I'm constantly surprised by how evangelical some customers are about products they like. Just like those people who provide a stream of negative reviews/comments, there are those who provide the counter-balance and take every opportunity to say great things about companies & brands.
During a recent Forrester Marketing presentation I heard about Jen Segrest from Ohio. She runs a website dedicated to all things IKEA in Ohio. She even invented the idea of Saint Tokig, the patron saint of IKEA.
This would be a fascinating case study on evangelistic company blogs in itself, were it not for these more interesting facts:
- IKEA contacted her to ask that she remove all mention of IKEA from her website and URL (Apparently because she was getting a higher search place than a lot of their activity)
- IKEA declined her application for a job in one of their stores.
A lot of companies would have to pay a lot of money for this sort of marketing/PR activity. Its more than a little daft to try and stop this positive activity.
