Wet Seal Caters to Teens Through Social Media

Wet Seal is a clothing store geared towards teenagers who want to follow the latest trends. The company has a unique social media strategy. Teens can create their own outfits and rate other outfits. Additionally, they can talk about current styles with their friends. Bernie Brennan and Lori Schafer use Chapter 6 of Branded! to focus on this strategy and the success of the company.

Wet Seal's customers are very familiar with social media and mobile technology. In 2007, Outfitter, Wet Seal's online social community, was formed by chief executive officer Ed Thomas and chief information officer Jon Kubo. Outfitter allows users to create outfits that are placed in virtual closets. Also, these outfits can be voted on by other Outfitter users. This allows users to see what the most popular outfits are. Also, if a user creates an outfit and it is very popular, it is likely other people will buy it, because it has been approved by others.

The Facebook presence of Wet Seal is growing quickly. In its first year, Wet Seal's Facebook page had close to 650,000 fans. Fans get exclusive coupons, check out behind-the-scenes photos and videos and interact with other fans. The newest tool is the "Shop with Friends" app. The app allows customers to shop with friends and family online in real time, as both parties view the same Web page. The parties can ask and answer questions during a shopping session. This is a new idea that could be successful in other stores.

Twitter and YouTube are also used by Wet Seal. While Twitter is not as popular, there are many tweets about Wet Seal that can be seen daily. The company has a YouTube channel with videos from photo shoots and fashion contests. Also, fans can post videos that show their "Wet Seal Haul." Fans can show off what they recently bought.

I think Wet Seal has a good social media strategy that is appropriate for their audience. The Outfitter app allows fans to create and vote on their favorite outfits. The "Shop with Friends" app lets a customer get insight about a possible outfit from a friend. "Wet Seal Haul" videos are a new way for fans to interact with the company. Also, people watching a "Wet Seal Haul" video may be interested in an outfit and want to buy it, resulting in more sales for the company. As time passes, I believe Wet Seal will continue to add new mobile apps and grow their social media strategy.