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Brazil Retailer Using Facebook Likes On Its Clothing Hangers
TheGift73 writes "Retailer, C&A, is putting 'real-time Likes' counters on its hangers in locations around Brazil. The Like data is taken from C&A's Facebook page, where the company has listed its various wares for people to interact with. When a person Likes an item, that Like shows up on the hanger. It is meant to help customers with purchasing decisions. If they are unsure of one item, they can see how many people online think the product is a good buy."
Because it is not something that could be easily abused at all! WoW, I wonder who thought that up.
Fashion is always about wearing things other people find good looking.
And this is why marketing and advertising people are the worst people in the world. There is NOTHING they won't try to exploit.
IF murdering people got sales... They'd do that too.
When are we going to load up the 'B' ark?
Obligatory xkcd: http://xkcd.com/610/
Girl like clothes. Man like beer. Me big sexist.
C&A is from Netherlands - http://www.c-and-a.com/uk/en/corporate/company/about-us/ca-international/
My clothes and various bodily appendages have Like buttons attached to them and when you push them it adds to the counter on the related page of my facebook account.
Shocker this, the Slashdot community hates anything to do with Social Media anyway. Why am I still surprised on the vitriol?
That said, I think this is an amusing idea. Sure, some people will buy according to like-counts, but I would HOPE that that would be a small percentage compared to those that buy by personal taste and fit. This is only the obvious next-step beyond typical advertising.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to see a man on Craigslist about buying a bridge.
Consistency is only a virtue if you're not a screw-up.
But Mom, everybody likes this. If I don't wear this nobody will like me.
Geeks wouldn't care too much about what they wear, but those that actually take the time to 'like' an item of clothing on C&A's Facebook page typically do. And they will typically also care about what others think about the clothing they wear. Then, bringing this online voting system into the real world is clever and functional. Those who care about it now have it at their finger tips. Those that don't care about it, well, don't have to care about it.
I like fast cars, hot women and a 10Gbit internet connection. Unfortunately my actual buying capacity is lagging behind my ambitions.
But if all those people who "like" something want to share this with me and would chip in, I could be tempted to buy that Lambo.
yeah, cameras...
The way I have seen some women shop for clothes I can see alot of switcheroo.. maybe that product is not really liked?
Or is there some RFID tag by which the hanger identifies the actual piece of clothing hanging on it? Doesn't look like it, as the picture near the article shows a row of empty hangers happily showing a count... And would be difficult to implement anyways if ever this is used in a rack which is much more packed, where a hanger might detect the piece of clothing hanging on the hanger next to it...
Freedom of choice is what you got. Freedom from choice is what you want.
would stop selling low cost garments and wasting money on marketing gimmicks but instead focused on improving the working conditions of garment workers.
I've been trying to say that to geeks for years, and it always fell on deaf years. "It's all about the content," they said. Sure, it's true for coding, but not for social norms. When's the last time anyone dated someone based solely on their personality?
If you’ve got a poorly made, ill-fitting shirt, you’re probably not going to be swayed into buying the piece just because it has 482 likes on Facebook. Similarly, if the item has only two likes, but makes you look like you’ve done nothing but get massaged on a beach in Bora Bora, you’re probably going to buy it regardless of its online popularity.
Something is probably not going to get liked much if it is poorly made. Something which makes people look great (whatever that is) probably will get liked more. Sure there will be outliers, both people and clothes, but the general case holds.
Instead of just laying on the snark, the idiot could have thought for a second and realized that the biggest flaw is switching clothes and hangars. Someone takes 3 shirts into a dressing rooms, tries them on, puts them back on the wrong hangars. Why didn't this idiot "reporter" stretch a few brain cells and think of that? Maybe the store has some way of preventing that. Maybe the loss prevention tags tell the hangar what the shirt id is, and swapping doesn't affect it. I'd like to know that.
Infuriate left and right
This is unfortunately a one sided review system. The big problem with facebook's "like" system is that there's no "dislike" button. As such a product with seriously polarised opinions would look the same as any other popular product because people can't voice their dissatisfaction.
yeah, I prefer my wardrobe to conform with the genre of those incredibly interesting people that play farmville and mafia wars.
Real men don't need signitures!!!
All the idea needs to feed it's database is spam. Consumers and users sending pictures of products to all their friends and relatives on Facebook so they can decide if they "like" a product.
It's as slimy as those Australian scum with their astroturf "marketing".
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
..... Clothes likes on you.
Sounds like a good idea to use with girlfriends
Asking a friend is simple. Wonder how they would work in eliminating half the choices.
Cool Idea...But isn't the most accurate "like" a purchase?
This kind of policy matches his douchiness level completely. Over 9000!
when you learn something about your own country in a foreign news site :P
"life is a joke, and someone is laughing at me"
And the manufacturers will be honest and not purposely drive up the like counters for their own products..
So /.'s, what hardware and software bits are being used to accomplish this?
I notice that the hangers are mounted to the pole suggesting that the displays are wired to a controller somewhere, possibly via RS232/RS432. I suspect the displays are addressable to allow for different products. I also would think that the controller is attached to a laptop/PC which actually calls a FACEBOOK API to retrieve the LIKES.
The "Like" system works well for goods that do not require a personal touch. Where it falls down is individual taste and fit, requiring that personal touch. The reason why women go out shopping together is because their friends can instantly judge the personal factors when they try on that cute dress. The point is, when it comes to clothing, trusting a stranger's opinion is much worse than trusting your own....
but for most females they still need a "let me see how your ass looks in it" button
This is just taking the rating system on online stores like Amazon or Newegg, and making them viewable in meat-space. It's got the same problems (sample bias - fake reviews by astroturfers, overrepresentation of people who like to submit reviews, multiple reviews by those wanting to game the system), plus a few new ones (using Facebook means no way to verify if the person giving the like has actually bought/worn the product, someone in the store can switch hangers, you have no way to tell if the store is accurately reporting the data or is hyping up inventory it wants to get rid of, etc).
Long-term, I think scanning the barcode for the product with your phone to get online reviews will win out.
This is similar to product-review web-pages. Apple/Microsoft/etc don't allow negative reviews on their web-sites. Similarly this idea, only says what the retailer wants to say, 'Be trendy (and mindless) by buying this product'.
In addition to the bias I have mentioned, two other problems exist. One, the counter is on the hanger, not the clothes, so the wrong clothes can accidentally or purposely be put on a high-count hanger. Two, paid shills can inflate the count on the hanger.
We are all going to end up wearing wolf t-shirts:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/three-wolf-moon
An Essex girl meets an Irishman in the pub. She asks why his wellington boots have "L" and "R" written on them.
"Oh", says Paddy, "that's so I know which is for left foot and which is for my right."
Essex girl responds: "That must be why my knickers have 'C&A' printed on them"
Where can I "vote" on all these clothes? I want to "like" all the obviously icky things to trick people into dressing like clowns!