| Grey Poupon Takes Quality Over Quantity Seriously |
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By: Elaine Reed |
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 Have you ever wondered how Grey Poupon would market their fancy mustard in the age of automatic car windows? I know I did. Today the answer to that question lies with Facebook. While I’ve not seen a commercial for Grey Poupon in years (full disclosure: I watch very little tv; my family tends to hog it,) over the past week or so I have seen a lot of buzz about Grey Poupon’s fan page on Facebook. The buzz isn’t centered around the fact that Grey Poupon has a fan page, but how they are managing it.
While anyone can view Grey Poupon’s wall, in order to “like” the brand one must apply to be a member of the “Society of Good Taste.” Accepted members get access to exclusive content, which includes coupons and deals for the product. How do you get accepted? The application process requires allowing Grey Poupon to scour the public areas of your Facebook account. They look for good grammar, diversity in taste, and the number of friends you have. If you “cut the mustard” (their phrase) you are granted access. If not? They say your “like” is rescinded.
Requirements aside, Grey Poupon has a robust page with more than 32,000 likes as of this writing with 45% of those “talking about” the brand. That “talking about” metric is one that marketers are watching closely. That high level of interaction tells me that while some may be turned off by the exclusivity, enough are amused by it to keep the brand page humming. Will this last over the long haul? Only time will tell.
While closed groups have been a useful tool on Facebook for quite some time, the hype and popularity of this one seems to be unique. It will be interesting to see if other brands are inspired by the buzz to try something similar. For example: a sneaker brand could develop an exclusive runners' club based on the mileage logged in their app and offer discounts for products and marathons. A reservation service could create several closed groups based on the types of reservations their users make on their apps. The added marketing information they receive from interaction inside their closed groups could be incredibly valuable to them.
How would you use closed groups to generate buzz for your brand?
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Elaine Reed is a marketing professional with heavy emphasis on e-commerce and Internet marketing. She blogs regularly on her website and tweets often.
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