Give me nylon or give me death Nothing like a night out downtown and the entire night you are being complimented on a unique and yet very astonishing pair of purple galaxy leggings. Yes, I said it, purple galaxy leggings from the one and only Black Milk Clothing created by James Ills from Brisbane, Australia. Black Milk Clothing (BAM) is only an online store that specializes in unique crazy-printed nylon leggings, swimsuits, and dresses. The reason why BAM is such a unique company is because it only uses social media and their customer base for marketing.
The goals that James Ills made for his clothing many of BAM is to make girls happy all around the world while wearing astonishing and unique pieces and to discover BAM brand only through social media. With these goals of a company, this is what makes BAM so much more different than any other business. Black Milk Clothing uses various amounts of social media sites such as Faceable, Mainstream, Twitter, Youth, Vim, Pinsetters, and Tumbler. BAM does not use any fashion magazines, banner ads, or advertisements to promote their clothing.
BAM wants to keep their brand less commercial and more organic. BAM continues to have a $0 marketing budget since the creator James Ills was broke and also knew social media would be free and the cheapest way to get his clothing discovered. After a purchase is made through BAM, each package has one card with all the social media available associated with BAM to let the customer know where to share their new piece of clothing. Unfortunately unless you have heard or seen these unique pieces of clothing that is the only way you will know about BAM.
BAM wants their business to grow not by banner ads, but by women all over the world discovering their pieces only by social media. What makes BAM so unique is the passion and obsession of their customers. BAM targets geeky girls interested in science related, cartoon comics and hit movie style nylon clothing. BAM does not follow any seasons or trends, they solely base their clothing on what the customer wants by learning about their customer needs through their social media. BAM emphasizes that anybody could wear their pieces and dress however they want and share it to their personal social media and also BAM social media.
The growth of BAM is related to the massive amounts of followers, friends and the community behind the brand. All the marketing for BAM is done all through their customers who share heir pieces on social media. This is what makes BAM the one odd of success for social media marketing. Although their strategy of marketing is working, BAM should consider taking time and tagging the customer who helps market and promote their clothing on the picture they posted on their social media.
This is important because without their loyal customer base sharing their clothing, BAM would not be where they are today. One of BAM strongest outlet of social media would be Faceable. Faceable is the main social media platform which Mainstream, Twitter and Tumbler are linked to the page. James Lillo loves to interact with his customers or so called ‘Sharpies’ on a more personal level by responding to each person who writes, posts, or messages him. A Sharpie, is anybody who buys BAM. James decided to Join Faceable because he wanted to learn more about what his customers wanted.
Black Milk Clothing Social Media Marketing By APIPA then helped the business to grow from 1,000 friends to over 150,000 friends and growing with 1,000 a day and almost K-k a week (socialites. Webby. Com). BAM uses Faceable to release new lines, and engage their followers by promotions and listen to hat their fans are looking for in styles and new pieces. The Faceable page has styling tips which are all linked to their website for people to buy. By using such unique marketing strategies, it has allowed BAM to grow organically.
Friends of friends are able to see the unique pieces, which allow people to get on to the growing trend. Although, James wants to keep his business focused on personal relationships with his brand, BAM is falling short with keeping up with comments and pictures on their page. BAM should consider possibly hiring people who will be able to help James reply back to his customers and by ending the conversation with a signature of who responded. This technique will keep the personal relationship strong and make the customer feel important and recognized regardless of the huge amount of friends that BAM has on Faceable.
Another outlet for Black Milk Clothing is Twitter. Twitter, a lot like Faceable, lets their followers know new releases, lines and promotions daily. With 40,000 followers and growing, it is easy for customers to feel up-to-date with the brand. BAM is constantly re-tweeting photos and tweeting back to them. This has been a great way to continue that personal relationship that James looks for in his brand. Downside of Twitter for BAM is that it is based on Australian time, which means for people with American and European clocks, are behind by 20 hours.
By the time USA/EURO following base head to bed, BAM is Just getting up and tweeting for the day, which means a huge amount of their followers miss the chance of a personal relationship and promotions. The reason this is so important is because according to Alex. Com, The United States stands as number one for visitors of BAM website with 30%, following United Kingdom with 12. %, compared to their home country, Australia, which is ranked third with 7. 1%. In order for BAM to grow even more, they should focus on the times of their two leading buyers/visitors of their website.
In order to fix this, BAM should hire someone based in the USA and Europe to be in charge of Twitter to share what will be tweeted during Australian time. Lastly, the third most important social media that BAM uses for marketing their product is Tumbler. On February 24, 2009, James posted his first pair of leggings to his blob, which then turned to the very reason for the start of BAM. Due to the huge hit on his blob, James decided to run all of his marketing via social media and online 100%. Tumbler is a blob used with many pictures that show past, present and future of their pieces.
The Tumbler page is now linked to their website which can also be accessed through re-blobbing of people pictures wearing their clothing. Unfortunately, as their social media continues to grow larger, the maintaining and monitoring of their blob is slowing down. As they continue to grow, BAM should work on fixing their blob by hiring someone full-time to keep the blob up to date on a daily basis. Blobbing for BAM is more than creating and showing a brand, it is a relationship between the customer and the business that presents the passionate and friendship related to the basis of BAM brand.
In conclusion, BAM efforts with social media are the reason why the business has grown so successfully. Social media helped James Ills get his product discovered, and to this day, he bases his BAM understand that being emotionally involved and on real-time with social media creates a feeling of being authentic and not commercial. By creating a brand dedicated to the passion of his fans, this lets his customers to feel apart of the brand, ether than Just wearing it.
