Tech Forum: The TikTok Phenomenon: How Brands Sell More
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The surge in TikTok users during the pandemic can largely be credited to consumers hunkering down at home and looking for new ways to entertain themselves. But the platform had the added advantage of providing retailers a new way to directly communicate with their audiences.
“[TikTok] is a really powerful tool for brands and creators alike,” Matt Cleary, head of retail and global business solutions at TikTok, told WWD’s technology reporter Adriana Lee during Fairchild Media Group’s Tech Forum, in a session titled “The TikTok Phenomenon: How Classic Brands Find New Life Online.”
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“Seventy-three percent of our users feel a deeper connection to the brands they interact with on TikTok, compared with other platforms,” Cleary continued. “It’s a place where brands could become an integral part of the fabric of those communities. During the pandemic, we lost some of that [experience of] going into a store to discover something new. And the ‘for you’ page in TikTok became a new place for product discovery; where you could be introduced to new products and new brands and start your shopping journey there.”
Legacy brands and established retailers were quick to pick up on this trend, offering original content, as well as partnering with others on the platform, in an effort to meet more consumers. Two such brands were Abercrombie & Fitch and Express.
“Everyone [was] getting on the TikTok train at the beginning of the pandemic,” Megan Brophy, head of brand strategy and senior director of marketing at Abercrombie Brands, said during the virtual forum. “It all happened organically. And we were noticing that our customer was so quickly moving over to the TikTok platform and creating all this amazing content about their shopping experiences and trying to rediscover the Abercrombie brand and share it with others and show off their favorite styles. So we took notice and really decided that we want to try and own this [space] and embrace our consumers, kind of, moving over to this platform, and [consumers] loving rediscovering our brand. So, what started organically has now become quite robust and quite holistic.”
The company has been able to achieve this by way of consumer content, as well as Abercrombie-original content and content created in partnership with others, such as the nonprofit group The Trevor Project.
“So it’s really becoming 360, but [TikTok] started really organically, based on where the platform was starting to fit into people’s lives,” Brophy said. “The platform has enabled us to go viral and sell out many, many times.”