Social media has set the stage to a complex, quickly changing and hyper-connected environment in which people interact with each other, building relationships and networks of peers.
The Social Commerce (SoCo) project aims to address the possibility to exploit the electronic Word-Of-Mouth (e-WOM) spontaneously genera- ted in social networks in order to create economic value. Indeed, social network are used just as another showcase for traditional advertising mechanisms. Nonetheless, the state of the art agrees in identifying the sharing of knowledge, experience, and information, as activities that fa- cilitate and encourage peers in facing purchasing decisions, opening up to a new business paradigm, shifting the power from sellers to buyers.
Pantene has acknowledged the possibility to drive trial in the Italian mar- ket, recognizing value of the consumers’ e-WOM. Thus, the main specific goal for Pantene is to leverage on user generated content (UGC) in order to increase women’s awareness about product’s benefits, but also to fo- ster more “perfect hair day”, that has been proven to be a core psycholo- gical factor in end-user’s self-fulfillment.
The main expected outcome of the project sees Pantene as first mover in the European milieu by developing the innovative Italian social market. The brand is expected to implement its penetration, providing an exem- plary consumer-oriented business model. In addition, the developed mo- del can be easily deployed in different areas, thus providing Procter & Gamble with a unique competitive advantage over counterpart brands.
Principal Academic Tutors
Giuliano Noci, Economics and management engineering – PoliMi
Academic Tutor
Cabirio Cautela, Industrial Design – PoliMi
External Institutions
P&G, Pantene
External Tutors
Iolanda Napolitano, P&G
Team members
Luca Crupi, Computer engineering, PoliTo
Mattia Mertens, Communiction Design, PoliMi
Rebecca Moroni, Architecture – Built environments, PoliMi
Federico Piccolo, Industrial Production Engineering, PoliTo
Luca F. Rossi, Data Science and Engineering, PoliTo