Have you ever seen someone – a woman, most likely – toting around a lululemon bag? Lululemon, if you’re not familiar with it, is a high-end seller of Yoga and fitness apparel. Instead of receiving paper or plastic bags destined for the landfill, a person who buys something at lululemon receives a reusable bag emblazoned with the lululemon manifesto.
Lululemon bags signify several things -that its owner is a yoga buff, environmentally conscious, and probably fairly affluent. But what else does that bag say? It also says that its owner is a fan of the company (lululemon) that provided them with that bag.
Seeing a couple lululemon bags in downtown Washington, DC one afternoon it dawned on me that this sort of viral, people-powered marketing is a good analogy for the power of the social web. Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious, personal blogs — all of these things make up what I refer to as the social web.
It is on the social web where brands and companies can go to find out what their most passionate supporters and detractors are saying about them. And why would you want to know what those folks are saying? Because your best customers are capable of turning others into new customers.
Of course, customers will not evangelize for just any product or brand — your product or brand needs to be superior in order to attain that special designation. But what if your product or brand is not the “best?” (No one likes to think that their product or service isn’t the “best,” but this is a matter of consumer perception). Rest assured there are other ways to reach out to evangelists. For instance, you can use social media to provide excellent customer service to a disgruntled customer. For a happy customer you can provide freebies or discounts as a thank you. The possibilities are, happily, endless.
