Final Presentation

1. Social Media
Measurement & Analysis:
Urban
Outfitters
Laura Ene

2. Urban
Outfitters
Brand Overview
• Urban Outfitters was started in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1970 and was
originally called the“Free The People
Store”. It was known for “funky fashion”
and household items.
• The clothing and products sold are known
for being a mix of vintage, bohemian,
retro, and hipster.
• Its target market is men and women 18-30
years of age.

3. Urban
Outfitters
Social Media Presence
• Urban Outfitters main social media outlets include: Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram, Blogs, and Foursquare.
• Twitter by far has the highest activity among all other
types of social media outlets.

4. Urban
Outfitters
Social Media Analysis:
Twitter
• Urban Outfitters has a large Twitter
following and it is one of the brands
strongest social media outlets.
– Followers: 611,882
– Following: 1,099
– Tweets: 4,008

5. Urban
Twitter Outfitters
• The conversation around UO via Twitter is mostly
positive, with users posting links of items they like from
the website, sales and deals they have found, and just
their overall enjoyment of the brand.
• Like all major retail brands, there is some negative
feedback from customers regarding certain fashion and
products.

6. Urban
Twitter Outfitters
• More positive feedback via Radian 6 and orginial twitter
search:

7. Urban
Twitter Outfitters
• Some negative feedback via Radian 6 and organic Twitter
search:

8. Urban
Outfitters
Twitter
• Below is a graph via Radian 6 of the overall positive,
negative, and mixed feedback of UO social media posts
• Feedback is mostly positive
• Looking through a real-time twitter feed of posts
mentioning and tagging “Urban Outfitters” also shows
much more positive than negative commentary.

9. Urban
Outfitters
Social Media Analysis:
Facebook
• Another area where UO thrives online is the
brands Facebook page. Here they posts
pictures, contests, and events in more
detail.
– Likes: 1,568,849
– Talking about: 38,720
– Were here: 36,451

10. Urban
Facebook Outfitters
• While conversation around UO is much less on Facebook
compared to Twitter, the brand still gets mentioned by
users. Most of the status posts found are positive.
• Example of negative Facebook post:

11. Urban
Outfitters
Facebook
• Graph comparing positive to negative posts, much
smaller scale versus Twitter findings.

12. Urban
Outfitters
Social Media Analysis:
Blogs
• Urban Outfitters is mentioned in a variety
of blogs and the brand even has its own
blog connected to their website.

13. Urban
Blogs Outfitters
• Example of a positive blog post:
• Example of a negative blog post:

14. Urban
Blogs Outfitters
• Graph comparing positive, negative, and mixed blog
postings:

15. Urban
Outfitters
Social Media Analysis:
Instagram
• The newest form of social media that brands have been
becoming a part of is Instagram. For a retail brand like
Urban Outfitters, this is a great way to post pictures of
new products, advertisements of sales and discounts, and any
fun info relevant to products that users would be interested
in.
– Photos: 692
– Followers: 554k
– Following: 85

16. Urban
Instagram Outfitters
• Usually all posts and commentary via Instagram
are positive.
• The most common types of Instagrams for UO are
users taking pictures of their products and
hashtag the brand in the caption.
• The most popular tags for
the brand include:
– #UrbanOutfitters
– #UrbanOutfittersUK
– #UrbanOutfittersUSA
– #UrbanOutfittersNailpolish

17. Urban
Instagram Outfitters
• The brand does receive some negative posts on
Instagram, usually customers complain about
certain products and post a picture of the
product.

18. Urban
Outfitters
Social Media Analysis:
Foursquare
• Another more recent trend in social media is Foursquare.
Location based services and media are becoming increasingly
popular and retail brands gain a lot by putting their
various locations on this type of application. Users can
check in to almost any location around the country, even
achieving things like being “mayor” of a certain store.

19. Urban
Foursquare Outfitters
• Its easy to see that most conversation around a social media
site like Foursquare would be positive, since most customers
who have a negative view on the brand would not likely
“check in” to the location.

20. Urban
YouTube Outfitters
• Urban Outfitters also has a significant Youtube presence online,
with users posting videos after shopping hauls, Black Friday deals,
and other events. There are also parody's made regarding the brand,
like “Shit Girls Say: At Urban Outfitters”

21. Urban
Conversation Cloud Outfitters
• Urban Outfitters Conversation Cloud via Radian 6
• Date Range: 30 days
• Data from:
Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Blogs, Comments, Images, Videos

22. Urban
Outfitters
Conversation Trends
• Graph of trend by number of posts for the month of November
via Radian 6
• Highest on days of sales or discounts (Nov. 17th – Online
sale began on specific items, Nov. 22nd – Black Friday)

23. Urban
Outfitters
Brand Controversy
• A topic of controversy regarding UO came up in late October
regarding the brands sale of Che Guevara T-shirts.
• Che Guevara is an Argentine-born guerrilla leader and
thought of by many as a communist.
• UO has since stopped the sale of all Guevara items.
• Links to the brands website and Guevara items are no longer
active and “Che Guevara” no longer produces any search
results on the brands page.

24. Urban
Outfitters
Brand Controversy
• An article headlined “Urban Outfitters Buys Yard Sale
Clothes In Bulk And Resells Them To Hipsters As
'Vintage‘” on Business Insider also raised a lot of
controversy recently. The topic was originally posted on
Reddit and had a large amount of feedback.
• The brand is accused of purchasing clothing items from
discounted yard sales and reselling the items as “vintage”
• No commentary from UO was found in the article, and the
accuracy of this claim is up for debate.

25. Urban
Outfitters
Competitors
• The brand has a wide variety of competitors, some in
different price ranges and types of purchasing outlets
(for example: online only).
• Major competitors include:
– American Apparel
– Top Shop
– Akira
– Tobi (online)
– NastyGal (online)
• Other competitors in lower price ranges:
– H&M
– Forever 21

26. Urban
Outfitters
Competitors
• When comparing the amount of social media conversation of
what I found to be Urban Outfitters main competitors
(American Apparel and Top Shop), UO had significantly higher
engagement.

27. Urban
Outfitters
Competitors
• There were also many examples of competition among Urban
Outfitters and different brands on social media.

28. Urban
Outfitters
SWOT Analysis
• Strengths
– The conversation around the brand is always mostly
positive, with users posting about their favorite
products and deals.
– A strong Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram following make
the brand relevant in the online community.
– There is a constant mention of the brand via real-time
Twitter feed.
– The promotion of discounts, 20% off sales, Black Friday,
contests and more are hyped up via Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram.
• Ex: on Election day, if you brought proof that you had voted
(sticker), you received 20% off your purchase. Promoted with a
picture via Instagram.

29. Urban
Outfitters
SWOT Analysis
• Weaknesses
– Certain products and advertisements the
store has had are criticized by consumers:
• Slide 22 gives the example of the Che Guevara t-shirts and
items UO once sold. The brand caused a lot of controversy
by selling these items of the once communist leader. Since
the controversy, the brand has taken down all products
pertaining to Guevara.
• Slide 17 shows an Instagram of a glass sold by UO which
says “Who Cares 2012” in regards to the election. Many
people found this offensive, saying that the brand was
encouraging young people to not take part in the voting
process.
• Slide 10 shows a post by a mother on Facebook. She posts

30. Urban
Outfitters
SWOT Analysis
• Weaknesses Cont.
– Much of the negativity surrounding the brand on
social media is also due to the high prices of
products. Many users compare items UO sells to much
cheaper products of the same quality or style.
– Users taking their view to social media allows
unlimited amounts of people to also view the
negative feedback, and maybe change their opinion of
the brand.
• The person who posted the instagram of the “Who Cares
2012” cups also posted it to Twitter and tagged Urban
Outfitters on Foursquare. Instead of releasing the
negative commentary to one social media outlet, it went
to three.

31. Urban
Outfitters
SWOT Analysis
• Opportunities
– The opportunities are endless for UO to increase customer
following and positive commentary on social media.
– Taking advantage of newer apps like Instagram and Foursquare
will keep the brand relevant in the continuing change of
social media outlets.
– Monitoring negative feedback on products and advertisements
is key to changing the views of people who look at the brand
negatively.
• Once a negative post is found, UO customer service should respond
immediately, attempting to fix the damage..
• If enough negative feedback surrounds a product or advertisement, it
should be taken away.
– Increasing activity on blogging might be a great away to get
more customer interaction, since this method of social media
is now becoming increasingly popular.
• The brand could monitor Twitter, Instagram, or FB users who regularly
post about the brand and chose a person to become a regular blogger for

32. Urban
Outfitters
SWOT Analysis
• Threats
– One of the main threats that Urban Outfitters faces is other
competitors becoming more relevant in the social media world.
• Keeping up with discounts and contests online and engaging in
conversation with users will help avoid this.
– Not addressing negative feedback immediately could lead to
many consumers noticing and changing their views on the
brand.
– Paying too much attention to one social media site may lead
to others becoming irrelevant.
• Twitter is UO’s most popular social media outlet, but not keeping up
with Facebook could lead to a loss in customers that are primarily on
that site.

33. Urban
Recommendations Outfitters
For Next Steps
• The brand is mostly handling the ever-changing social
media world correctly. It is engaging in conversations
with users, promoting deals and discounts, and posting
about new products daily.
• For the next step, the brand could build up its
interaction with customers to reach its full potential of
social media conversation and relevance.
• For example: taking full advantage of the brands Twitter
following will help bring people into the store and to
shop online.
– A contest of some sort would be useful to hold on Twitter. That
way current followers will become involved, and it may also lead
to their followers engaging in the brand conversation as well.
• One thing UO must change is its response to negative
feedback. Taking the time to individually handle each
consumers problem, if possible, will help bring the brand
to achieve a higher positive following.

34. Urban
Outfitters
Methods
• The date range used for most of the posts were from the last 30
days, (November 1st 2012 – November 30th 2012) using Radian 6.
• Sites like Social Seek, Hootsuite, Social Mention, and Edgekick
were used to analyze conversation.
• Over the past few weeks, looking through live Twitter feeds
containing the phrase “Urban Outfitters” and the hashtag
#UrbanOutfitters was also used to pull Twitter examples.
• The keywords and hastags used in the report included:
– “Urban Outfitters”
– “UrbanOutfitters”
– “UO”
– “UrbanOutfittersCo”
– “Urban Outfitters Co”
– #UrbanOutfittersCo
– #UrbanOutfitters
– #UO
– Hipster
– Trendy
– Urban

35. Urban
Outfitters
Executive Summary
• Urban Outfitters has a relevant social media presence, the
brand is frequently active on Twitter, Facebook,
Instagram, Blogs, and Foursquare - which are some of the
top social media outlets today.
• Consumers constantly post about the brand via Twitter,
using #UrbanOutfitters as the main hashtag. They also
comment on Facebook posts and share the brands posts on
their walls. There are a large amount of Instagram posts
of UO products with the caption #UrbanOutfitters.
Consumers also check into different UO locations around
the country via Foursquare.
• Consumer feedback is mostly positive, with users posting
pictures of products, commenting on styles they enjoy.
• Negative feedback is small, and if handled better in the
future can most likely be largely eliminated. Negative
commentary is usually related to controversial products
and overly priced items.
• New ways of promoting the brand like contests, giveaways,