As google gets into the social media game with its service google+, I again review the possibilities. Might it serve one's business? Keep in mind I still do not believe in web-based marketing... it is great for retaining customers, but lousy for gaining customers...
What if one solicited customers to report their experiences with your product or service on your "facebook page." Public declarations tend to help people commit; public declarations drive competition, as people see others progressing they get encouraged (or envy?) spurs them to act; to some degree there is reality theatre in play as well. So my question is, would it result in more customers and better results? Who knows...
Now, how would this apply to you? let me take a field I have never worked in, as a thought experiment... and then you can think it through for your project...
Looking at indochino.com and http://www.blanklabel.com/ and others, they are missing the opportunity. Both are managing the tailors, which is unnecessary and terribly expensive.
Think of crowdsourcing http://99designs.com/ brought to tailoring...
A website that matches people needing clothes made and the tailors worldwide, taking payment in escrow, to assure customer satisfaction.
Retail is theatre, and this website is unique in that every customer's progress is social-media'ed, that is their selection of tailor, selection of garments, and then taking measurements, cutting, sewing, first fitting, and adjusting is all photo-journalized and blogged with the customers feedback as the final act. Reality TV, everyone is a star, commerce... so many threads...
Before Congress destroyed garment imports (recently restored) there was a tailor downtown who took measurements, telexed them to hong kong for the suit to be made, and then shipped it to usa, where the tailor would do final fitting. this fellow had a crew in chinatown that did the finish work.
Indochina offers up to $75 credit to get it right with a local tailor. I think make that mandatory, that is, a local tailors review of the work.
That is just a rough sketch, as an idea, that might help in relating to your own thing...
2 comments:
John,
I like the idea, but 99designs has been panned by the graphic design industry for promoting spec work (that is, designers "pitching" for job with no promise of getting paid in the process. Lots of people in different industries feel the same way (especially advocates of non-spec work). The question is, how do we mitigate the hate that comes from free trade in this instance, where the best man wins?
Amy,
We all love a system that woks for us... 99designs could not possibly thrive without massive support from graphic designers and customers. It is totally voluntary. if someone does not care for it, they can just avoid it. If a graphic designer and a customer are happy with it, then no one else has an opinion that matters. If a graphic designer pans 99designs, then it is only out of some perceived threat or a unhappy experience. Either way, it is one person's opinion, and does not matter. 99designs thrives because it makes its customers and its artists happy. That is a free market.
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