Building A Following With A Sense Of Humor

From StartUpJournal

Business owner Robert Wolfe has an offbeat sense of humor.

When he opened his first outdoor-gear and apparel store in 1992, it was papered with posters carrying captions such as: “If you’re not good at playing Frisbee, don’t play in front of a girl.”

Oddball one-liners like this one can be found throughout his company’s Web site and catalogs.The marketing strategy is “a reflection of our personalities, as opposed to a grand plan that was executed,” says Mr. Wolfe, a 35-year-old former camping guide whose company Moosejaw Inc. now has seven stores in Michigan and Illinois.

When employees and customers began submitting photos of themselves wearing Moosejaw-brand clothing for publication, the company obliged and now regularly features them in its print and online catalogs. The retailer receives about three customer photo submissions daily, says Mr. Wolfe.

Traffic to Moosejaw’s Web site has steadily increased — there were 943,000 unique visitors in October, compared to 557,000 the same month a year prior, according to Mr. Wolfe. The Madison Heights, Mich., retailer receives a rising flow of email with suggestions and favorable comments, says Mr. Wolfe.

Inspired by the feedback, in 2002 the company created a new section on its Web site: “Moosejaw Madness.” We wanted to communicate with our customers on a level that’s not product-oriented,” says Mr. Wolfe. This section has playful features, such as “Daily Remark,” a brief commentary on random topics, such as the countries that consume the most beer per capita, and “Dating Girl,” a daily reader-advice column. There’s also an online gallery for which customers can send photos showing clothing or gear bearing the Moosejaw logo.

Earlier this year, games offering coupons to winners were added. These include “Rock, Paper, Scissors,” an email adaptation of the children’s game, that awards winners a discount coupon for Moosejaw-brand products, such as sweatshirt bearing the company logo. About 25 entries are submitted daily, Mr. Wolfe estimates. He says the idea was based on a similar contest that he’d launched on a whim that drew about 100 participants.

Moosejaw’s total annual sales have grown each year since its founding, with the steepest increase expected in 2005, says Mr. Wolfe. About 65% of total sales this year are Web-based, he adds. He attributes the company’s growth in part to its marketing, given the rising sales and reader mail. “Once we did our first catalog in 2002 and got feedback, we realized it was something unique and that it would work,” explains Mr. Wolfe.

The cost of its fun-style marketing? The 100-employee company has a six-person marketing team. While the entrepreneur keeps a notebook at his side to jot down quips, the other marketers each spend about two hours a day writing ad copy, he says. They also devote part of that time to replying to each of the 750 customer emails the company receives a day on average, he says. These include game responses, as well as the typical customer-service questions.

Some of Moosejaw’s slogans have proved to be duds, Mr. Wolfe admits. The worst: “You’re not my real dad!” for a Father’s Day sale. “We got scathing emails from people about that,” he says. The copy was quickly removed from the site.