[Video Interview] Harshil Karia on Importance of Brand Communication in Your Social Media Strategy

It has become critical in the social media marketplace to get the most out of every interaction between the brand and the customer. Brand communication gives them an opportunity to develop product acceptance and increase their business on goodwill. If handled in a constructive manner, the communication leaves a positive professional impression on customers and improves brand recognition.

In this video interview, Harshil Karia, Co-founder and Online Strategist at Foxymoron talks about the importance of brand communication.

Harshil points out that in the early days of social media it was believed that social media and advertising were two different things. But as the influence of social media grew, the perception of the industry changed. Today, social media and advertising are considered and treated as the same thing. He explains, advertising is a condensed form of selling an emotional thought or an idea in 30 seconds whereas social media lets you do that entire year.

According to him, L'Oreal Paris has a great brand communication strategy. They have a well-planned calendar when it comes to handling social media. At start of the year, they begin with a 'Women of Worth' awards, for which they have tied up with Femina. This creates a lot of video and behind the scenes content for them, along with a makeup ingredient to it. This activity by them allows users to vote, and view other women that they believe are worth it. They take this campaign further by taking it to the Cannes film festival.

In summers, they focus on hair where they convey a larger thought which is buttressed by strong messages. For them, its not about selling products, but about selling the emotion of the product to the consumer. The brand shares its objective that every woman has something within her that is beautiful and she should go out and celebrate that because she is worth it.

During the rains, they focus on makeup. In the year 2012, they conducted an activity named 'Colour Factory', whose communication strategy was to divide 26 shades of nail colour in 26 days of online activity. They tied-up with nail salons across the country, for fans to have nail makeovers and experience the range. They did this interesting communication named 'Get Fashionailable'. He points out that the great thing about L'Oreal Paris is that they have 'great names powered by great thoughts' surrounded by a major master thought.

At the end of the year they go back to hair colour. They have a very affirmative statement to go with the campaign: 'Say Yes to Colour'. The statement inclines with their master thought 'Because You're Worth It'. Their statement is rooted to its objective but relates to the bigger meaning and its very interesting to see that a brand does so many things in a year and yet manages to keep it all under one umbrella.