Rethinking Red House Furniture's Viral Marketing Strategy
When I was perusing my RSS headlines today, I noticed one from Furniture Today about Red House Furniture and their (in)famous viral marketing YouTube video (if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!). I was curious about what the writer had to say on the subject.
According to the article, Red House "ranks highly" in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), presumably because of the video, but a quick look at any common search terms shows that they don't. Still, I'm sure they've gotten a great deal of attention as a result of the video, especially locally, and there is nothing quite like saturating your local market, particularly in the furniture industry, since many people want to see the item(s) in person before buying. Given our customer base, I'm not convinced that a viral YouTube video would be the right move for English Classics, but it certainly is funny to think about what we could cook up.
What I found most interesting in the article lay in the comments section. I was frankly surprised to see that anyone was apparently disgusted by the video. One person remarks, "Our forefathers must have been insane when they brought North Carolina into the Union," while another points to the video as "a prime example of what is wrong with the furniture industry." Now, every marketing strategy has its place, but Red House Furniture certainly doesn't seem to be selling top-dollar items, so I don't see the harm in appealing to their customers: people who have a sense of humor and who like to be entertained. If only every furniture store could find a way to turn a customer base into a happy, entertained audience, perhaps our ailing industry would find more success in the 21st century.
