Theadless E-Marketing Initiative Presentation

HUH?? Threadless?

Community based online t-shirt store Members submit t-shirt designs online each

week to be voted by the community The most popular 4 picked for production

* Winning designs are printed and available for purchase online.

* Designers of the winning entries receive 2000$ plus 500$ for every reprint.

Contents

Community

Trialogue

Customer as a partner

Degree of customisation

What can companies learn?

Community

High self-centrality of consumption activity

Weak social ties to

community

Strong social ties

to community

Low self-centrality of consumption activity

Devotee

Tourists

Insider

Mingler

Types of Virtual Community

Kozinets, R. V. 1999.  E-tribalized marketing?: the strategic implications of virtual communities of consumption. European Management Journal, 17(3), pp. 252-264

Community

Sizzle

Young, Trendy, Colourful, Interactive

Trialogue

Customer as a partner

Degree of customisation

Community

What can companies learn?

Trialogue

Trialogue

Customer as a partner

Degree of customisation

Community

What can companies learn?

Customer as a Partner

Consumer involvement

Customer = a resource

Customer = a co-creator

Customer = source of market information

Reduce costs of NPD

Save (5 S’s) Interact (IDIC)

Nambisan, S. 2002. Designing Virtual Customer Environments for New Product Development" Toward a Theory. Academy of Management Review, 27 (3) pp. 392-413

Customer as a Partner

PromotionStreet team

• Customer as models• Customer as a

promoterWord of Mouth

Trialogue

Customer as a partner

Degree of customisation

Community

What can companies learn?

Degree of Customisation

Identify (IDIC)

Differentiate (IDIC)

Customise(IDIC)

Individual

Mass Customisation

Trialogue

Customer as a partner

Degree of customisation

Community

What can companies learn?

What can companies learn?

Cultivate the

community!

2C

8

Thank you

for your attention

References

Kozinets, R. V. 1999.  E-tribalized marketing?: the strategic implications of virtual communities of consumption. European Management Journal, 17(3), pp. 252-264

Nambisan, S. 2002. DEsigning Virtual Customer Environments for New Product Development" Toward a Theory. Academy of Management Review, 27 (3) pp. 392-413

Threadless, 2010. Threadless. [Online] Available at: www.threadless.com [Accessed 2 March 2010].