Case Study: Purple
The story of Purple will be my first post to illustrate the strength of grassroots advertising. Purple is a company that launched with a Kickstarter campaign back in November 2015, leapt from the starting gate, and immediately met and surpassed its goals—ultimately, 5x more. If you look at the campaign, you’ll see that they have sharp, professional graphics and quirky videos. The copy is easygoing and approachable and the whole thing is memorable, so why wouldn’t they succeed, right?
Here is where I put in the disclaimer that my sister is married to one of the owners of the company and the inventor of the Purple technology, so I know more of the saga than most. For instance, I know that their marketing company told them that many funded companies use Kickstarter as an advertising tool when they launch new products. That’s the way it’s done now. Why? Word of mouth. It’s a powerful medium. So, that’s what the Purple people did.
But, more than their savvy videos, sharp graphics, and hip gifs scattered through the copy of their Kickstarter page generated the buzz. The most important word of mouth came from people who had used the previous iterations of the technology (like myself* and anyone and everyone related to or familiar with the Pearces), who bought mattresses from them in the past. Mattresses that never quite got their just dues because they were too expensive to make and couldn’t fulfill their potential when combined with spring mattresses, etc. But, the people who know the technology and the product, who can’t sleep on anything else despite the shortcomings of the matresses’ component parts, have had no compunctions telling anyone and everyone they know that the new day of rest has finally dawned.
But, even so, that wasn’t enough to launch this company into the stratosphere . . . so high, that not even two months from launch, they’ve sold out of their initial stockpile and everything is on back-order. People are buying faster than they can produce their product, and it’s made right here in the USA. The down time isn’t due to shipping from China or Bangladesh. It’s just a really long line. Friends and family didn’t create that kind of buzz . . . at least, not all by themselves. Otherwise, it would have worked before, right?
No. With Purple, all the stars aligned to put them in this pretty pickle—one of urging eager customers to wait just a wee bit longer for their own slice of sleeping heaven.
First, the company created a truly revolutionary product that no one else makes. It’s unique enough to capture people’s attention, and it fills a very real need. Second, they are able to place it at an affordable price point, so people who hear about it don’t immediately think, ‘Wow. It must be nice to be rich,’ then dismiss it out of hand. Third, they engaged some truly brilliant Internet marketers who make videos that people remember.
Finally, they put their product in the hands of bloggers. I won’t say that the advertising was free, because it cost them the value of their seat cushions and mattresses, but first they caught the bloggers’ attention by asking them to do something outrageous (sit on an egg without breaking it).
Then, once they wowed the bloggers (haven’t seen a single broken egg, and I’ve looked hard), the company offered them a free mattress if they would just try it and blog about it. They wanted a fair and honest review. From there, things went totally nuts. Check out just what I found on Facebook today, less than two months after the release of their product.
I don’t mean to sound hyperbolic, but I would love if that many people were talking about my product. (It’s actually probably about 60% of the total due to a song on an album Purple called “Inside the Mattress.” Who could have known?)
So, what are they saying? This blogger pretty much puts it in a nutshell . . . or a jpeg:
Becca over at MyCrazyGoodLife.com did a great review, and I loved the way her screen swipe showed how people are really sharing the news about this product. I was going to do a screen shot of some actual Facebook comments, but they’re far too long and gray for a blog post. But, they’re easy enough to find if you’re looking for them. Just type in #purple mattress in the search field.
You can do the same on YouTube. Search Purple mattress reviews. You will find whole lot, and not all of them requested by Purple. The bloggers footed the bill themselves.
You’ll also find quite a few people sitting on eggs with not a little trepidation, and then standing up in wonder. However, I found it really interesting that of all those disbelievers, the only person I saw who actually thought to put the eggs in a protective covering was Dan Hill, the president of Purple, when he met with the producers of their video. You can see that here.
My absolute favorite review is by Penelope Trunk who comes at her review sideways, as if she’s not endorsing it at all**. But, that in itself feels like its strongest recommendation. She took it, with every intention of tossing it out or giving it to her boys to make a fort with, but instead, it quietly changed her. Not her life. Her.
“Yeah,” you say. “I’m not a multimillion-dollar company with space-age technology and deep pockets for a marketing campaign. I’m just me. I can’t do that.”
That’s okay. If you believe in your product as much as the people at Purple and those promoting it do, you can succeed. You can contact bloggers and offer them free samples or free services. You can start Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. You can even make YouTube channels that demonstrate your products (a really good idea). These are the things that get people talking: the one-to-one contact, and not just friend-to-friend, but company-to-customer, person-to-person.
That you can do. So, let’s get people talking.
As an extra bonus, here’s a clip of the Harmon Brothers on Nightline, the guys who made the Purple video. They talk about how the Internet is changing the face of marketing, and is constantly in flux itself. If you can keep abreast of those changes, your business can succeed.
*I have had my mattress made by Edizone for nearly ten years. I truly can’t sleep on anything else.
** Doing a final check on my blog post before I hit ‘publish,’ I dropped by Penelope Trunk’s blog again and read through the comments. Quite a few of her readers made comments about her writing (which was great), the mattress (which captured their attention), how Purple wasn’t paying her enough whatever it was, and how her sons really did deserve mattresses of their own. Then, the last commentator blamed her for the logarithms going off in the browser and the Internet flooding him/her with Purple ads (I get every kind of mattress ad). He/she called her a shill for the company, and how she had fallen from her Olympian heights.
I thought, ‘Wow. I must be too low-brow for this blog. I positively sound like a pitch man.’
You have to understand, I’ve spent the better part of the day surfing the web, scrounging up every Purple review, comment, or video I could find. I’ve seen people sitting on eggs. I’ve seen people jumping on beds and wrestling with yards and yards of Pelon. I’ve even seen one reviewer do her egg test from the balcony of a Florida resort while a wedding was in progress on the patio below her. And, I’ve felt that every single one of those people were genuine.
That’s the key: sincerity. If you believe in yourself and your product, if the people who spread the word about it do as well, then you’re not a shill. You’re one happy customer sharing a good find with a friend. One is the sleazy used-car salesman. The other is a trusted opinion. The key as a company is to ensure that your reviewers understand that you want a fair and honest review.
Three stars is considered bad by a lot of authors in the book world, but I tell my authors it’s a good thing. To quote my son, when a product (a book, a bed, a piece of software) has all five-star reviews, it “doesn’t pass the sniff test.” In other words, you can’t please all the people all the time. If all you get are glowing reviews, the readers begin to wonder, ‘what do the real consumers think?’
So, in the case of Purple, when people say, “it’s not as thick as I would like,” or “it takes some time to get used to,” or “it’s not for people who like really firm mattresses,” or “it’s a hassle to unpack,” or, like me, “I’m really heavy, as is my husband and I’m leery that a mattress without inner springs will meet an untimely death,” then you know the reviewers are being candid.
So, when your products get a write-up that isn’t what you would like, whatever you do, do not argue with reviewer about why they are wrong. Ignoring them is also bad because you waste an opportunity. Instead, offer them some sort of compensation if they paid for it (a refund, a replacement, a substitute), and a heartfelt thank you if they had a free sample. . . . A “Thanks! That’s really good to know we can improve in that area.” After all, reviews should always be as much for the producer of the product as they are for the consumer.
And do it right there in the comments about the review, so everyone can see what fantastic customer service you have. (Pay attention to the comments on Purple’s Facebook posts. Their social media person does a great job with the one-on-one). 😀