Demonstrating the power of social media, Costco's Kirkland brand was the only store brand mentioned specifically in blogs, social networks such as Facebook, and micro-blogs like Twitter.Nielsen recently studied social media content to better understand consumer perception about private label, according to RetailWire report.
"This finding spurred an in-depth look at conversations around the store brands of three large club stores: Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's," according to RetailWire. "Comparing market share (based on 2008 revenue) to buzz share (percentage of total online discussion that mentions the retailer), the data showed that while Costco accounts for 55 percent of the club-store market, it makes up 71 percent of the buzz.
Interestingly, the online advocacy is not being driven by Costco per se. "A very clear illustration of this advocacy is in the fact that when shoppers found that Costco did not have an official Facebook fan page, they created their own. There are a number of pages created by advocates, with some attracting more than 50,000 fans. To put this number into perspective, the largest BJ's Facebook fan page had just over 200 fans at that time."