Aveda's Online Employee Activism Helps Drive Brand Evangelism

Rachael Ostrom has worked for Aveda for more than a decade. She is responsible for cause-related marketing, customer relationship management (CRM),  loyalty marketing, digital marketing, advertising and ecommerce globally. Ostrom spoke with eMarketer writer/analyst Tobi Elkin about the role social media and online word-of-mouth play in influencing beauty product purchase decisions and shared her insights about Aveda’s use of social media.

eMarketer: What role does social media and online word-of-mouth play in decision-making about health and beauty brand purchases?

Rachael Ostrom: With social media, you’re hearing about and seeing what your friends are doing and buying—what they like. It helps facilitate purchase decisions and everything around using a product,  applying makeup, qualifying the right product for your skin and skin tone.

eMarketer: Does the beauty category differ from other categories where online word-of-mouth is concerned?

Ostrom: Where we see the difference is in our roots as an environmental company. When we look at word-of-mouth and discussions on our Facebook wall, for example, we see it as a spot where we can tell our stories.  It’s difficult sometimes when you look at the limited space in a store to tell the stories that make us who we are.

With Facebook and Twitter and the videos we’re producing and posting on YouTube, we’re able to tell stories that engage our guests on a deeper level.

eMarketer: What’s an example of Aveda’s success in driving engagement via social media and online word-of-mouth?

Ostrom: We had a store in California where employees adopted a sea lion. We shared that story with our Facebook community and showed the video when the sea lion was released back into the ocean. It was very popular so we went back to our community and said, “Hey, if we get 1,000 ‘likes’ within the next 24 hours, we’re going to adopt another sea lion on behalf of our Facebook community.” We ended up with 1,800 “likes” within 24 hours. That was huge and showed how employee activism can help drive brand evangelism.

eMarketer: There’s a debate, as you know, about the value of Facebook “likes.” Can you determine their value and whether the person who “likes” has become a higher-value customer or whether a new customer becomes a regular?

Ostrom: It’s hard to track. We do sampling apps on Facebook and we have access to who these people are. But outside of that, we don’t necessarily. But we track those engagement scores against other brands and how much people are talking about Aveda, engaging with our Facebook page and talking about us on Twitter.

We want people talking about us and learning more about the brand. It really becomes more about the engagement than trying to prove—which is often difficult—that it’s generating a bigger sale.

Read the full interview here.