Building a Champagne Brand on a Beer Budget

I remember boat shopping at a few marinas along the Connecticut shore about ten years ago and being told by more than a few dealers that my tastes far exceeded my budget. In fact, I'll never forget one woman telling me that I had champagne tastes and a beer budget.

Well, I finally did get a great boat at a fantastic price, but that's another story.

The boat shopping memory came to mind today as I was stepping up efforts to promote BoatNameGear without breaking the bank. Just today I announced two new ways for customers and potential customers to interact with the brand using social media sites FaceBook and Twitter.

It's not that I think these two tools are the end-all-be-all of marketing solutions. I simply want my brands to be where the customers want them to be. In less than few weeks since creating a FaceBook fan page for BoatNameGear, the page already has over 150 fans. And the best part is they all seem to interact with the brand and with each other. Moreover, the conversations and a contest on the page have already generated new product ideas that I've put into place and a few that are now in the pipeline. The twitter account started just today and I'm hoping for similar results.

And the other nice thing about of all this social media stuff is it's all free - if you have the time for it - leaving room in the budget for some "traditional" web advertising and local trade shows.

Sure there are other sites on the radar, Google Buzz, YouTube, Flickr, FourSquare.  But you can't be everywhere on a beer budget so I recommend you go slow and stick with what you know - expand to other properties when you can. Don't get sucked in to any of these communities and overdo it, as they can easily drain a resource that is just as valuable as money to a start-up business - your time.

Boating Times Long Island

It's always nice to see your store or products published in print magazines, even if that particular type of media is less relevant than it was as recently as ten years ago. It's not just because of the "free advertising" aspect, which is nice, but also because I personally think it adds a sort of legitimacy or validation to stores that are purely online such as BoatNameGear.com.

That's why I was pleased to see us get a mention in Boating Times Long Island (www.boatingtimesli.com). It looks like they did a "gifts for boaters" page in their winter issue and listed our Boat Name Gear store near the top. Better still, all the stores they included were contributed by their readers, so thank you to both the magazine and to the readers of the Boating Times Long Island for thinking of us!

BTW, I am happy to provide better product images or even samples to the press for future stories. Just email me at andrew (at) boatnamegear (dot com) if you're interested.

Feeling the love

I'm writing this post to thank all the media outlets that recommended BoatNameGear.com as a source for holiday gifts for boaters over the past several weeks.

The love started pouring in way back in October when Alan Sorum included BoatNameGear in his article, Unique Christmas Gifts for Boaters, which was posted in Alan's Boating & Sailing blog on Suite101, as well as in a print boating publication in Long Island.

Being featured in the Florida Keys Fishing Examiner warmed our hearts so that we felt like we were actually in the Florida Keys! Thanks to author Christy Johnson for chumming the waters on Black Friday with our special offers of the day.

The love continued with a story by Ericka Watson, the About.com Powerboating guide, who wrote, "By personalizing an item for the boater in your life, you are meeting a practical need with a personal touch." Ericka then went on to discuss BoatNameGear and the products we offer.

The most unexpected endorsement came from the printed Lake Wylie Pilot (Lake Wylie, S.C.), where the author included BoatNameGear's products among those "that as a boater myself I would love to have." A similar story appeared in a blog that included BoatNameGear in their "Top 10 Christmas Gift Ideas for Carolina Boaters."

If we missed someone, please post it here. And thanks to all the writers, bloggers, twitterers (tweeters?) and facebookers who helped get the word out about what great holiday gifts can be found at BoatNameGear.

We're doing our best to live up to all of your recommendations.

I only hope that the high expectations of some of our recent customers are a result of great service that they've received from us in the past. I further hope that we meet or exceed those expectations - in quick service and quality, personalized products. It's too late to get any more personalized gear from our store, but you can still get a gift certificate with all the thoughtfulness of our gear and the flexibility to buy and receive the gift right up through Christmas Eve.

Happy Holidays everybody!