Part Two: Brands that get it.
Spoiler alert: men aren’t into chatting about fashion.
In our previous post, we did some field research around men, fashion and sharing. Turns out, they’re not likely to talk about clothes much with their buddies. Not exactly groundbreaking, but why? It’s likely tied to pervasive gender stereotypes, but we’ll let the social scientists unpack that one.
Meanwhile, there’s an epic opportunity that exists in menswear right now – a multibillion dollar industry that’s historically under-attended to when it comes to marketing. In this post we’ll jump right into how smart retailers today are turning men into brand champions.
Customer referral marketing – activating existing customers by offering them an incentive to refer your product to their friends – can yield major success for men’s fashion and lifestyle companies. Here a few examples of savvy menswear and lifestyle brands using different types of referral programs today.
Click here to download our digital retailer referral marketing guide
Indochino
Look at these sharp-looking guys! Made-to-order suit giant Indochino offers men a crisp hundo (well, technically it’s a $100 credit) for sharing their svelte secret with a friend. Oh, and the lucky friend gets a $50 discount too. This great example of the double-sided reward gives the friend an incentive to order his first suit, while also encouraging the referrer to buy again with his $100 credit. The deal is posted prominently on the home page – indicating that the program is likely very high-value for the brand.
Rhone
Mens activewear company Rhone taps into a ‘winning’ strategy to promote their product. They use a dashboard and points system to gamify their ecommerce experience, breaking down activities into missions that earn points, redeemable for products. Refer 2.5 friends to Rhone and get a free flask! (Upon further investigation, the ‘flask’ is just a fancy water bottle.)
MeUndies
MeUndies uses another variation of the double-sided reward, offering $20 for the referrer and 20% off their purchase for the referee. It’s hard to imagine that men are actively referring these underwear to their friends (you never know, though); it is probably more likely that female customers would send a referral to a boyfriend or friend.
Similar to Rhone, a dashboard area allows the referrer to track the progress of their deal, which reassures them that it’s happening.
Frank + Oak
Unisex retailer Frank + Oak offers an attractive refer-a-friend program which offers the referee a $25 coupon, and the referrer a $25 credit, for each friend referred. You can even search your Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo address book for contacts, making it super easy to spread the word.
