{"id":1908,"date":"2012-02-23T14:53:26","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T14:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.retailprophet.com\/blog\/?p=1645"},"modified":"2012-02-23T14:53:26","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T14:53:26","slug":"f-commerce-didnt-fail-advertising-did-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailprophet.com\/2012\/02\/23\/f-commerce-didnt-fail-advertising-did-2\/","title":{"rendered":"F-Commerce Didn’t Fail. Advertising Did."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens<\/p>\n

Bloomberg recently suggested<\/a> that F-Commerce (as it\u2019s come to be known) has been failure. \u00a0 They pointed to retailers like GAP and JCPenney beating a path out of Facebook, citing their disappointing results.One Forrester researcher was quoted as saying that selling on Facebook is \u201clike trying to sell stuff to people while they\u2019re hanging out with friends at a bar.\u201d , implying that Facebook was simply too social to be worth a retailer’s time.<\/p>\n

So, while only a year ago most were hailing Facebook as the new frontier of retail, it seems to quickly be becoming a ghost town, as brands and retailers shutter their f-stores.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Advertising Still Sucks<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But consider this; how many commercials on TV last night were memorable?\u00a0 How many ads in the magazine you read last week stood out?\u00a0 How many retail experiences in the last month left you delighted and rushing to tell friends about it? \u00a0Can you remember any<\/em>? My bet would be not many and perhaps none.<\/p>\n

So should we really be surprised then that consumers have been largely unimpressed with the efforts of retailers on Facebook?\u00a0 After all, most have done little more than transplant versions of their online advertising collateral to Facebook. Why should we as consumers be excited? \u00a0If the truth be known, neither GAP nor JC Penney has done much to excite customers for at least decade or two, so can we really blame Facebook for the failure of their F-Stores?<\/p>\n

Beyond the Like Button<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If we’re honest about it, most retailers simply are not being creative enough. \u00a0Almost none have woven their products skillfully into the social mechanics of Facebook.\u00a0 And I can\u2019t think of one that makes it fun or cool to shop with friends<\/em> in their Facebook stores.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of brands haven’t figured Facebook out yet.\u00a0 And who can really blame them.\u00a0 Most are coming off a hundred years or so of what author Seth Godin refers to as The\u00a0TV Industrial Complex<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 the marketing construct in which the goal was to advertise on TV so you could sell enough product to buy more TV advertising and all in an effort to interrupt consumers as many times as possible. There was no need for brands to be interesting or creative. \u00a0 As long as they could keep buying lots of advertising, they succeeded.<\/p>\n

Facebook doesn\u2019t work that way. \u00a0It isn\u2019t TV and in many ways it isn\u2019t even the web.\u00a0 It\u2019s different, it\u2019s organic and living. \u00a0And perhaps what’s got marketers most freaked out is that Facebook tells you when you’re boring, when you need to work harder. \u00a0It’s almost immediate in passing its judgement on your creativity or lack thereof. \u00a0Scary stuff for an industry accustomed to monologuing with consumers.<\/p>\n

Shopping IS Social<\/h3>\n

I still maintain that one day, Facebook (or its successor) will be recognized as one of history\u2019s great shopping venues but marketers are going to have to be far more ingenious, inclusive and socially sensitive in their approach. \u00a0That doesn\u2019t mean putting like buttons on ads and calling it a day. It\u2019s means creating amazing digital architecture that lets people go shopping with their friends.\u00a0 It\u2019s about staging exciting Facebook events people can share with their friends and family. \u00a0It\u2019s about crafting unique, memorable and socially sticky content that people can\u2019t get anywhere else. \u00a0It means NOT advertising.<\/p>\n

As for the belief that social hangouts can\u2019t be places of commerce, it\u2019s simply unfounded.\u00a0 In fact, we have only to look as far as the local market, mall or Main Street to understand just how\u00a0social<\/em>\u00a0shopping really is. \u00a0\u00a0Shopping is and always has been as much a product of sociology as it has been a driver of commerce. The two are joined at the hip.<\/p>\n

All of this is more than just a mere tweak for marketers.\u00a0 It\u2019s a massive and historic shift.\u00a0 In essence it\u2019s a transition out of the industrial advertising era into a new and enlightened age of marketing. \u00a0\u00a0And it may be a transition that not all brands are capable of making and frankly, perhaps that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Doug Stephens Bloomberg recently suggested that F-Commerce (as it\u2019s come to be known) has been failure. \u00a0 They pointed to retailers like GAP and JCPenney [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1],"tags":[210,67,211,212,46],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","category-uncategorized","tag-f-commerce","tag-facebook","tag-for","tag-forbes","tag-marketing"],"yoast_head":"\nF-Commerce Didn't Fail. 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