• Hanging out with the Fiskateers

    Posted on February 21st, 2008 by and currently 9 commenting.

    fiskateers_dinner.jpgIt’s hard to believe that it’s only been a little over 20 months since Fiskars embraced their customers and co-created a little community called the Fiskateers. Last week co-worker Carrie Woodward and I attended the Craft and Hobby Associations Winter Convention in Anaheim, CA. This was my second time attending CHA and IMO it was a very insightful opportunity to watch a brand ‘Fiskars’ and their fans ‘The Fiskateers’ working together on many levels during CHA week.

    Last season’s CHA was really the first big event that the lead Fiskateers (Stephanie, May, Cheryl, and Holly) played a large role for Fiskars. Working the Fiskars booth demo-ing products, creating make and takes, and meeting other Fiskars fans. Twenty months of the Fiskateers community maturing was showcased at CHA by the partnering of a brand and its ambassadors.

    Tuesday night I flew into Anaheim just in time to catch the Fiskateers dinner, the little get together of Fiskars staff and a few Fiskateers grew into a party of 25 Fiskateers. We all shared hugs and stories and tons of picture taking.

    Wednesday morning was why I really went to Anaheim, Fiskars was hosting a breakfast show and tell with the Fiskateers. The show and tell was Fiskars product engineers… aka Fiskaneers having discussions with the Fiskateers about new and old products, and they wanted to hear their problems with crafting tools. I know its to early to say that Fiskars benefited from those discussions. But several things were very obvious. The Fiskaneers really enjoyed it, the Fisakteers really enjoyed it too. It was refreshingly authentic and it made me proud to be a part of the BOF team that has been along this journey.

    After breakfast our client Suzanne and I headed over to the convention for an overdose of hall after hall of crafting exhibits. When we arrived at the Fiskars booth a collection of Fiskars designers, employees and Fiskateers were getting ready for the final day of the convention. I decided to jump in and get my hands dirty, making make and takes with Spider Girl… aka Fiskateer #9. I then switch over to Wendy Joe… aka Fiskateer #99. Besides finding out how much I suck at crafting, I really enjoyed watching Spider Girl and Wendy Joe interacting with other crafters. The interesting thing about Wendy Joe and Spider Girl was there they were the face of several Fiskars product brands to hundreds of people and they’re not the ‘lead ambassadors.’ Due to circumstances out of their control (having a baby, illnesses) only two of the lead Fiskateers Stephanie #3 and May #4 were able to attend the Anaheim CHA. So the community stepped in Fiskateers #9, #99, and #328 worked the Fiskars booth sharing their love of crafting making projects with convention attendees.

    Kudos to Fiskars for allowing make and take projects to be front and center of the booth experience. Compared to other booths the Fiskars stations seemed to always be rockin! And with really cool, thoughtful projects I can see why. I walked around and tried many different projects, but nothing compared to the hands on experience at Fiskars.

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress Scott White

    If I understand this program it basically works like this:

    Fiskars built a blog and hired 3 people to blog for it. They blog about scrapbooking on a regular basis. Is that it?

  • http://brainsonfire.com Spike

    Thanks for the comment, Scott!

    The Fiskateer program is actually an ambassador movement lead by four lead (paid) Fiskateers who lead a community of 4000 (to date) volunteers in spreading the goodwill of the company.

    If you’d like to learn more about it, there are many articles and blog posts out there about the movement which contain some great insight, including:

    MIT Sloan Review

    The Viral Garden

    Markting Profs

    Brand Autopsy

    ComputerWorld Magazine

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress Scott White

    Interesting. Was scrap booking their primary vertical or was it a smaller vertical? Fiskars offers many products outside of scrap booking right?

    Why don’t they extend this into more markets? 3 times sales activity says it may be a good idea?

  • geno

    Scott, crafting is around a 3 billion dollar a year industry. Scrapbooking is just one part of that hobby category. Fiskars understands that the Fiskateers is more than just product. I’m guessing but my guess is that only about 20% of the conversations in the Fiskateer community is actual product specific.

    As far as extending the Fiskateers into other markets, thankful Fiskars does not force anything into this community. The conversation is totally driven by the community and I think that’s a big reason why Fiskars has seen valuable benefits.

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress Scott White

    I wonder if this approach can be taken to a more broad area. Scrap booking is very niche. Could you see something like “graphic design” for instance. Where you had the same setup with the bloggers talking about graphic design for say Mac.

    Or do you see this as more of a very specific niche for it to work.

  • geno

    To make a blanket statement I think the Fiskars model, if you want to call it that definitely can work. But the pieces have to fit.

    Does the brand really want to have a two way conversation?

    Is the brand willing to allow customer to co-own the conversation flow?

    Are customers already having conversations around the brand or its products?

    Tons of fan communities exist without an ounce of internal-brand open conversation. Then you have brands like Harley-Davidson, Makers Mark, and Fiskars that have institionalized community into their brand culture.

    I could go on and on, the Fiskateers journey has been magical but it’s not a flash in the pan. Crafters talk alot just like Apple users, Mini drivers, and Jericho watchers… are the creators of those products ready to listen?

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress Scott White

    Good question. But maybe if you approach it with a diffrent angle it may work as well. If the brand was new (call it photography developers) maybe you go out and recruit experts in that field (photographers). Set up the website like the Fiskars model. Then introduce the new brand as a “sponsor” to the cause of photography. It may take longer to work but it could pay big dividends. The experts could talk about the company’s committment to them and how they see beyond the boundries, blah, blah, blah.

    What do you think?

  • geno

    Scott, I’m getting what your saying. I like the cause idea too.

    The Fiskateers community has created a caring community, it’s amazing to see where these real people have taken the community. Often what you get are things that we is marketers would never think of in a million years.

    To make a point about the Fiskateers, the Fiskateers on-line community is just apart of the story. The conversations and their off-line activities is where the real magic stuff happens.

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress Scott White

    Gotcha, I figured. So the cause idea plus some grass roots stuff (events, sponsorships, community involvement etc.) could work for a startup. Assuming the start up is truly dedicated to the “movement”.

    Good job with Fiskars. For me a pair of scissors is a pair of scissors (and I would kill myself if I had to scrap book). But I’m waaaaay far from their target market…

    So if you can get all these people loving a company the way you do then you sir have done a good job.

    I’ll still argue to the death with Spike though that this isn’t branding. I think this is an excellent case study for brand awareness, brand image and brand retention. On top of that you’ve aligned the brand identity with the brand image.

    So there, it’s freakin branding!