Threadless

In chapter 15 it discusses the designing aspects that go into designing for social media as well as for unconventional marketing ideas. In understanding how to apply marketing concepts and combining them with social media, the book points out that the marketing is most effective when it is relevant, authentic, valuable, enticing and shareable. A company that I thought that would be interesting to look at that uses social media in their marketing is the company Threadless. This company is also a great example of brand love and brand idea that is discussed in chapter 4. Threadless t-shirt company is not just seen as a company but is also viewed as a community due to how each week it has designers submit their designs and people vote for their favorite. In chapter 15 it mentions that "people become brand fans when they can relate to what a brand or group is doing in their social space. People do not relate to a brand represented by just another ad interjected into their web space. It had to be something engaging and fun.” Threadless creates a fun interactive way of being in peoples social spaces such as facebook and twitter. In an article I found it mentioned “Threadless’ didn’t do any type of advertising for the first 8 years they were in business. Their community did the work for them. Threadless is built almost entirely on word-of-mouth marketing, and it is through powering their community that they continue to thrive.” This is a perfect example of how getting the brand name out there and building a community that loves the bran and basically advertises the company.

Back a while ago Threadless created a concept where users could nominate and vote for a Twitter messages that would then be made into shirts. This type of interaction allowed for anybody to participate, which opened up the community of Threadless even more.

Below are some interesting links and a video that I found about Threadless:

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/threadless-sell-twitter-tees-99324

http://www.trada.com/2010/05/threadless-social-media-marketing/

http://www.socialmediabiz.com/resource/video-threadless-on-building-brand-love-through-social-media