Social Media Made Me Buy a $400 Blender
Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 9:04PM ;)
Ok, the title may be a bit overkill, but I am working on blog titles that grab attention and hey, it's at least partially true.
Last weekend I went out to get some crab legs from Costco and walked back in the house with a $400 blender, a half ton of mixed fruits and...ummm some crab legs.
This is going in my marketing blog because the story of how I came to making this seemingly "out of the blue" purchase started becoming more clear as I walked myself through the last few weeks. It becomes a great example of how brands can enter your life from nowhere and make you a believer and more importantly a buyer in a very short amount of time.
The story starts with the viral video meme of "Will It Blend" videos that feature powerful industrial blenders with an attitude from Blendtec. Turns out that the guy that blends everything from ipads to golfballs to the amusement of millions of youtube viewers is the CEO & inventor of BlendTec Blenders. We've all seen the videos and if you've read "Groundswell" you know that all of these video views turned into a lot of profits for the Blendtec company going down as a very early case study of the power of social media.
I didn't ever have a lot of interest in watching an iphone get vaporized in a blender, but the important part is that even if I didn't go online and watch every video and purchase one imeediately, it still served a purpose.
1. I now know what Blendtec is.
2. I know that Blendtec blenders aren't to be messed with. Anything that is powerful enough to pulverize a rake that goes in my kitchen, I have some interest in.
I see this as a sort of sleeper cell. A seed that was implanted in my head for a couple of years that just stayed there waiting for the right opportunity.
This takes us to a couple of weeks ago when my co-worker tells me about a $500 blender that she just bought. I would usually question her sanity, but she has a good track record of good purchases and the tales that she spun of smoothies, hot soups and making her own peanutbutter were captivating. However, I still had no interest in a blender of my own.
Then last weekend we were visiting my parents and my mom had DVR'd a blender commercial. Yes, the blender commercial was so awe inspiring for my mother that she recorded it and wanted to share it with Jenny and I. There it was again, hot soups, peanut butter, ice-cream.
At this point, I'm not calling the 800 number to purchase, and I'm not even thinking about Blendtec yet but I am thinking that maybe this would be a good Christmas gift.
Now we go full circle to the Costco trip for crab legs. There I am in Costco, wondering around the store, sniffing out some free samples when I run smack into a huge Blendtec presentation. I've entered the eye of the storm. There is a Blendtec representative showing off the product in real life. A small crowd had gathered. I stayed for the hot soup, the ice cream and was sold before he could get to the peanut butter.
So social media didn't really make me buy a Blendtec Blender, but it did plant the seed. Word of mouth and some tv advertising put some dents in my armor for the product itself, and the demo at Costco was the killshot. In the words of Hannibal from A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together."
The Costco demo is a genius way to bring a face to face experience to the online branding that they've touched so many possible customers with.
Will it blend? Absolutely!
Reader Comments (3)
Awesome story. It proves that you cannot go to Costco without dropping a few hundred dollars :) so are you going to make your own blender videos?
I intend to test out this amazing piece of machinery next weekend. Watch out Blendtec!
I started working here in May and got my blender a few weeks later -- so far I've used it almost 500 times. I love it. Here's hoping you're enjoying yours just as much!