Social Marketing Example: Roxy

Everyone knows in today's climate of ad harassment, word of mouth is everything. Hence a new marketing catchphrase 'social marketing'. Well, I want to illustrate how that is done wisely. Love what Roxy, a brand of clothing for girls, accomplished this.

What do you and a brand like Roxy have in common? The need to connect with their customers on an ongoing basis, and in Roxy's case, have them advertise their clothes. Instead of going the traditional focus group route, they started an online community of over 900 girls. These girls were handpicked in stores across the country, deemed by Roxy as the trend-setters among their peers. Genius!

The first sell was to the girls, already fans of Roxy by being in the store. Roxy upped the ante by offering the girls exclusivity--making them feel important by allowing them to provide direct feedback on the clothes and get exclusive discounts on stores. The girls that are chosen by Roxy receives a welcome package which includes the latest clothing designs.

Now Roxy can get immediate responses to surveys--if Roxy poses a question on the message board, she'll get responses in minutes. They have over 300 active members who post several tims a day. Can you imagine having enough reponses to where in the SAME DAY you can go back to your uppers and enable them to make quick decisions?

Love this marketing initiavive for these reasons: feedback from a qualified team of customers (on trends, etc), lightening quick word of mouth marketing for this age demographic, and mainly that Roxy has made them feel important, and hence they are ACTIVE 'brand ambassadors'. It's a win-win (Roxy gets the info they need, their brand ambassadors get great discounts) that is a great marketing strategy for today, and can be applied to many industries now.