SPRAWL TEES: MY FACEBOOK SUCCESS STORY:SALES UP 80%

Kingston, Jamaica-My cousin who is 25, hip and in the know had been harassing me for months to go on facebook, I was already on myspace and hi5, and had my own blog, so it seemed a bit useless to be on yet another networking site.

One day I decided to try it and have been hooked ever since. It has allowed me to reach a market that I would not normally reach. I am in my late 20s and don’t party as much as I used to, especially now that I have my own business.

With facebook, I have gotten to people in the target demographic ages 15-25, people who are in school, and most who don’t yet drive. I have a delivery service so I take the goods to them rather than they come to me.

WHAT I DID:

1. For the summer, I had a summer special, dropping the price of the t-shirts from JA$1500/US$21 to JA$1000/US$14.
2. Created a facebook group
3. Joined a lot of groups, now 173 to get involved, observe, and interact.
4. Then I invited who I thought might be interested in my product, mostly males in the 15-24 age group. Primarily U.W.I, Utech and high school students, male. They would then contact me either by phone or email if they wanted to purchase my t-shirts.
5. As a part of my strategy for my brand, we have a thing called Sprawl love, where people take photos of themselves in their sprawl shirts and send them to me.
6. I also used the market place function temporarily for my summer special but I wouldn’t say it increased sales.

My stuff isn’t in any stores for many reasons (a) I didn’t get a welcome response from store owners and (b) I didn’t like alot of the retail methods – my brand is unique in that it speaks to a specific audience: young people and facebook as well as the internet is filled with that age group. Many of my target market don’t go out, they are either too young or don’t drive so getting around is difficult. They are also enthralled by the idea that is sort of collectors item, not something mass produced that can be found in every t-shirt store in Kingston.

I do most of my marketing online because it is easier , I also work a 9-5 and don’t have the time to go out and promote my product, as I am also a single mother so when I get home its all about my family. My sales as a result of facebook have gone up 80%. Marketing on facebook has also opened up another market for me – Jamaicans that live in the US.

I am launching my online store very soon and I am trying to continue to keep the brand very exclusive and not in any major stores.

Kesi Gardnerwww.sprawltees.com