Cha-Ching: Michelle Obama Loves J. Crew, and Vice Versa

Before the election, Michelle Obama went on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. Amid the Sarah Palin “clothes-gate” scandal, Leno asked about the origins of Michelle’s yellow ensemble. “Actually, this is a J. Crew ensemble,” she replied. “You can get some good stuff online.”

J. Crew could not have asked for better promotion, and now they’re cashing in. Just look at the Google results for “michelle obama”:

Simple, effective, topical, and piggybacking on America’s hottest brand (the Obamas), it’s the Holy Grail of paid search ads.

In this tough economic time, even online retail (previously an area of meteoric growth) is taking a major hit. But connecting your brand with America’s hottest couple — the Obamas — is sure to pay off. Numerous studies have reinforced the importance of branding during recessions. As soon as young women have some extra money to spend, they are likely to head to J. Crew, rather than its competitors. After all, the future First Lady shops there.

Social Shopping - Coming to a Browser Near You

Taking just a moment out of your busy holiday season for a shopping fix…

Social Shopping as a phenomena is getting more and more press as we (as marketers) start quantifying the results of what we (as shoppers) have instinctively known for awhile – personal product vouching means something. Quite a lot, in fact.

What’s also interesting is that it’s through the social-review mechanism, finally, where the internet begins to trump that “but you can’t hold it in your hand” advantage that in-store experiences offer and websites don’t. Yes, you can hold it in your hand in the store. But you can be led to a product you never would have dreamed about through social review networks such as wists.com, and you can have a tribe of commentary making you feel comfortable (or uncomfortable) about that purchase through product reviews.

Who does a great job of combining product reviews, customer-generated content and drives massive loyalty/participation and tribe-building as a result? Threadless.com - check out all the pictures users submit of themselves wearing the products they bought. Doesn’t that tell you more about the fit of that shirt than any measurement listing? AND doesn’t it make you want to be part of that group?

And check out the direction I sincerely believe the future of online shopping is headed: wists.com. Warning: you may need to save this for lunch; once you start browsing it’s hard to stop. Which is exactly the point. Christmas season is coming up, people. Time to shop. Let’s see where this social train is headed.

Read more about social shopping in this marketingvox.com article.