, 2019). The uniqueness of the loyalty programme developed by The North Face is revealed by the fact, that it goes beyond the commercial. The brand rewards its customers for being active and embracing the outdoor. Instead of receiving discounts for the money spent, the clients also accumulate credits according to how often they participate in events organized by the brand.
Another component of the ‘delight’ phrase in the marketing strategy of The North Face is its attractive and thoroughly-created content, designed to provide value. Examples include guides on how to use the products, information about how to solve various challenges related to outdoor activeness and customer testimonials featuring stories of people who became happier by embracing a more active lifestyle. Besides, the YouTube channel of the brand informs the audience about The North Face’s products specifications. The videos show how the products are used on the backdrop of picturesque places. This adds additional value to the purchase. The details of the gear or apparel the customers have purchased or are considering doing so, are easily accessible online and presented in an attractive way. Also, the videos serve as a source of inspiration for adventures, which can happen while using the products offered by the brand. Apart from that, the content created by The North Face features events and talks with athletes, which serve as a credible source of information about certain sports or activities. Customers interested in those topics will come back for more (Aljohani, 2020).
Lastly, The North Face clearly informs its target market about the strategic collaboration with socially responsible partners. The brand expresses its focus on the environment and sustainability, which significantly contributes to its overall brand character. The North Face continuously works with its suppliers to reduce chemicals, water, energy, and waste in their workhouses. These endeavours definitely matter to environmentally-conscious customers, who appreciate the efforts of reducing the brand’s footprint. The transparency of the North Face in terms of the origin of its resources and methods of production contributes to the creation of a positive brand image. It also makes buyer personas feel that they are making a sustainable choice by investing in The North Face products rather than supporting the competition. The ecological appeal of the band leaves the customers feeling empowered. The clients believe that by deciding to purchase from The North Face they contribute to the environmental causes. They are delighted that they were enabled to make that contribution.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Inbound Marketing Approach Used by The North Face
STRENGTH
The fundamental strength of the inbound marketing strategy pursued by The North Face is the exceptionally high level of engagement the brand is maintaining with its target market. By being highly responsive on social media and showing genuine interest in what the audience has to say, The North Face has managed to build a strong online presence, which is not only visible but also dynamic. The brand is actively interacting with its fans, not only by being open to conversations with them but also by launching contests, and surveys and asking for customers' testimonies, which increases the authenticity of its marketing endeavours (Dakouan and Benabdelouahed, 2019). Mike Ferris, The North Face’s Vice President of Global Brand expresses says: ‘Our customers, the feats they have achieved, and the memories they have created are such a big part of our brand’s rich DNA’ (Denis, 2021).
Another definite advantage of the promotional strategy of The North Face is captivating content carefully tailored to the target audience. Through their blog articles, picturesque photographs, informative videos and inspiring interviews, the brand succeeds in attracting its ideal buyer personas – environmental-conscious individuals interested in outdoor activities but also, having a soft spot for fashion. The content creators of The North Face not only skilfully cater for their needs, but also make them keenly anticipate more. Besides, this strong, adequate content is designed to discreetly turn the spotlight on The North Face’s products in order to tell and sell the company’s story to an audience. Therefore, it can be stated that the content serves here various purposes- it attracts, inspires engagement, delights and is commercially successful.
The strong engagement level and the inspiring content led to the creation of the online community around the brand. Arguably, this could be the greatest accomplishment of an inbound marketing strategy for The North Face. The community, active on various social channels as well as The North Face’s blog site, is a fertile ground for the application of further promotional endeavours, including the releases of new products, promotions or discounts. The loyalty programme, which adds even more value for the customers, is another successful component of the brand’s marketing approach. The fact that The North Face rewards its clients not only for making a purchase but also for participating in events and outdoor activities, says a lot. This is the essence of the ‘humanity is branding’ motto practised by the brand. According to Dan Goldman, the Global Head of Strategy at The North Face, those words show that customers.
WEAKNESSES
It is particularly challenging to identify any prominent weaknesses of the inbound marketing approach adapted by The North Face. The brand’s marketing strategy seems to be effective in achieving its goals as it contains all the elements characteristic for the successful promotion. However, if any example has to be given, the weakest point here could be market segmentation. The definition of who is The North Face’s target audience is rather ambiguous. On one hand, the company dedicates its products to the young generation who loves street outfits. This is reflected by the visual presentation of The North Face’s apparel, most of which are styled in an urban way. Although, on the other hand, some of their gear is fairly advanced and goes beyond the needs of an average active person. The questionably-affordable prices indicate that too. Besides, the brand’s image includes an element of sustainability that appeals to environmentally-conscious customers. Taking all that into account, determining who The North Face’s buying persona is, looks a bit complicated.
Another weaker element of the inbound marketing strategy pursued by the brand is its scheduling of social media content. There is no pattern in the timing of the publication of the Instagram posts nor of sending the email newsletter. Sometimes the news feed appears twice a day while on other occasions The North Face releases three posts a week, a few days apart. Similarly, the newsletter arrives without much consistency. Once it is sent on a bi-weekly basis, another time the subscribers have to wait for an email for over a month. The lack of predictability and organization of the publication of the fresh content might negatively affect customers' engagement and discourage them to follow the brand. Most of the audience appreciate the well-timed email or feed as they can anticipate them with excitement (CyberClick, 2022).
Which Organisation Was Best at Inbound Marketing
and Why
Without a doubt, both Patagonia and The North Face are succeeding at their inbound marketing strategy. This is visible through millions of followers on their social media and a million-dollar revenue made by those companies each year (SimilarWeb, 2022). However, from the commercial point of view, the brand that runs its marketing campaign more effectively is The North Face. Firstly, The North Face is more product-oriented, which naturally leads to generating more sales. The band has incorporated their products in the storytelling and other content, while Patagonia, most of the time, skips that. Consequently, the apparel and gear offered by The North Face seem to be more visible to potential customers, who can get visually attracted to their designs.
Another difference between the brands’ approach toward inbound marketing is the fact that Patagonia is rather case-centred while The North Face is openly customer-centred. Following this, Patagonia has a more clearly defined mission and defines itself through this mission, namely the preservation of the natural environment. Even though brands are outwardly environmentally conscious, Patagonia has established ecological issues central to their brand to the degree perceived by some as almost radical. This characteristic is reflected in Patagonia’s marketing strategies that concentrate more on advocating sustainability rather than presenting the products or interacting with customers. For The North Face, on the other hand, creating customer engagement carries utmost importance and the brand executes that incredibly well. The North Face is more social media-oriented and responsive on its social platforms. The brand consequently tries to inspire discussion and contribution from the audience. Unfortunately, Patagonia seems to be much behind in that matter. Even though both brands managed to attack a similar number of followers on their Instagram accounts, The North Face has accomplished something more spectacular- it has built an engaged and interactive community under its logo. Apart from being a source of inspiring content and reliable information, the Instagram feed of The North Face serves also as a sort of community hub for its followers. The brand created a space where the audience is encouraged to exchange their views and interact with like-minded people and with The North Face itself. In the case of Patagonia, its social sites are the medium of sharing the content, but there is very little push to inspire engagement. Since inbound marketing is a strategy greatly based on inspiring and fostering customer engagement, The North Face, as a more responsive and interactive brand, wins over Patagonia in that competition.
How Patagonia Can Improve Their Inbound Marketing
The main area of focus in terms of improving Patagonia’s inbound marketing should definitely be dedicating more attention to social media. The brand could easily leverage the inspiring content and use it to generate engagement, which could naturally reinforce brand recognition and loyalty. To execute that task, Patagonia should increase their commitment to asking the audience questions, regularly replying to comments, and creating surveys and competitions. This could be achieved by dedicating more time and resources to social media management. Ideally, the company employs people responsible exclusively for that or distributes those tasks among their already existing marketing team. Also, in addition to scheduling content creation and distribution, Patagonia should draw a plan on how they would engage with their audience. The plan could include a time frame for activities such as publishing online surveys, launching various contests, promptly responding to comments etc (Dolan et al., 2019). In that way, Patagonia could demonstrate dedication to their audience and recognition of their input. The brand should also aim to build an interactive online community as the lack of this element is a weak link in their marketing strategy. By implementing a more customer-centric approach, in addition to its commitment to environmental causes, Patagonia could get to know their audience better and see who its customers are. This knowledge would be useful in the creation of valuable content and facilitate market segmentation.
Besides, the online visibility of the brand could benefit from incorporating links to Patagonia’s social media to their website and blog. The links should be easy to notice and all the social sites need to be cross-promoted as well. In that way, the audience would stand a chance to choose how they prefer to consume content created by the brand. As the preferences in that matter vary, offering a choice and clearly presenting the various option of how to access the content and connect with the brand, could attract more audience.
How The North Face Can Improve Their Inbound Marketing
Even though the inbound marketing strategy of The North Face seems to be highly effective and well-executed, there are still areas that could benefit from some improvement. First of all, the brand should increase the visibility of its blog. The main website of The North Face lacks a tab that redirects the viewer to the articles published by the brand. They can be accessed through the ‘about us’ section, which might be not that obvious nor noticeable. Enabling the audience to enter the blog through the main website would increase its visibility and, most likely, the traffic. Consequently, the brand could leverage the 'attract' component of its inbound marketing. Some people who have visited the website purely for commercial reasons and were unaware of The North Face blog, might get attracted to the content and left inspired to discover more.
Another improvement The North Face should consider regarding its inbound marketing strategy is the timely scheduling of the Instagram feed of the brand. At the moment, the posts are appearing without any pattern, which might affect customer engagement. Following a carefully designed time frame for publishing new Instagram content would help the brand to avoid posting too often or too seldom. The North Face should aim to deliver the right information at the right time (Dakouan, et al., 2019). In that way, the audience will not feel bombarded by the content or ignored due to a lack of updates. The brand should adopt similar scheduling to the release of their newsletter, which presently appears in random intervals.
Summary
The above analysis presents that even though The North Face and Patagonia have adopted slightly different approaches to inbound marketing, both brands are successful in their endeavours. Patagonia shows that purpose-driven marketing, while executed well, could effectively accomplish its goal. The brand has proven that meaningful content, genuine engagement in a noble cause and a strong call for action appeal to a great number of people and generate sales without promoting products. The North Face, on the other hand, demonstrated that being highly interactive and dedicating time to directly engage with the audience is worth the effort. The brand managed to create an active online community that, apart from eagerly consuming and reacting to the content created by the brand, are also loyal customers. Both of those inbound marketing strategies can be found highly inspiring. There is also plenty to learn from them.
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