7. Results
7.2 Consumer co-creation
Another interesting perspective comes from respondent 4. She states:
Some of them are more inclined to engage with influencers, as there is definitely a greater personal connection. In fact, showing their life makes people more curious to know more about them and ask something. Some respondents prefer to engage with those influencers that really seem to care about their audience and always answer to either comments or DMs. They argue that those influencers are typically the ones with a smaller audience, who are therefore able to give more attention to each single follower. In fact, the 12th respondent, when asked
“Would you feel comfortable to interact with the brand giving a feedback or communicating your opinion?” she replied:
Respondent 3 to the question “Have you ever suggested anything to an influencer?”
replied:
“I really like when brands are active in answering the feedbacks. For example, when they ask if people liked a specific product and then the
brand replies to all these comments. I like it because it makes me feel like I can talk with them and I can get like an explanation.” (Respondent
19).
“I usually do not write to anyone on Instagram, I would reply to polls and quizzes though. I would not send a DM to big influencers or brands
because I would not know what to tell, but I might do it with a small influencer, if I know that she replies.” (Respondent 12).
“Yes, actually yes. Only to the ones that reply to me. Otherwise there is no point.” (Respondent 3).
Respondent 22 argues:
For what concerns giveaways and contests, these are shown to have a good impact on the Instagram audience. Some respondents mention the fact that they started to follow some brands because they saw a giveaway or contest on Instagram. Taking the 19th respondent words:
Another interesting point of view comes from respondent 8. To the question
“Did you start following a brand that they were sponsoring?” she answered:
“Yes, I comment sometimes influencers’ stories or posts. Especially when they post really cute things, then it's supernatural for me to put hearts or when brand posts are so engaging then it feels so natural to
comment. I do it when it is catchy content.” (Respondent 22).
“I think there are different motives to follow a brand. I started following some brands because there was a competition on influencer’s profile
like “ if you follow me and you follow this brand then you can win something”. For example I saw that Ganni the other day posted this competition where you can win a gift certificate valued 1500 dollars if you participate showing an art piece. I thought was really a nice idea.”
(Respondent 19).
When the interviewers asked questions about polls and boxes, almost all of the respondents had positive opinions. They engage with both of them because they find them easy and quick tools, especially compared to sending a DM. They are interested in looking at the poll’s voting results and check out what other people think. Some polls are funny, while others are more product-oriented. In both cases, brands and influencers can definitely take advantage over this simple tool. With regards to the Instagram box tool, it is easy to implement and leads to a greater co-creation value. This is due to the fact that boxes collect plenty of answers concerning different topics (Mikayla Wyman, 2019). For example, a brand can ask ideas about what people would like to see on the brand feed.
Many influencers engage with their audience with boxes in order to collect some questions regarding a topic. And it seems that respondents like this tool, especially when they need to ask questions regarding specific products or a topic of their interest. They also mention that they feel like the chances of being read are higher with boxes compared to DMs (Respondents 8 and 4).
With what concerns quizzes, they are great tools to increase the engagement with the followers (Mikayla Wyman, 2019). And, in fact, all respondents said that they like quizzes, especially when they say them on the Nastygal page. They consider them to be funny, engaging and related to tv series that are well known. As an example, the 12th interviewee shared her opinion about Nasty Gal page. She states:
“Yes, but mostly for giveaways, when you can win some items. I never started following a brand because they were actively promoting it on a
post.” (Respondent 8).
The last tool we are going to discuss is retagging and reposting. This is a great form of co-creation, as the content is sent from consumers directly to the brand or the influencer representing this brand and it is subsequently reposted on their relative pages. Retagging refers to the fact that the brand or the influencer re-tags in posts or stories the consumer who in the first place creates the content. The researchers tried to understand whether this tool had an impact on consumers or not. The majority of respondents never tagged a brand and therefore were never reposted. Few of them, though, posted some content related to some brands they are loyal to and were retagged by them. As the respondent 6 and 12 state:
“I see quizzes and they look very engaging. There are also contests and videos on how to dress up and influencers explain how to match clothes. I like it and looks very engaging. And I see a lot of diversity in
terms of content” (Respondent 12).
“It happened sometimes to be reposted, especially by small brands or pages. They liked me and reposted me. I feel amazing and really glad
about it. “ (Respondent 6).
“I was reposted and I think it is such a nice feeling because I felt considered by the brand, because there is an influencer behind it and it
felt great. I think it gives more credibility to the brand because it seems like they care about people and gives them a voice. Also other people seeing the story re-posted by the brand can see my profile and then I
think we all get connected. I think it gives good values” (Respondent 13).
To sum up the results, out of 22 respondents, the majority does not feel like communicating in a direct way with brands. Some clearly say that they never reached out neither brands or influencers, unless they needed clarification on some products. Others, on the other hand, are genuinely curious about some content and feel comfortable in interacting with those Instagram pages. Moreover, the interviewees were questioned also on the 3 brands aforementioned. The researchers noticed a clear relationship between the level of engagement and the willingness to interact openly with the brand page. It turned out that Nasty Gal is able to generate the most interest among the respondents and, as a consequence, many answers related to the co-creation category are positive.
Respondents mention the fact that if a brand is able to communicate really well with the audience then they are more inclined to comment posts, send DMs and so on. And this concept applies to Nasty Gal more than the other two brands.
Respondents argue that Nasty Gal Instagram page has a funny and catchy content, it is easy to follow and generates great engagement. Posts are not strictly related to fashion and the core business, but are inspired by movies, memes and books. This element of pop culture is appreciated by the majority of the respondents. Quizzes concerning typical feminine TV series stand out and generate interest. Nasty Gal giveaways are effective in generating buzz. There are polls with clothing pieces. Respondents noted all these elements and felt like Nasty Gal community managers are open at replying to comments and DMs. Therefore, they feel comfortable in giving a feedback to the brand, thus generating value co-creation.
Some examples are extracted from the interviews. The 9th respondent has been asked:
“Would you feel comfortable to interact with the brand, giving a feedback or communicating your opinion?” and this was her reply:
“I would do it for some pictures, I would repost them in my story, because I love these posts. I am actually going to follow Nasty Gal now.
I do not know if I would comment a story, but maybe if I buy some pieces of clothing then I would shoot them a DM.” (Respondent 9).
Another question which generate interesting results was: “Scrolling at the stories (also in evidence) do you feel the brand is engaging the user in being part of the brand?”.
This was how the 12 respondent answered:
To this same question there is a different perspective given by the 14th respondent. She states:
On the other side, La Semaine Paris is also appreciated for its content. Its page is also considered engaging, as there are live classes, interesting stories and posts.
Respondents noticed that the page is doing a great job in involving women in this particular time, by suggesting how they can take care of their body and mind. For instance, La Semaine Paris organizes cooking classes, yoga sessions, book clubs and so on. This is definitely appreciated by our interviewees, though they seem less inclined to communicate with the brand compared to Nasty Gal. This is also due to the fact that the page is perceived as less open to communicate, also considering the different type of content. Respondents perceive the brand to be able to connect with the audience and create a community around these live classes. Few of them would actually comment or send a DM to the brand.
“Yes they do a great job, like working from home posts, quizzes, books and movies. So Nasty Gal does a very good job in making me feel connected to the brand through their Instagram page.” (Respondent
12).
“I see in the stories that users are tagged and there's a lot of reposting from the users. So I think the brand gives the possibility for users to be engaged and to be empowered somehow and to be listened to. It give
space to the users. I really like it.” (Respondent 14).
Taking some examples, when answering to the following question:
“Scrolling at the stories (also in evidence) do you feel the brand is engaging the user in being part of the brand?”
The 4th respondent answer was:
Adding to this, respondent 18 mentions that:
On contrary, the 14th respondent disagrees with this opinion. To the exact same question she replied:
“ Yes, actually they are doing a lot, they repost a lot of stories from girls wearing the brand and they organize cooking classes. They also explain some products, they show photoshoots.” (Respondent 4).
“La Semaine is doing a great job, especially in these times they have all these cooking classes and meditation classes and they It was also a
beautiful tutorial with Gabrielle. I think the fact that they have this persona, who started the brand and who is very involved really shows that there is a brand representative who can directly communicate with
the followers.” (Respondent 18).
“No. To me this brand shows mainly Gabrielle and I feel like the user has to be this exclusive person, very high-end person. And no, I don't think it engages that much, as the first thing I notice here in the stories,
there is no mention from users and also in the stories in evidence they do not retag users. So I think it doesn't engage them much.”
(Respondent 14).
Regarding Olivia Palermo Collection, respondents generally do not perceive the brand as being able to create a community and generate a high level of engagement, compared to the other two brands. They think Olivia Palermo’s posts look very polished and edited, her stories lack from interaction and her Instagram profile does not look engaging. Even though she created an online community, her Instagram page does not reach the goal of creating a feeling of community for the users. The respondents who claim to know her, follow her only for inspiration about how to style clothes. They definitely like the quality of images and her looks, but the majority of respondents do not feel comfortable in sending a text or commenting her posts. Moreover, looking at her Instagram stories, respondents do not perceive that much engagement.
For instance, respondent 12 expresses:
From this statement it is clear that whenever there is less user involvement and engagement also the willingness to co-create is lower. In fact, most respondents state that they would not text the brand for suggestions or feedbacks. Another interesting point of view has been stressed out by respondent 15.
She claims that
“It is less engaging than the previous one, there are no lives, quizzes and so on so less engaging, less of a community. I would not feel like
commenting or sending a DM for sure.” (Respondent 12).
“I feel like this page looks like a magazine, I do not see that much engagement. I think Olivia, compared to the other two brands, is not really creating a shared experience with the customer. I do not see any yoga classes, lives or quizzes as in the other two pages. Olivia Palermo
could definitely communicate more with her audience. But I love her style, though.” (Respondent 15).
From the above mentioned case studies, the authors infer some interesting results. First of all, an higher level of engagement generates a higher value co-creation, in terms of amounts of comments, replies to polls, quizzes and so on. The second important conclusion is related to the role of brand communities. If a brand is able to include its customers in a shared experience online, particularly on Instagram, then there will be value co-creation opportunities.