Assignment Two: Digital Brand Audit

Brand: Charmin
Tracking Period: May 26 – June 24
Charmin’s Success
Charmin has a very powerful social media strategy that has expressed favourable results. This brand turns a rather boring, mundane product to life through its hilarious communication via all marketing efforts including social media. Consumers around the globe have the ability to connect with the bear’s personality built through the Twitter account, FaceBook page, YouTube channel and Vine account. As toilet paper can be quite the elastic product, brands have to provide further value. This is where Charmin benefits from the use of social media.
Charmin’s Social Media Overview
Charmin has created a bond with their thousands of followers by providing useful information, entertainment and discounts. Out of the three main media platforms, Twitter by far has the largest reach with over 300 million impressions a year. Most recently, the twitter team has encouraged users to tweet using the hashtag #tweetfromtheseat with the intent that consumers will tweet while on the toilet. All the humorous tweets are connected to the FaceBook page along with many other marketing activities. You could say FaceBook acts as a central hub for all the social media activities. With that being said, the FaceBook page is still very expressive with frequent uploads and other unique content. A particularly unique tool found on their FaceBook page is the Sit or Squat app. This app helps you find the cleanest washroom wherever you are. This is just another way Charmin adds value to the consumer through social activities versus the product itself. The YouTube channel is available purely for entertainment. If consumers want a good laugh, they know they can check out the account Charmin1928 to find a new upload around once a month. For further details on consumer reach and levels of activity please see below. Media Channel | Number of Followers/Likes | Content Updated | FaceBook | 749,000 | 1-2 posts/day | Twitter | 17,935 | 2-3 tweets/day | YouTube | 499 | 1-2 videos/month | Vine | 552 | 1/month |
Target Market
Charmin mainly target mothers who frequently purchase toilet paper however they do not neglect those who enjoy toilet humor. Specific applications, coupons and tweets speak directly to the mothers out there. The Sit or Squat application has even been awarded the top app for parents as it provides you with the following information
Mothers can clearly see this as value added because it is sometimes difficult to find a family bathroom, baby changing table, etc. especially if you were somewhere away from home. Other targeting tactics have been seen through twitter by offering coupons or tweets about the parent life. Charmin also tweets about topics that may not interest mothers as much as say a young business professional. This tweet is directed at the consumers who purchase their own toilet paper. They are too old to be looked after by their mother but not old enough to have their own kids.

The demographics of their twitter followers are 53% females to 47% males which is fairly similar. I believe this is because males may find toilet humour funnier than women who do not like to discuss their bowel movements.
Charmin Tactics
Consumers easily recognize Charmin’s marketing communications as being fun and humorous. If these messages were received incorrectly it could really damage the brand. However, P&G has considered the joking nature and has leveraged it in cross-sell opportunities in the house of brands.

Charmin also acknowledges holidays to build stronger relationships with their followers. This helps to counteract the fact that the brand always says jokes and shows that the brand cares about their consumers. These types of tactics attract mothers, who are their main consumers however may not be their main followers.
An important strategy all successful social media campaigns encompass is a limit to direct selling.