Patagonia vs. The North Face
Living in Reno and so close to Tahoe, it's hard to pass up opportunities to be outside. Whether skiing and/or snowboarding in the winter, to paddle boarding during the summer; there's an endless amount of fun and adventure to experience.
I like to think of myself being an outdoorsy kind of gal. I ski and snowboard constantly in the winter, take bike rides during the summer, and would like to have more time for fishing and kayaking. Working for the same ski and snowboard shop for the past eight years, has made me realize what sort of gear people need to make these adventures possible.
One question that constantly pops up while helping customers in the middle of winter...which is better Patagonia or The Northface? Depending on the needs of that customer and their ultimate goal for comfort, both of these companies are on the cutting edge as far as technology and comfort within apparel.
So with that, I will be evaluating these two brands, comparing their online presence and their impact through social media to their repsective communities. Let the battle begin!
Patagonia
Growing from a company dedicated towards everything climbing in 1972; Yvon Chouinard decided to make Patagonia a store for everything apparel and gear for the outdoor adventurer, while carrying a deep commitment for environmental conservation. "Vote the Environment" campaign in 2012, Patagonia has started using different technology and platforms to increase volume of sales and increase consumer's awareness of evironmental issues.
The North Face
Based out of San Francisco, The North Face was founded in 1968 as an equipment retail store for avid outdoorsmen. The 1997 mantra "Never Stop Exploring", has lead to new clientel for the company and adopting different outdoor cultures to the brand. TNF's re-launch of their website including Concept Display interactive merchandising in 2004, has increased sales volumes and clickthroughs exponentially, and has been growing ever since.
Websites
Patagonia's website (http://www.patagonia.com/us/home) is easily navigable, with two main links for shopping or to learn more about the outdoor sports Patagonia endorses. Four rotating pictures fly on the screen, then off the screen, with information about the latest climb of Patagonia (the region not the company), sales on prior years inventory, and links to featured items on the website. Their logo isn't as bold as many other websites, but every rotating picture has a story to it, with their logo proudly stitched or imprinted on the clothing. The site continues to be simple, with clear purposes at the bottom to direct customers to Patagonia's history page or to direct them to many of their social media campaigns. Hubspot's Marketing Grader gave Patagonia 69 out of 100 on their online performance. Some things that need to be worked on according to Marketing Grader is to use more mobile stylesheets so smartphone users can access their site on the go. Another suggestion is have more landing pages for their website, according to Marketing Grader the more landing the pages, the better. It's also suggested that Patagonia use page titles without their company name; 60% of organic clicks are for the top three organic search results. In order to get as many as possible, Patagonia needs to create and use meta data wisely. The last major thing Patagonia should do to increase their online presence is setting up an RSS feed for their blog "The Cleanest Line". With an RSS feed, blog readers can easily search and access the blog in the amidst of other blogs.
The North Face's website is more in your face compared to Patagonia's. With five interchangin pictures, there are an abundance of tabs and links to click on, depending on where you want to go. At the top of the page are drop down links directing customers to men's, women's, and kids' gear, along with tabs for different sporting activities and events outdoors. At the bottom of the page are links to favorite apparel items and then links featuring about me, site map, and careers. According to Marketing Grader, The North Face has an overall score of 68 out of 100. According to Marketing Grader, The North Face needs to work on the following items: much like Patagonia, The North Face needs to create mobile stylesheets so users on smartphones can use their site more actively. Also, The North Face needs to create pages without the company name. Beyond that, they also need to create unique page descriptions, since 75% of online users never go past the first page. Even thoug they stand out in their boldness on their first page, pages after that need to be just as exciting and entice customers to explore more of the website. The North Face needs to set up an RSS feed like Patagonia, besides that, they also need a social sharing button for their blog. Blog links featured on social media platforms tend to increase their inbound readers by 149% when featured on social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Social Media
Using Marketing Grader and Klout, I was able to compare and contrast both company's social media platforms, while analyzing their interactions with their online community.
Patagonia has large following in all the typical social media sites, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Klout gives Patagonia a score of 89, which is low considering all the social media websites they participate in. To start Patagonia has 343,771 'likes' on Facebook and has been mentioned 6,226 times within the past day. Most users who like or mention Patagonia are 25-34 years old and live in Hong Kong. Twitter has a little less number of followers at 146,995 people but Patagonia tweets an average of one tweet per hour. Most Facebook posts and Tweets are about product reviews and guides, outdoor activities, and athlete comments. Patagonia also has a YouTube account with 25,139 followers. Most videos range from again product guides, climbing, surfing, fishing, and snow sport clips. One of the most interesting aspects of Patagonia's social media platforms is their blog, 'The Cleanest Line'. Posts date back to February of 2007 focusing on strictly environmental issues. Other notable social media websites include Instagram, Google +, and Pinterest.
Much like Patagonia, The North Face has followings in Facebook, Twitter, and a blog centered around outdoor activities. Klout gave The North Face a lower score than Patagonia, at 84. Their Facebook account has almost 10 times more 'likes' than Patagonia at 3,578,381. Most people who like The North Face's Facebook page are from Chicago, IL, are between the ages of 18-24 years old, and have mentioned The North Face 12,921 within the past day. The North Face's Twitter has about the same amount of followers as Patagonia at 183,009 followers and usually tweet every three hours. Even though they have a large following fan base with Twitter, they don't use it to their advantage like they should. Patagonia outdoes them on their Twitter feed, posting anything from pictures of adventures to the latest technology in apparel. The North Face also has a YouTube account featuring much of the same videos as Patagonia; they have posted since 2005 and has clips from athletes, snowboarding adventures, running competitions, and fishing trips. The North Face also has accounts with Pinterest, Instagram, and Google +.
Overall, looking at both company's social media sites, Patagonia has conquered over The North Face. Even though they have less 'likes' from Facebook users and less followers in YouTube, they use social media to their advantage and connect their fans and customers more so than The North Face.
Search Engine Optimization
Looking again at Marketing Grader specifically at SEO's, Patagonia has 244,000 indexed pages versus The North Face having 576,000 pages. In simple terms, this is when people use search engines for information about that specific brand. The 224,000 and 576,000 number correlates with how many pages with information about the brand that person will be able to find through the search engines. Looking at the MozRank, both brands are equal at 6.4 out of 10, showing popularity of both links.
Conclusion
Through this research, it seems that Patagonia has taken the lead in online presence. Their website is more engaging, cohesive, and pleasing to the eye of their visitors. Their various outlets of media are cohesive to their goal of being an outdoor activities retail store as well as an environmental friendly company. Their blog increases awareness to it's readers as well as their social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google +.
