Case study: BATA Cyprus

Bata Case Study

Company Background

Bata (Cyprus) Ltd belongs to the Bata Group, the biggest company in the world in the production and marketing of footwear. The Bata Group was founded in 1894 by Thomas Bata. It operates in over 70 countries around the world through companies controlled by the parent company which is owned by the Bata Family and has a network of 5000 outlets serving more than one million customers per day.

Bata (Cyprus) Ltd is considered to be one of the largest shoe retailers in Cyprus with a chain of twenty six Stores Island wide. Bata opened its first Cyprus store in Larnaca as early as 1924, through a local distributor. In 1952 Bata (Cyprus) Ltd was incorporated and started its own operations.

The company at present employees 60 people and its retail network of 26 stores is divided into three unique concepts namely Bata City Boutiques, Bata Family Stores and Athletes World Stores.

Objective

Instantly showcase the new collections to customers, provide sizes and prices and instant feedback on stock availability. Bata’s other goal was to utilize new communication channels to connect and engage with customers in order to create a social connection with customers.

Approach

Bata Cyprus decided to use a Facebook page as a marketing platform because they recognized it is an important channel for them since there are more than 500 000 Cypriots on Facebook.   The Company launched the page with a coupons application where a 20% discount was given to members of the page.

As a second step Bata Cyprus launched a sweepstakes competition and offered a discount voucher to any member of the page that would fill in the friends list form. This allowed Bata to collect valuable personal contact data regarding its pages members that members volunteered..

Before the Christmas shopping season the company rewarded Facebook fans by offering free nutrition and personal training advise for three days via an application. Members of the page could ask their question and nutrition and training experts replied on behalf of Bata Cyprus. This activity increased the engagement rate of the page and the “word of mouse” advertisement on Facebook.

Satisfied with the brand awareness exposure achieved, Bata Cyprus then proceeded with a photo upload competition where Shoe Lovers uploaded their favorite shoe and invited their friends to vote for it. Having the members inviting their friends further boosted the page activity and made the brand name go viral on Facebook.

In between the activities mentioned previously Bata Cyprus used the page to inform the members for special discounts, fashion news, and shoe tips.

More important, Bata Cyprus uploaded the new collection arrivals in photo albums and informed customers about price, size, and color availability.

Results

  • Bata Cyprus managed to reach up to 92 887 Facebook members with its messages in total. 66 156 was by paid advertising,  23 496 was viral and 3 235 was organic.
  • At the moment Bata Cyprus Facebook page has 5 892 members with which it can engage on an ongoing basis and inform potential customers about new collections and special offers.
  • In 28 days Bata Cyprus had 407 709 total impressions of stories published by a friend about Page by story type. (Total Count)
  • During its  eight months of presence on Facebook, Bata gathered data about its clients, answered questions about prices and sizes of products, and received feedback about which item is the most liked and which is not.