Affordably Connecting with Customers: Mimoco Case Study

With companies throughout the world tightening their budgetary belts, marketing programs are usually among the first to be targeted for cutbacks. However, marketing is only a "cost" when it's not effective. When done right, marketing enhances a company's brand identity, generates excitement among customers and prospects, and leads to profitable sales. The key is in understanding customers, having a compelling story about your company’s product or service that will generate interest, and a strategy for telling that story. This series will highlight the leaders of several local companies to determine best practices for budget-conscious marketing in these troubled times. While each has used a different tactic, the central theme is the same: connecting with your customers is an effective marketing investment that pays dividends in customer loyalty and growth.

As the CEO of Mimoco, a producer of innovative designer USB flash drives known as Mimobots, Evan Blaustein worries about how to inexpensively keep the brand current and relevant in the minds of customers. A small company with limited financial resources, Mimoco has eschewed most traditional media-based campaigns in lieu of grassroots marketing efforts that enable customers to directly engage with the product and personalize their experience. In addition to Facebook groups and Twitter tweets, Blaustein describes a recent design contest:

“We invited the community to submit artwork that would ultimately be turned into a product, using an oversized, cap-less vinyl toy version of a Mimobot. Customers would buy the blank vinyl form, paint it, and then send in photos of their work. This form of contest accomplished several major goals: by using a different form factor rather than the schematic for a real Mimobot, Mimoco was able to maintain its trade secret Mimobot design. Furthermore, requiring contestants to physically paint a 3D form served to narrow the applicant pool to those who had significant painting skills, rather than forcing us to pore through thousands of digitally manipulated entries. Finally, since the 3D form had to be purchased in order to participate in the contest, Mimoco was able to create an additional revenue stream apart from the Mimobot line.”

After receiving the entries, Mimoco narrowed the pool to 20 finalists, which customers then voted on to determine the 6 winning designs. This voting mechanism not only kept entrants engaged with the company website, constantly returning to check the status of the leading designs, it also encouraged finalists to lobby their friends, family and other contacts for votes, thus driving more traffic to the Mimoco site. The six winners received $1500 as well as some Mimobots, but the IP for the designs became property of Mimoco. This “Artist’s Series” of Mimobots continues its popularity even a year after the contest, holding its own against licensed character series such as Star Wars and Halo. In fact, contest winner “Golden Panda”, pictured below, continues to be the company’s top selling Mimobot.

Given the success of this contest, Mimoco plans another artist series promotion in the near future, only this time, the schematic as well as the submissions will all be digital. Letting go of some of the IP control will enable far more applicants with digital art programs to enter their designs into the contest. Blaustein expects entries to number in the thousands, thus expanding the reach of the Mimobot brand beyond its initial niche market. It is a tradeoff he believes will ultimately pay handsomely, enabling the company to further grow revenues as well as its customer base. As Blaustein says, “It’s hard letting go, but sometimes you have to step out of the process and let customer decide what is the best.”