by Amelie Schröder, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany.
Everyone is confronted with adverting everyday. It doesn’t matter whether it is in print media, social media, or TV ads. In this blog post, I want to focus on advertising using social media. Big brands use influencer cooperations, but have you ever thought whether there are other, more creative ways of digital marketing? Well, I have. And that is why I want to share the example of Lockcard with you. Maybe the company surfaced on your For You Page as well. If not, let me give you a short overview of the company and its marketing strategy. Lockcard was founded in 2019 by Aaron Rau and Jonas Weber. They started a company that sells modular slim and light cardholder wallets. Their marketing strategy includes YouTube and TikTok videos. These videos contain the growth process of the startup from the prototype to their pitch at the “Höhle der Löwen”(the German version of Shark Tank). Every step is shown, even the failures.
But what makes that form of advertisement interesting? Well, this strategy is not only a marketing strategy. It is also a form of managing the company. Because Users are leaving comments, it is a very good way to gain feedback and new ideas. Because it is a direct and free opportunity for feedback, it is cost-effective. And that makes it ideal for smaller businesses. The only thing it takes is time, a camera, and consistency. This form of marketing is also known as value co-creation (VCC). This is a process of combining a company’s resources and customers’ ideas and needs directly given by the customer to create a new product. While combining these resources, the customer is sort of a free developing department (Steinhardt, 2020). Companies engage in dialogue with customers. Therefore, advertising is no longer a one-way street (.
This is a new opportunity to create a brand identity and community. Because of the feedback culture and the possibility to co-create an emotional connection towards the product is established. In the end, it could have been your idea (STEINHARDT, 2020).
But of course, every strategy has its pros and cons. In Lockcard’s case, that was their brand face. The founder’s brother gave the company and the YouTube channel his face. Many connected the company with him. The brand identity is related to his face. That is also the reason why many people did not like it when he left the company and threatened to stop watching the videos, which are essential for algorithms and, therefore, for view numbers, which are connected to the effectiveness of the strategies (Fuchs, 2021).
In the end, I want to leave the floor to you. What do you think about this strategy? Is there a different aspect of this topic and strategy I completely missed? I am happy to read your feedback. Do you think it is necessary to have a whole module about that topic?
Thank you for reading.
References:
Fuchs, C. (2021). Soziale Medien und Kritische Theorie: Eine Einführung (2nd ed.). UVK Verlag. https://books.google.de/books?hl=de&lr=&id=2KUeEQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Fuchs:+Soziale+Medien+und+Kritische+Theorie,&ots=Gobd_GCW1F&sig=NMhqhCFdkzb9qdNlmyL32Ame2ys&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Fuchs%3A%20Soziale%20Medien%20und%20Kritische%20Theorie%2C&f=false
Steinhardt, F. K. (2020). Value co-creation: Eine Analyse von Treibern und Gestaltungsansätzen für B2B- vs. B2C-Kunden. Junior Management Science, 5(1), https://jums.ub.uni-muenchen.de/JMS/article/view/5065/3269
