Social Media Index: Apparel

Let's try to end the week with a little fun, ok?

Using Google Blogsearch, I queried how often forty-one apparel and shoe brands were mentioned in blogs, both ever, and during the past month. Only brands with distinct names were included. For instance, a query on "Gap" is not fruitful, as the search returns too many instances not related to the Gap store. The problem is much less pronounced with "Zappos".

For each of forty-one brands, I calculated an index that balances long-term blogging buzz, and short-term (30 day) blogging buzz. Long-term and short-term buzz are weighted equally. The results are in the table at the end of this article.

Here are the top ten apparel/shoe brands, based on long-term blog buzz and short-term blog buzz.

1 = REI
2 = American Eagle
3 = Sears
4 = Urban Outfitters
5 = Patagonia
6 = Old Navy
7 = Gymboree
8 = Liz Claiborne
9 = Lane Bryant
10 = Eddie Bauer

Brands that had good long-term rankings include Sears, REI, Lands' End, American Eagle, L.L. Bean, Zappos, J. Crew, Old Navy, Victoria's Secret, and Patagonia. Most of those brands sell a ton of merchandise, and therefore, may influence the total number of mentions in the blogosphere.

Brands that had good short-term rankings include Sierra Trading Post, REI, Liz Claiborne, Lane Bryant, Urban Outfitters, Bluefly, Gymboree, Orvis, Anthropologie, Nine West. These brands had "buzz" that exceeded what they had achieved prior to the past thirty days.

By combining long-term and short-term buzz, we get the ranking illustrated earlier.

Buzz does not translate to sales or profit. But it is interesting to see which brands had a lot of long-term mentions, and to compare that list with the brands that have improved their buzz in the short term. REI appears on both lists, clearly leading the pack.

What do you think, folks? Is there any validity to measuring buzz in this manner? Send me your comments, and let me know whether this or some other version of this is a worthy endeavor.



The Table:

Apparel And Shoe Social Media Index: February 8, 2007
	Mentioned Ever	Mentioned Last Month	Last Month Pct.	Ever Rank	Last Mo. Rank	Index
REI	159,992	27,266	17.04%	2	2	2.0
American Eagle	130,589	17,259	13.22%	4	14	9.0
Sears	221,819	27,060	12.20%	1	19	10.0
Urban Outfitters	27,626	4,502	16.30%	16	5	10.5
Patagonia	49,700	6,602	13.28%	10	13	11.5
Old Navy	64,590	7,952	12.31%	8	18	13.0
Gymboree	18,430	2,860	15.52%	20	7	13.5
Liz Claiborne	14,584	2,478	16.99%	25	3	14.0
Lane Bryant	14,760	2,444	16.56%	24	4	14.0
Eddie Bauer	23,582	3,142	13.32%	18	12	15.0
Victoria's Secret	54,609	6,373	11.67%	9	21	15.0
Anthropologie	16,302	2,358	14.46%	22	9	15.5
Neiman Marcus	31,608	4,134	13.08%	15	16	15.5
Sierra Trading Post	7,328	1,511	20.62%	32	1	16.5
Abercrombie & Fitch	35,069	4,221	12.04%	13	20	16.5
L.L. Bean	116,647	12,749	10.93%	5	28	16.5
Lands' End	137,618	14,437	10.49%	3	30	16.5
Nordstrom	44,558	4,981	11.18%	11	23	17.0
J. Crew	70,282	7,708	10.97%	7	27	17.0
Bluefly	9,681	1,521	15.71%	31	6	18.5
Nine West	14,210	1,989	14.00%	27	10	18.5
Orvis	10,180	1,569	15.41%	30	8	19.0
eBags	15,222	2,010	13.20%	23	15	19.0
Bloomingdales	10,601	1,470	13.87%	28	11	19.5
Saks	39,673	4,283	10.80%	12	29	20.5
Ann Taylor	14,544	1,795	12.34%	26	17	21.5
J. Jill	17,713	1,976	11.16%	21	24	22.5
Brooks Brothers	18,650	2,063	11.06%	19	26	22.5
Zappos	75,526	4,978	6.59%	6	39	22.5
Banana Republic	34,739	3,617	10.41%	14	32	23.0
J.C. Penney	26,477	2,777	10.49%	17	31	24.0
Norm Thompson	2,663	303	11.38%	40	22	31.0
Chadwicks	3,101	344	11.09%	39	25	32.0
Burlington Coat Factory	10,572	441	4.17%	29	41	35.0
Dooney & Bourke	3,977	413	10.38%	38	33	35.5
Jos. A. Bank	4,696	432	9.20%	37	34	35.5
Talbots	4,885	432	8.84%	36	35	35.5
Bergdorf Goodman	5,189	441	8.50%	35	36	35.5
dELiA's	5,984	435	7.27%	34	37	35.5
Coldwater Creek	6,562	439	6.69%	33	38	35.5
Lord and Taylor	2,133	117	5.49%	41	40	40.5