Social Media B2B

One of the biggest changes in the retail sector comparing this holiday season to last year’s is the availability of Snuggies on many retailers’ shelves. The original blanket with sleeves features the As Seen on TV logo and is frequently discounted from the tv price of $14.95 to $9.99. Retailers report brisk sales of Snuggies and its knockoffs like the Slanket and the Snuggler. So let’s look at how this relates to social media.

Original Message in One Channel
Snuggies were first offered only through direct sales via tv commercials. Both the message and the distribution were closely controlled by the company. But in the manner of traditional marketing, this limited the distribution of both the message and the product. Only tv watchers learned about the Snuggie, but they were still successful.

Social Media Lesson: Examine your channels for both marketing and distribution and make sure they are not limiting your success and growth.

Generating Conversation
Due to the uniqueness of the product, and its kitchiness, it developed a cult following and people started talking about it. The Snuggie developed a culture around it where people promoted events like the Snuggie Bar Crawl and Wear Your Snuggie to Work Day. There is even a Snuggie New Year’s Party in Las Vegas next week.

Social Media Lesson: Is you product or service unique enough that people have something to talk about?

Encouraging User-Generated Content
The Snuggie’s original commercial was uploaded to social media sites and was co-opted by web video editors. The commercial was shot in a very straightforward manner that cried out for parody, and in our YouTube culture it happened. Here’s a link to a YouTube search for Snuggie Parody. The leading result has been viewed nearly 9 million times. Due to its language, it is not family-friendly, but very funny. This is the viral part of social media that is uncontrollable, but actually is a huge part of brand building on the web.

Social Media Lesson: Organic re-editing of corporate videos are more likely to spread than contests requesting videos.

Expanding Messaging and Markets
The success of the Snuggie encouraged them to expand beyond their own sales channel into general retail outlets. While they make less per unit, the volume has greatly increased. The bigger thing they lose in selling through retail is the shipping charges, but this loss of revenue may be addressed by the reduced costs of shipping efficiencies to large retailers. And now the retailers are advertising the availability of the Snuggie and exposing more people to the message at a time and place where they see the product. The tv-driven and direct sales channel continues and has different product offerings.

Social Media Lesson: The more people who see your product, the more likely they will talk about it with their network. If you can manage the economics of expanded distribution, there will be conversational benefits.

And by the way, I didn’t even write about line extensions as they relate to Snuggies for Dogs, but I liked the picture above, so I used it anyway.

What lessons have you learned in 2009 about product distribution and expanding your message on the social web?

Jeffrey L. Cohen is the Managing Editor of SocialMediaB2B.com. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @jeffreylcohen.