Chico’s Selects SAS Social Media Analytics To Understand its Customers

SAS announced Tuesday that Chico's will use SAS Social Media Analytics to integrate social data across all areas of its business. The clothing company intends to begin analyzing data from Facebook and Twitter.

"Our success is rooted in a heritage of listening to what our consumers want," said Barb Buettin, director of CRM for Chico's, in a statement. "SAS' ability to help us listen and act upon what our customers are saying beyond the confines of our boutiques is a natural extension of that heritage."

In addition, Buettin hopes SAS will help ensure that Chico's communications are "personalized to the needs of our individual customers. SAS Social Media Analytics and SAS Marketing Automation are a natural pairing of capabilities needed to better serve our customers," she said.

SAS Social Media Analytics will help the company's three women's retail fashion brands: Chico's, White House | Black Market, and Soma Intimates. In addition to understanding public sentiment about its products, Chico's hopes that with the help of SAS, it will apply information about its key influencers to brand strategies, media placement, public relations, and customer service activities.

One of the tool's features will capture Chico's tweets in real time and identify those that are "significant to the brands" based on sentiment and the influence of the Twitter author. Tweets will then be routed to customer-facing personnel to respond.

"Companies rely on us to determine their own destiny," said John Bastone, product marketing manager at SAS Institute, during the CRM Evolution 2011 conference this week. "We are not just a recording solution. It's not just about listening and engaging. [SAS] underlines and peels away the layers around these trends so you really get one story driving business and figure out who's driving the narrative of your brand."

In addition to its media portal and SAS Conversation Center applications, SAS Social Media Analytics is offered as an on-demand solution. "We are truly built for the enterprise in mind," said Bastone.

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