Sol Republic's Online branding

Following is a breakdown of Sol Republic's CDJ-driven marketing strategy and my experience with it.

1. Consider - In my previous post, I mentioned that I needed to buy new headphones, the only question I had was: "Which brand should I get this time?" - I had negative experiences with some brands, some brands were too expensive and some brands had no name/reputation attached to them at all. One thing Sol Republic did was sending out free samples to people in order to establish an online presence with one of their target audences, gadget-o-holics. They sent them out to sites such as gizmodo, arstechnica and so on to gather reviews and to let people know who they are.

2. Evaluate - After reading through countless online blogs about headphones, I narrowed down my  considerations into several brands. At this point, my final decision would be based on the reviews and recommendation of fellow bloggers, testers and how the brand interacted with their customers. The next step I took was trying to find them on Facebook and Twitter, surprisingly, they already had thousands of likes and fans on their official Facebook page and Twitter account. People were talking about them in a positive way whenever you looked them up through Google.

3. Enjoy - If the headphones weren't good at all, no amount of good reviews and no amount of marketing can fix it. Sol Republic did a good job at designing, quality assurance and customer service. I enjoyed and I am still enjoying my headphones.

4.Advocate - As you can see, I'm always wearing my headphones and always brag about how good they are. Sol Republic did a good job at making me promote them through word of mouth.

5.Bond - I mentioned in one of my old posts about how Sol Republic added me to their exclusive "SOLdiers" group on Facebook where they offer special deals on tickets and sweepstakes on anything music related. I think this is a good way to create a connection with a company even after the buying stage.

6.Buy - I wouldn't hesitate to buy another product from their site, however, too bad they have only 2 product offerings as of now - headphones and earphones. However, they did mention that they will expand their product line and will let the "SOLdiers" group know first before announcing it to the public.