The Life of a Brand Ambassador…

Posted on March 10th, 2008 by Spike and currently 12 commenting.

The good folks at the Word of Mouth Marketing Association have asked us to step in and contribute a guest blog for the WOMMA Word today. And instead of blathering on as we are prone to do, we asked one of the Lead Brand Ambassadors of Fiskars (a client of ours), also known as a Lead Fiskateer (and around here, one of the Fab 4) to write about what being a Brand Ambassador means to her. So ladies and gentlemen, I give you Stephenie Hamen:

Two years ago, I found myself searching for some information on the Fiskars website when I saw an icon off to the side that said, “Become a Fiskars Brand Warrior.”  Now, as a crafter and avid fan of their product, my curiosity was peaked. I clicked on it, and my life has never been the same.

Soon after I applied online, I had my face-to-face interview with the staff at Brains on Fire and was subsequently hired for a groundbreaking program in the crafting industry – the Fiskateers.  Four women who love to craft and scrap from across the country were hired and I am one of them.  The day I got the call was the day that I felt like I had won the lottery.

To totally understand why I was so excited to be working as a Brand Ambassador for Fiskars, I explained it to my husband, who is a golfer, like this:  Ping is going to hire you to go out and play golf.  They are going to provide you with all the latest and greatest products, and each time they come up with something new, you get that, too.  You just go and golf.  You don’t have to be good or even keep score.  You just have to love the game.  They are also going to give you stuff to give away to other golfers to try and to keep and use.  They are going to pay for all of this golf, fly you to play golf in other states, and they are also going to give you a paycheck…  would you turn that down?

For those of us who do this, it is not a job.  It is a passion.  I don’t sell products, no matter what anyone thinks or says.  We sell nothing, because we are not sales reps. I am a crafter first and a Fiskars employee second.  They have never asked us to say we like something we don’t.  They have asked our honest opinion of ideas and products so many times it would scare most other companies.  They have let us voice our concerns about products on the blog and publicly.  They have never censored our responses or our thoughts.  They have made changes to products based on our feedback as a community.  They let us share the bad along with the good.  They have brought us in and made us part of their team, but not in a way that compromises our thoughts, ideas, or art.  We are able to post projects and ideas using products other than Fiskars and are not limited to just their tools and consumable lines.  How many companies do you know would do that?  I don’t know of many, but this works – and it works well!

In less than two years of active registration, we are at almost 4000 unpaid Fiskateers worldwide.  There is something about Fiskars allowing us to take some ownership of their company that has people worldwide proudly sporting and showing off their one-of-a-kind engraved scissors.  They are a company that not only listens to, but embraces their customers, artists, crafters, and creative minds from every walk of life.

I live and breathe this program.  Hundreds of people have thanked us for being the first truly positive, open, and inviting crafting site on the web.  Newcomers never feel shunned, but are welcomed in with open arms.  First time scrappers are not afraid to post their work as they are on other sites because we raise people up and encourage them here.  The point of this whole movement is to inspire people to share their love of crafting and to share their passion for creating, no matter what their medium, their skill level, or their talent.  And, even at 4000, it still feels like a small, friendly, close-knit community.

It is about building community.  It is about learning from each other.  It is about inspiring people to try something new.  It is about friendship.  It is about crafters and scrappers coming together.

While it is sponsored and supported by Fiskars, at the end of the day, it belongs to us.  All 4000 of us.  I am proud to be Fiskateer #003, a number I wear with pride.  I wear my orange shoes, my orange shirts, my apron, and my love of this community everywhere I go.  This is not a job, it is a way of life, a passion, a dedication, and a commitment to bring crafters together.

This is the life of a Fiskars Brand Ambassador – a life that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

Stephenie Hamen is one of four Lead Fiskateers and is a part-time, paid employee of Fiskars. She resides in Chicago, IL with her husband and two sons and is also a teacher of hearing-impaired children. Oh, and she’s a Cubs fan. A big one. For full transparency, Brains on Fire asked her to write this first-person perspective of her front-line experiences as a brand ambassador.

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