Friend-of-Mine marketing is the process by which a company provides helpful information under the guise of promoting themselves by association with the helpful information that they offer. For example, Charmin’s Sit or Squat app lets users know where the closest bathrooms are to their location along with a rating for those bathrooms, associating the Charmin name with being helpful in the bathroom and making users of the app more likely to pick up Charmin the next time they are in the store (Barry, 2013). There are many apps that qualify as exceptional uses of Friend-of-Mine marketing, each with their own reasons; by working to identify some of these apps and the reasons they are successful examples of Friend-of-Mine marketing, it will be possible to gain a better understanding of how this targeted form of marketing works.
The Corona company has one such app, known as ‘Corona Beach Break’ which assists users in finding the most ideal spots on beaches closest to them, associating the Corona brand with fun; in doing so, the company works to associate their brand of beer with a fun experience (Cohen, 2014). Special K has an app that they have created allowing the user to create a weight management program custom tailored to their own specifications, associating the concept of weight loss with the Special K brand name (Giana, 2014). Nike’s ‘Nike+ Running App’ is another example of Friend-of-Mine marketing, wherein runners are able to track their progress including distance ran, speed at which the user is running, heart rate, and so on, in order to better tailor their workouts, associating the Nike brand with fitness and running (Olortegui, 2014).
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Finally, the American Red Cross has an app that sends ‘critical information’ on what needs to be done before, after, and during an emergency or disaster, associating their name with disaster and emergency relief and thereby making individuals more likely to donate to the organization that assisted them in their time of need (Shaw, 2013).
Each of these apps works to attempt to befriend their users in their own way, associating the product’s brand name with their targeted product, enhancing the likelihood of the individual purchasing the product or service at a later date, thanks to the usefulness of the company.
- Barry, J. (2013). Why apps will jump-start ‘friend-of-mine’ marketing. [online] Retrieved from: http://blog.socialcontentmarketing.com/why-apps-will-jump-start-friend-of-mine-marketing/ [Accessed: 26 Jan 2014].
- Shaw, C. (2013). Safety information in the palm of your hand. [online] Retrieved from: http://master.mediaplanet.com/us/disaster-and-emergency/red-cross-mobile-apps-putting-safety-information-in-the-palm-of-your-hand [Accessed: 26 Jan 2014].
