Have you ever heard of Coolstuff.se?
I suppose you have. At least if you are from Sweden and have done something of the following during the last years:
- used sites like google and facebook
- read magazines or visiting websites containing new technology
- read blogs
…or if you just got something weird from your older brother last christmas and asked where he bought it. He probably answered Coolstuff.
Coolstuff is a Swedish company with a vision to offer their customers the coolest, nicest and the most innovative stuff on the market. They have a lot of different things – they sell stuff that are totally useless to most people, but that are awesome according to a few individuals. They are a company using the retailing concept the Long Tail.
The Long Tail is, very simply described, a concept based on selling a lot of different hard-to-find stuff to a l
ot of different people. By keeping the distribution and storing costs down, it is possible to offer a wide range of different things. As a internet company it is possible to have only a few products in stock, or none at all. In a regular store you have more of a demand to have the thing in store – otherwise you might lose the customer.
As I earlier brought up, Coolstuff is a site using very effective marketing through facebook, google, magazines and blogs. If you are searching for gifts, christmas presents or just cool stuff using google, you will probably end up at coolstuff.se sooner or later. If you are using facebook, you can see their ads on the right side from time to time. If you are reading blogs, you will probably see that many blogers recommend the site or are sponsored by the site. If you read magazines about new technical things, they usually contain something from Coolstuff.
The point is that they use this kind of marketing (through social media) to create a strong brand. If they just have ads on google, people will recognize their name. The same on facebook. By getting first page hits on keywords on google or getting their unique products published in magazines, people will enter the site. By having positive comments about the site in blogs etc, that also might end up on google’s first page, people will get a positive picture of the company.
A first page listing on google can be as good marketing as a first page ad in any newspaper. But is coolstuff really first page material? what do you think?
Oh! I recognize that! My friend was in a really cool shop in Stockholm. And she bought some nice glasses and before she left they wanted to take a picture so they could put it up on Facebook. It’s a really easily way to make commercials.
By: stju09ju on November 27, 2009
at 7:51 pm
First of all, I just want to say that Coolstuff.se really HAS some cool stuff. I actually bought some of those LP-CDs, which were kinda cool since I like the ’70s rock that were stored on the original LPs.
Anyway, I don’t think I’d put coolstuff as first page material. Their stuff is different and sort of unique, but it doesn’t appeal to a lot of people. But sure, if “cool stuff” is what you type in a search field, you are bound to find this site. (;
And this “Long Tail”.. you say that this is a concept based on selling a lot of different stuff to a lot of different people”. Is this really all there is to it? I think that that info was kind of weak, or maybe that’s just me.
By: raan0990 on December 2, 2009
at 3:56 pm