Kate Spade: Great Marketing, Poor Execution

The Liz Claiborne-owned brand Kate Spade is running mobile commerce-enabled ads as a way to drive sales for its new spring collection. However, the strategy proves to be a combination of great marketing and poor cross-channel execution, therefore a prime example of what not to do.

 

To promote its new collection with designer Florence Broadhurst, Kate Spade plans to add mobile commerce and social retailing to a comprehensive cross-channel extension of the brand. Among the social retailing elements Kate Spade is using in the campaign are Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube and Instagram.

 

The strategy is intended to create buzz through sharing on Facebook and blog page mentions. However, several elements tested last week show poor execution. The Kate Spade mobile website worked as promoted on a smartphone, but further checking on the iPad found that links were broken and finger-swipes didn't function correctly with the main navigational element.

 

Some other problems encountered: Facebook mentions are limited to one post and are buried beneath a series of other posts, Twitter posts are hidden and few and far between, the Kate Spade NY blog includes a mention of the promotion but is difficult to find, and finally, fast-growing channels such as Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr are missing altogether.

 

One area of the promotion that seems to be working without a hitch is Kate Spade's Pandora iPhone application and sponsored radio station. Other areas that worked well on the mobile site are filtering products by size, viewing which items are in-stock, and zooming to get a closer look at products site. Also included on the mobile site is a click-to-call function and a store locator to help locate a product or contact the company with any questions. When viewing by category, all Florence Broadhurst items are loaded first, bringing the customer straight to the campaign.

 

While Pandora and many elements of the mobile website function properly, the overall cross-channel campaign has numerous glitches which should be resolved, demonstrating that really great marketing requires great execution.