Woot? Woot! We say W00t!
A new entry in the category of online niche marketing--even, shall we say, novelty marketing--meet Woot!, which sells one cool electronic gadget a day, with a new item posting at midnight Central US time. If you don’t buy it by the following midnight, it’s gone for good. And if it sells out before the following midnight, you turn into a pumpkin.
What Woot! lacks in inventory it makes up for in personality, with Weird Al-style podcasts for each item and design contests--recently readers were invited to re-design the logo of a joystick manufacturer, the results being rather ribald--and shockingly professional. If you can inspire a customer to spend several hours in PhotoShop just to send you a visual pun based on your product, I’d say you’re having quite a conversation.
Woot! has also turned their lack of customer service into a selling point, by having a sense of humor and making you, the customer, feel like you’re too sophisticated and witty to need a bunch of hand-holding anyway. From the Woot! FAQ (where the short answer to almost every question is “No."):
Will I receive customer support like I’m used to?
No. Well, not really. If you buy something you don’t end up liking or you have what marketing people call “buyer’s remorse,” sell it on eBay. It’s likely you’ll make money doing this and save everyone a hassle. If the item doesn’t work, find out what you’re doing wrong. Yes, we know you think the item is bad, but it’s probably your fault....
The lesson here is that in an online marketplace, constraints and limitations may actually give you your differentiating edge, if you’re clever and brave enough to exploit them.
In: Marketing • Emergent Branding • Podcasting • Promotions • RSS Marketing •