Let that sink in. After you’ve made it through several rounds of interviews (half of them evaluating your resume, the other half evaluating your cultural fit), they offer $2,000 to give you one last chance to jump ship. They’ll even pay the full salary of the five week training period if you quit before it ends.

The people who work at Zappos WANT to be there. The Zappos you see is the genuine Zappos.

Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO of Zappos, is more comfortable talking “culture” than “social media” (he doesn’t even like the term “social media”). In the online marketing world, we love Zappos because it’s a social media darling – one of a handful of firms to run a blockbuster social campaign. We look at them for clues on how to run our own successful campaigns. In fact, that’s the primary reason I attended the DMNews Marketer of the Month interview with Tony this past Monday.

But Tony wasn’t there to share his social media marketing wisdom. He didn’t specifically point to the answer and say, “This is why Zappos is able Tweet effectively…” but he gave us a big clue.

The clue is culture.

Tony’s top three priorities for the company are:
1. Culture
2. Customer Service
3. Clothing

The product, or “what it does,” is third on the list. Can you say that about your company? Should everyone be able to say that about their companies? Is it a good business model? Is it a better business model?
It’s a model that works well for social marketing.

I feel like it’s becoming cliché to say it, but social media isn’t what you do, it’s who you are. Your company is a profile in the online world. Nobody wants to be friends with a company. Nobody wants to be a fan of a company. People gravitate to personality. They want to associate themselves with people and things on the internet that reflect their own values.

You can have that kind of relationship with Zappos. The clue is culture. That might not be the explanation for every successful social media campaign, but it sure works for Zappos.

There’s a lot of great content at both of these shows and we’re excited to be leading several panel discussions on the topics of luxury marketing, social media, advanced ppc tactics and targeting.

Misty Locke, President of Range and Chief Strategy Officer of iProspect is bringing a unique panel to SMX this year called “Bullseye! Reaching and Closing Your Ultimate Customer.” (Tuesday, May 18 from 10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.) She has assembled the most diverse and unique group at SMX Advanced London – highly specialized marketers and researchers who will give attendees an intense look at the differences between how various consumers search and buy.

Our always engaging Director of International and Vertical Market Development, Vic Drabicky is leading a panel at SMX to discuss “Amazing New PPC Tactics.” ( Monday, May 17 from 1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.) You’ll find out what is hot and new in paid search and walk away with some new ideas for your PPC campaigns.

Vic will also enjoy Luxury Interactive and provide insights into “Organizational Requirements for Digital Success” during the Champagne Idea Exchange and Executive Roundtable (Tuesday, May 18 at 4:00 p.m.)

Danielle Smith, our in-house strategy and research guru, will lead discussion on the topic of “Advancing Luxury Online Through ROI Reporting & Innovation” at Luxury Interactive (Tuesday, May 18 from 2:25 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.)

Interested in learning about social media at SMX? Parks Blackwell, who recently moderated Range’s SpotLight educational event in Atlanta on the topic, is your expert.  Check out “Give It Up! Social Media Edition” on Tuesday, May 18 from 4:30 p.m.  –  5:45 p.m. Learn some fantastic ways to gain even more traction, traffic and reach via social media marketing.

Check out the full schedule for SMX (http://searchmarketingexpo.com/london/2010/agenda) and Luxury Interactive (http://www.wbresearch.com/luxuryinteractiveglobal/dayone.aspx)

Make sure to stop by and hear Misty Locke, our President and Chief Strategy Officer of iProspect, on a panel of retailers in a session titled, “Keys to Surviving and Striving in a Multi-Channel Retail Environment,” Feb 22nd at 12:35 p.m.

We’ll be serving up some Tamales and Tecates both afternoons during the conference.. So stop by Booth #53 to grab a bite to each and chat with the team.

We are also hosting a VIP dinner and are excited to have Kenshoo as our co-host. Interested in enjoying an evening away from the conference activities with an intimate group of the “who’s-who” of eTail? Email me at events@rangeonlinemedia.com right away, as space is extremely limited.

Watch out for the premier of “Marketing that Matters” while you enjoy food and beverages during Range’s hosted breakfast and lunch breaks on Wed, March 3. We will donate a specified amount to the Haiti relief fund for every business card exchanged and bracelet taken during this time. We’ll be awarding random prizes throughout the conference so keep you bracelet on! We’ll explain more in person.. See you there.

Luxury retailers are hesitant to get involved in the social space because it is a platform for 2-way communication with consumers—the type of marketing luxury brands typically shy away from. Social media is a playground for spreading unfiltered and opinionated information by uneducated consumers across the web, and this lack of control is the top turn-off for luxury marketers. And really, can you blame them? Luxury retailers are hyper-protective of their brands, almost to the point of remaining distant from average consumers, towering over regular joes via lofty billboards and high-society events. You might think this is elitist, but elitism is part of why they’re luxury brands. However, a few high-end retailers are participating in social media and initiating a conversation with consumers using social media sites. For example, in May 2009 Louis Vuitton released a limited edition bag available exclusively to their Twitter followers. Hooray for incremental sales, but more importantly, this gave a new platform for Louis Vuitton to engage in the conversation with consumers.

Another reason luxury retailers are not participating in the social space is because of the myth that the luxury demographic does not spend time on social sites. A recent study by eMarketer says that affluent internet users will grow from 43.7MM in 2006 to 57.1MM in 2011, while in February, Facebook identified its fastest-growing segment as women over 55, up 175% since November 2008. Luxury customers are online and participating in social media, but there is another crucial demographic influencing and participating in social media: future luxury customers. 52% of Facebook users are between the ages of 18 – 25 years old, and they will determine the future of luxury brands within the next 30 years. Luxury retailers should be communicating with the next generation, those who aspire to luxury brands as soon as they can afford them, say when they’ve graduated college and landed there first real job. And when the money does come, consumers will purchase from the brands they have built a relationship with since their teens and early twenties.

Lastly, if luxury brands do not participate in social media it likely means there is an uncontrolled brand presence being directed through unofficial groups, posts and images. Luxury brands are supposed to have all the characteristics that mass market retailers do not: customer service, unrivaled quality and an exclusive price point. If luxury brands’ products, employees and reputations are solid shouldn’t it be trumpeted from Facebook’s News Feed?

The following data points help show how social media can augment email and how email can help build your social file.

• Use a call to action in your email to build your social file.
  • Visit us on Facebook – become a fan.
  • Follow us on Twitter

  Doing this can help build your fan base/reputation allowing you to influence your customers using a medium that is cost-effective. This will help boost brand awareness/morale, influencing customers to purchase at a time they aren’t necessarily looking to buy.

• Cross Pollinate to build your email file.
  • Leverage social media through sweepstakes and promotional offers.

  This is a great way to build your subscriber base, further increasing your new-to-file rates. Not only is this a low-cost way to acquire more names, but also helps build brand recognition.

• Align your messaging
  • Social media provides additional channels for communication.

  Use facebook/twitter to distribute your message (announce sales, in store events). This enables your fans/followers to respond and dialogue with your brand. You may receive additional feedback on products/offers that resonate well with your audience, helping to mold your promotional calendar, or product scope.

• Social media is a bridge for cross channel communication.
  • Email has always been extremely segmented.

  Through incorporating a social media component, you reach your fans and your brand/message goes viral…ultimately bridging the email segmentation gap.

In other words, while the two can exist separately, you’re much better off when they team up—it’s easy to cut through inbox clutter when you have a unified message across multiple channels, because people pay more attention.

I’d like to point out that my foray into luxury retail was only made possible by ridiculous markdowns, and this got me thinking. I had turned into the type of consumer luxury marketers work to avoid: the ultra price-sensitive shopper who wanders and browses, never really associating with any particular brand. They’re sort of like Dory, the absent-minded fish from Finding Nemo, if Dory shopped for discounted Burberry handbags. Luxury retailers don’t really target these people, because while certain price-conscious shoppers want to purchase from designer labels, they don’t care about which one they’re buying—only that they are getting something fancy for 40% off.

Luxury brands might not be interested in bargain-hunters, but they are VERY interested in so-called Aspirationals, or those who aspire to luxury. Luxury retail is essentially a lifestyle choice, and just as regular people who want to be associated with rock music wear AC/DC shirts, people who desire association with luxury wear shirts from A/X. These people might only have a couple high-end items they wear over and over again (if you know what a $30k-a-year-millionaire is, we’re on the same page), but they are very brand conscious and spend what they can. You’d think that a luxury brand wouldn’t want this segment so much either, but it turns out that there are way more people who want to live a life of Prada than people who can actually afford to. These people still spend a lot of money, even if owning a pair of Versace jeans means they have to pick up an extra shift to pay the phone bill.

So what happens with Aspirationals’ spending habits when their income takes a hit, say for example, during a global recession? Curiously, none of the presentations I attended at Luxury Interactive really defined the luxury customer or the element of aspiration involved. I didn’t walk away with a solid sense of how we were going to work to address the chasm that now exists between the spending levels of yesterday and today. How do you measure the aspiration shift and better yet, how do you shift the crowd? If you can no longer aspire to buy a new coat and handbag once a quarter, maybe you’ll aspire to “timeless” luxury and buy a single higher-priced purse that will get you through the whole year. This is obviously the tip of the iceberg; there’s merchandising, inventories, margins and on and on and on to consider. As for me, I’m just ready to at least hear some honest talk around it. I’m ready to learn how to not run into me again.

Answer: Feeling like I’m sitting next to that guy in 6th period, freshman year in high school.

I had the fortunate opportunity to attend the SXSW Interactive Festival this year. Granted, I’ve attended a handful of conferences during my career at Range and the content presented at these has for the most part been pretty solid. They delivered what was laid out, on that one link I visited for 45 seconds as I packed up to head to the airport.  But this conference felt different and in a good way.

I won’t bore you too terribly much with the panels I attended – Go next year and hear for yourself. It really was the ultimate convergence of hair gel, tech smarts, skinny jeans and superfly nerdery.  Sorta like if Austin and Silicon Valley met in Arizona, had too much to drink and produced a love child.

So anyway….panel…..panel….notes….coffee….panel…..free beer….dinner…..bed….repeat. Day 2 I attend one session entitled “Social Media: Defining the Metrics”. Finally, the Holy Grail! I can confidently walk into a client meeting and extol the virtues of Facebook, MySpace et al…with numbers! That means something!

They knew we’d come in droves, they knew and set us up in one of those big ole’ fancy ballrooms. Tons of chairs and hipsters taking their seats, snarking it up on whatever cool thing I’m obviously not cool enough to know about. (I’m getting there though – I promise once I get it all figured out, I’ll report back to you. I know. A large prodigious undertaking and yes, you’re welcome). Maybe four moderators speak and at the onset are primarily focused on explaining how they’ve talked to large corporations and the like and were able to explain the usefulness of this new era of customer/business communication. For the most part I was entertained. However the natives were getting restless.

A conference coup.

One particularly snarky-social-media-metric-seeker suddenly and very abruptly bum rushes the Q/A mic and launches into his dissatisfaction with the current discussion. “Wasn’t this a panel about social media metrics? We’re all here on twitter, and we’re getting pissed.” (Ok, I’m paraphrasing here because it was so jarring to me I couldn’t catch up to astute observer).

Well damn, I thought. I’m not on Twitter, and I don’t really get it. The panel, led by a rather terrible ego-maniac (my least favorite of any conference), responds with exactly what you would expect him to say. This is our panel, we’ll be getting to that, here’s how we’re going to respond. Big Tex taking the proverbial bull by the horn. Way to go!

Then I start seeing a wave of insurrection sweep across the audience. There are coordinated coughing fits, wild gesturing, some abandonment of seats etc…Eventually, I catch on/up that this. is. Twitter.

Twitter: Allowing you the ability to stay connected and in touch with everyone

Or, more accurately from what I’ve just witnessed:

Twitter: Countering the theory of social graciousness and professionalism.

Listen, I realize that the functionality of this can be great, empowering, productive even, but what I saw that day was using technology to act like a brat. “But Daddy, I want it now!!” Lollipop in hand, chocolate smudged on face, belly spilling out over pants, desperate and hungry for whatever it is right this second.

Me – speak in public? After that? Forget about it. Yes, you as the presenter should always be buttoned up and prepared, but don’t you dare be human. Because they’re talking about you and might just let you hear about it.

Next up: Twitter’s Implications & Innovations for the Public Speaker.