Friday, February 7, 2014

Social Currency? - Marc Jacobs Pop-Up Shop


In Manhattan this morning, my favorite designer unleashed perhaps one of the best marketing strategies that I have seen in a while.  Marc Jacobs, a brand for women's, men's, and children's runway fashion, opened up the doors to a temporary "pop-up shop" in the Soho district of the city.  

Titled the "Daisy Marc Jacobs Tweet Shop," the store undertakes an interesting new spin on currency.  Instead of paying for the products with money, customers will receive products in exchange for tweets, instagram posts, and Facebook promotions. While I'd imagine that most of the products in the store are smaller, inexpensive Marc Jacobs items, the best instagram poster of the day receives a handbag...  If only I lived in Manhattan!  

I think that Marc Jacobs was brilliant in attempting such an endeavor.  Although they are giving away products virtually for free, the amount of free advertising they will receive in return will surely be exponentially larger than their losses.  In addition, the unique concept will draw curious shoppers into the store, further promoting their brand and expanding their potential customer base.

Another wise move of the company was to limit the event to only two days.  This short time-frame creates a sense of urgency in customers, which I think will also harbor excitement.  If the store were to remain open for a more extended period of time, the hype of the concept would surely die down after a few days.  The two day period, allows for not only a lot of advertisement via social media at once, but fosters competitions among customers.  With this competition, the social media promotions will be of higher quality in addition to higher quantity.  Who doesn't want to win a FREE Marc Jacobs handbag?!?

The concept of social currency seems a little far-fetched to me in everyday transactions.  However, used temporarily, social currency has the potential to become the "next big thing" in promotional events.  To receive the free products, customers will post about the brand on social media, and the brand will receive free advertisement.  Most likely, customers will be happy with their free product and will be even more inclined to promote the company further!  It's a win-win situation for everybody.  That's social media mutualism.

Check out the o.g. article that I read, here.

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