Marketing Case Study: Blogging & the $30 Dye-Job

When big brands get into guerrilla marketing, it's such a funny thing. They call big meetings in big boardrooms and map out very big and serious strategies.

Marketing big wig A: We have to approach this community with kid gloves. We can't market to them, we have to have a conversation with them.

Marketing big wig B: I agree. All grassroots. So, what's our plan?

Marketing big wig C: I say we start a blog. Blogging seems to be really taking off. And, what the hey, it costs us next to nothing!

Marketing big wig A: Excellent idea, C! But who do we have that can write?

[all thinking seriously...sternly]

Marketing big wig C: Well, I suppose we could hire a writer. We could assign part of the budget to this. What do you think we'd pay a freelancer? $0.50/word? That's a good rate.

Marketing big wig B: And what would we tell them to write?

Marketing big wig A: Hmmmm....I know! This person can write about innovations in our new products and discuss corporate announcements! Maybe we can do some 'user' stories. You know, people who write in and stuff!

[off they trundle to write up their budgets and plans...outlining everything that needs to be said...hiring a writer...etc.]

And then they wonder why nobody reads their blog, why the rest of the blogosphere seems to be so down on them and why it isn't increasing sales. Then they usually trash the blog and/or become a case study on what not to do. [from Naked Conversations]

Let me propose this about the blogosphere: It shouldn't be up to corporate big wigs in boardrooms to think up how they are going to 'converse' with the world. In fact, some companies just don't belong here. Their blog isn't offering anyone any value (except for the case studies, of course) and I'd like them to stay the hell out of it.

Okay...maybe that's a little harsh. Maybe, instead, what I mean is that participating in the blogosphere (as a guerrilla marketing technique) isn't always about having your own blog, and sometimes it isn't even about blogging. Take it from a woman assigned to 'marketing through blogging' that if all I ever did was blog, Riya wouldn't have gotten anywhere. I've written here many times about the tools and techniques and types of things one can do to make better connections with people, so I won't go into that rant again.

What I do want to do is give a real life scenario where a specific company would do much better using those tools and techniques to connecting with real people who may turn around and remember that connection.

How it Started: My $30 Dye-Job

This past weekend, I was on a super tight budget. At the same time, my roots were distressing me greatly (no, I'm not a natural blonde). Since I couldn't afford to go to the hairdresser, I decided to take a risk and do it myself. I thought, what's the worst that can happen? I wreck my hair, I wear a hat. Right? So, I wandered down to the drugstore to buy some hair dye.

Talk about the Paradox of Choice! I stood facing shelves and shelves of products and colours and swatches and snippets. After deliberating for a good 45 minutes, I finally decided to use a Clairol Extra Blue (meaning it cuts the brassiness) Bleach for the roots and L'Oreal's fancy new multi-tonal highlighting kit in the Toasted Coconut. Total cost = $30. (in a salon, this same process would cost me $150+)

All the way home, I fretted that I had made a terrible decision, but I went for it anyway. 2 hours of processing roots and another 1/2 hour of step 1 (all over color) and 20 minutes for step 2 (highlights). Nearly three hours later (and several self-portraits), I looked in the mirror to discover that not only had it turned out alright, but it turned out even better than I imagined (ooooo....check out those multi-tonal highlights!). I quickly posted my photos to Flickr and watched as the comments poured in (from women AND men).

Out of curiosity, I decided to do a little search on Flickr for 'loreal'. Sure enough, there were hundreds of photos. Some of hair and fashion shows and ads, but many of women, just like me, who documented the process of dying their hair, the colours they used, the complaints they had, the way the final colour actually looked (not what that snippet of fake hair on the drugstore shelf tells ya) and even their feedback to L'Oreal.

I wonder....while their executives ponder away in a boardroom, inviting in (male) blogging consultants and seek to use these tools to 'reach' their market...I wonder if they have seen this? If they have, would they know what to do with it? How to seed it?

How to Seed it

So, L'Oreal...if you are listening, here are a couple of things you can do:

1. Encourage tagging of these photos. Create tags for your colours. Create tags for the feedback (good and bad - I hated that damned brush for the highlighting). Reward those tags with traffic, comments, coupons...whatever.
   
   
2. Start a L'Oreal group on Flickr to bring together everyone who is documenting their dye jobs. Up with do-it-yourself-ers! Down with the hegemony of the hair salon! What an amazing place to discuss tricks, tips and techniques (like how I consider Saran Wrap essential to any bleaching - it cooks the colour right out), while showing pictures...not doctored up, but of real men and women colouring their hair.
   
   
3. Post these on your website. Link to them. Daily.
   
   
4. Print the tags and campaign on your boxes...and on the shelf talkers. (and in your glossy magazine ads, etc.) Oh...you can even install a screen that aggregates these tagged photos and display it at your flagship stores. Imagine the thrill of seeing oneself as a L'Oreal model? How cool would that be? I would dye my hair even more often and post more photos to that tag.
   
   
5. If you must blog, then post these processes. Invite guest bloggers to tell the world what to do, what not to do, their favourite colours, etc. Eff models. That is so yesterday.

That's just a start and ONE of many online tools you can utilize to reach your community and only a handful of the ways you can use it. (when Riya goes public, you can use it similarly) And, if I must frame it so that you can incorporate it into a pie chart or a spreadsheet: Imagine the PR! Imagine the love! It costs you very little! Next to nothing!

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