Those of you who go to school with me or have done business with me know that I am lost without my technology. For school, I use my laptop, but for business, you will usually find me carrying a sleek black notebook with a thin piece of elastic keeping it shut. Often times, when I open up the book in a meeting, I find that people give me a weird look, seeing that it’s actually my cleverly disguised iPad.
In 2010, DODOCase launched their first iPad case in an attempt to help save the book binding industry and keep a classy feel to iPad users all around the world. Although a little on the expensive side, the look and feel of the case is totally worth it, and they’re fairly safe on the device that holds your life together. Another great thing about the company? They’re all handmade in our very own San Francisco!
In January of 2012, I bought my first DODOCase, and fell in love immediately. The case not only feels like a real book, it looks professional and has similar features as other cases, like turning the iPad screen off when closing the case, and having a button up top. DODOCase has several artists on hand who create imaginative and eccentric pieces to cover the insides of the cases, and often times support causes.
Today, they have started a few different lines, including one for smaller tables like the iPad mini, Kindles, and Nexus tablets, and even cases for iPhones and Andriods, as well as sleeves for all of your technology as well.
Not only does the company offer a great product, but when they first started finding problems with their cases, they immediately tried to fix it. The first product they carried had a few faulty pieces, and as soon as complaints started coming in, they decided to replace all of them, for free, and only asked that you send them a picture of your destroyed former case. The responses were quick and helpful, and I had my new case within a few weeks!
I believe a strong marketing strategy on this company’s part would be to focus on their connection to the book binding industry, and their connection to the community. With books going out of style faster and faster, pairing with a major book publisher or distributer and creating cases in the likes of popular and possibly classic books might draw in a different audience, then their already hipster-esque crowd.
Because they have already created cases for causes, launching an ad campaign with these causes might attract not only personal users, but groups and companies who donate heavily to the causes already. (An example of this would be the large companies who encourage employees and pay them to participate in community events, such as 5k runs, or a hospital my father works at, who just handed out iPhone and Andriod cases to the doctors with giant logos on the back).
Speaking of corporations, the DODOCase website has a lovely little section where you can create and design cases that fit your company’s style and logo, with the logo pressed into the front of the case. Advertising this would connect to a corporate customer, especially with technology friendly organizations.
In a matter of how to, things become more complicated. As explained in the HubSpot article we read, you want to cover the basics of using marketing that people love.
In the first section, they cover being educational and helpful. When researching products and services, the most important thing that a company can provide you with is the answers to the questions that you are looking for! With DODOCase, they would want to briefly explain why they do what they do. To pick up from Simon Sinek, beginning with an explanation with why grabs a customers interest more than what or how. Taking this strategy would grab people who were researching cases, much like I was when I discovered them.
Being timely and customized is a lovely feature for the customer who wants a personal connection with their provider. DODOCase sends emails asking for feedback on their process and product. Another advancement that would be a strong marketing strategy from them would be tracking customers by products they’ve bought, or favorited on the website, to see which devices they might already own and be looking into buying a case for.
Consistent language and message keeps customers happy, and expect the best out of your organization. Hubspot uses Apple as an example of their customers being evangelists for their brand, and I am a strong believer that DODOCase could have the same type of following, on a smaller scale. Their products are consistent throughout, but still provide a variety in devices and selections for customization. By marketing these factors, they could grow their fan base ten fold.
With these tools, creating a ‘lovable marketing’ can be pretty easy for an established company. HubSpot gives a list of six steps to work with: develop a marketing offer, place offer on your website, builed automated workflows, market to your email contacts, promote through blog & social, and measure the impact of all elements.
From these six steps, I can only truly say that DODOCase doesn’t live up to it’s potential in one: the blogosphere. While they are live on twitter, facebook, and other social media sites, and offer specials to followers, DODOCase would stand to gain more interested customers if they were to blog about their products, office shenanigans, and interests more often. In our marketing class, we have found that companies that blog a lot have more followers, and what does that mean? More customers! Customers are always happy to hear about new products, but I love sites that offer an extra article about something new they discovered or a new fun activity, website, etc. This keeps me checking websites (a personal favorite: Photojojo.com), and has eventually led me to buying more products through them!
From a customer standpoint, following these steps has already grown DODOCase to what it is today, and integrating the former suggestions and reevaluating in the future could just be the extra kick the company needs. I can only wish them the best and I am so excited to see what else they come up with in the future!
