Brand Acceptance: Bearpaw gains traction

Something magical happens to a brand when they become accepted into the celebrity culture of America…they become a topic of conversation for the entire culture of America.  For the last 130 years our western culture has experienced mass media through magazines, radio, movies, television and now the Internet.

The goal of every brand is to gain acceptance by the American consumer.  To gain acceptance, brands need to first get their attention. Brands need to be a topic of conversation. If you get people talking, they will take a look at your product. Building the buzz on a product is the goal, and there is no better way to get people talking than associating a brand with celebrities.

Bearpaw is the perfect example of how a great brand does everything right.

Social Hill has worked with Bearpaw for the past 2 years. We have a simple goal: We introduce celebrities to the Bearpaw product line and get them to try on a pair or two.  It is not complicated, educate them first and let them try it for themselves. It is a simple strategy that works when the product is good enough to meet the standards of celebrities who have access to any product they desire. Once they try on a pair of Bearpaw boots they want them and then the buzz begins.

Celebrities are wearing these boots night and day. You might have thought that sheepskin shoes and boots would be a fashion faux pas in the summer months, but numerous celebrities are starting a new trend and sporting their Bearpaw footwear year-round. Country singer Gretchen Wilson, actresses Shannon Elizabeth and Jennifer Love Hewitt, and singers Jordin Sparks and Crystal Bowersox have all become fans of Bearpaw. Karina Smirnoff from Dancing with the Stars has even worked with the brand to design her own boot. Lacey Schwimmer, Chelsea Kane, Brandy, Debby Ryan, Tim Duncan, Taboo (Black Eyed Peas) and Romeo are wearing Bearpaw’s regularly.  

The press has also noticed. The brand is appearing in all the major celebrity magazines like People, OK, US Weekly and Star. They have been on multiple television shows like TMZ, Dancing with the Stars and even Jersey Shore. The pictures of celebrities in Bearpaw’s are all over Twitter and Facebook.  

Bearpaw is actively spreading the word about celebrities wearing its footwear. Social media is where the buzz of celebrity culture thrives. Consumers are talking about brands in social media and Bearpaw gives them plenty to talk about. Bearpaw is a topic of thousands of social media conversations and that translates to an explosion in sales.  As we talked about in an earlier post, the quality of the Bearpaw brand is building an exponentially spreading "trust" from consumer to potential new consumer, the basis of all social networking sales.

Start the buzz. Spread the word. Generate interest. Gain acceptance. Now your brand is a hit. Bearpaw is the perfect example.

Facebook Fan Pages vs. Websites

Facebook Fan Pages vs. Websites

The traditional web page may have peaked as to its level of importance with the recent explosion of social networking tools.  This is not to say that the company website has lost its purpose, but it rather has drifted into the grouping of traditional marketing tools that offer only an A to B knowledge transfer.  What is that?  Well, let's look at it in contrast to social networking tools.

First, we need to acknowledge that the overall trust in business and brands is very low.  This could very well be unfair, as many business and traditional advertisements are lumped in with current events such as Enron, ponzi schemes, government bailouts, recalls, etc.  Whether fair or not isn't important, it is just the reality.  Therefore, when businesses simply use this A to B method of "telling" customers to trust them and that their products have quality and that their business is valid, it has only a limited effect.

So why do social networking tools such as Facebook fan pages have more validity?  The answer lies in the concept of "transitive trust".  Transitive trust is simple and ancient- if I trust a person's opinion on a certain topic, and that person trusts a certain product, I therefore gain a certain level of trust for that product.

Facebook and other social networking sites work off of this premise.  A brand puts itself out there, and displays info, and gathers an initial base of "fans".  This could be current customers, friends, etc.  The idea is to build upon those fans' fans.  It's a slow exponential growth, but one that very much fits into free market concepts of survival of the fittest.  The brands that are most transparent, engage customers, deal with issues promptly and fairly, offer quality products and reasonable prices, and so on, will theoretically succeed because basically the word will spread within the network for that brand.

Saying all that, it is not a magic bullet solution.  Billboard type marketing materials such as websites still have a lot of value in that they can display rich data about the company and its brands.  Facebook is an excellent tool to build the brand, but other tools such as a microblog like Twitter is excellent for quickly getting exposure to many fans, and blogs such as Blogspot offer integration of more robust content.

Finally, it is important to understand that every brand is different.  When a company first engages in a social networking plan, they should determine what is the value proposition of their products.  For a fashion company this could be "how does it make me look?" and "what celebrities like this brand?".  Both of these can be answered on the highest layer of content with product images and celebrity images with the brand.  For a company that offers technical training, let's say, the value proposition is different in that the quality of the brand is not as superficial.  For this type of company testimonials from past clients, current customers, and some more detailed product info will be needed.  Each company is different and a plan should be made before moving forward.

At Social Hill, we first determine how social networking can benefit each customer and build a plan around those needs.  There are thousands of excellent Facebook apps, Twitter tools, blog configurations, and a set of the most appropriate is organized for each brand.