# Forum to support brand: Yes or No?



## Titere (Sep 14, 2006)

Forum to support brand: Yes or No?

Ok experts, I need your advice here.
I have a brand for funny/offensive shirts in Spanish. I have been testing the name and people like it as it fits the idea very well. The thing is that I have been thinking about making a forum with that name too. The forum will not be about the shirt brand only. I mean, I will promote there and there will be a section for it, but I am thinking about making a forum about funny stuff, jokes, crazy news and pics. I would also have sections for parties and events, movies and music and and general stuff my target market like. So basically, I want to have a community of people looking to have fun, meet new people, know about upcoming events, etc. and at the same time promote the brand.

What keeps me thinking is that I dont want them to think they are buying a promo shirt. I mean, I wouldnt buy a shirt with the Pepsi logo on it, I expect to get it for free as I am promoting a cola brand. You know what I mean. The difference is that my shirts wont have a promotional look, nor will have an url or anything like it, just cool, funny/offensive designs.

What do you think? Will it be helpful or not?

Joe


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Running a t-shirt business and running a forum are two completely separate jobs which each require a lot of time and effort to maintain. I'm sure Rodney can put in 2 cents there. 

I have never seen a _successful_ forum run by a company for its customers. If someone out there has an example for me, I'd love to see it. All the ones I have seen are ghost towns or on their way to becoming one.

Most forums are focused on a very narrow topic and not just "general fun". Think about what your topic is - most of what you described is already covered by social networking sites like Facebook. Funny news/topics/pics websites are a dime a dozen. 

I think the most successful forums are the ones that focus on one single niche and nothing else. Say, t-shirts. Or parenting. Or raising tiny poodles. You get the idea. If you can provide that, you can drag people away from social networking sites because your forum is unique and necessary. Otherwise, I'd say forget it, you will just waste your time, a few customers will sign up and be annoyed when you close the whole thing in a few months because no one else has joined.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Jasonda said:


> I'm sure Rodney can put in 2 cents there.


Very much the man to talk to I suspect 



Jasonda said:


> I have never seen a _successful_ forum run by a company for its customers.


The forum on Rodney's t-shirt site has over fifteen hundred members and over twenty thousand posts. I've never used it, but going by the numbers it looks like a success.

I agree they rarely work though, and it just strikes me as too much effort to keep on top of (get a few spammers on there and you've got yourself a liability on your hands, not a promotional tool).


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## HawgDawg (Jul 11, 2008)

Hey Joe you know my feeling

Dawg


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Forums are very hard to start, hard to publicize and hard to maintain. Just keeping the spam off them can be a full time job. 

If you're already working to build a t-shirt brand, taking on a forum as well may be way too much work.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Solmu said:


> The forum on Rodney's t-shirt site has over fifteen hundred members and over twenty thousand posts. I've never used it, but going by the numbers it looks like a success.


Good example! It's also a good example of a forum focused on _very specific_ topic which relates to the brand. Again, I think this is the key to any successful forum.

Joe, if you can come up with something like that, it might be worth it. Otherwise stick to the t-shirts and spend you time on more profitable marketing ideas.


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## Titchimp (Nov 30, 2006)

There is nothing worse than an empty forum..


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## Girlzndollz (Oct 3, 2007)

Joe, why not have a forum ON your website that your customers can enjoy? Have your merchadise listed as usual, and then an additional link to a forum. Godaddy.com, who hosts my site on website tonight, offers me 5 pages with my hosting package. One of those pages can be a "forum". Bonus is, if it is searchable by google, the content may help others find it on the web as well, and lead them to your products. I think a forum or blog that goes along with your niche can be an excellent idea.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I have never seen a _successful_ forum run by a company for its customers. If someone out there has an example for me, I'd love to see it. All the ones I have seen are ghost towns or on their way to becoming one.


Would the threadless community/blogs be considered a successful forum run by a t-shirt brand?



> The forum on Rodney's t-shirt site has over fifteen hundred members and over twenty thousand posts. I've never used it, but going by the numbers it looks like a success.


I don't think I'd call the forum on my t-shirt brand a success (not talking about t-shirtforums here ) It's probably closer to ghost town than I would like. I learned a lot about what NOT to do there.

I But it does sort of go along the same lines of what Joe is talking about (and what Jasonda is talking about).

If you can fill a specific niche, then it has the potential to work. Instead of "funny stuff" or "movies", I would focus on "events" and local themes. That might give you a better niche to work from and it's possible it could start to cover other areas later.

But Jasonda is very right, running a forum takes a lot of time and effort to really be done right. It does have the potential to take valuable time away from your t-shirt business.


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## Jasonda (Aug 16, 2006)

Rodney said:


> Would the threadless community/blogs be considered a successful forum run by a t-shirt brand?


Another good example.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Jasonda said:


> Another good example.


I just thought of another one (shirt.woot.com)

The difference in both those examples (shirt.woot and threadless) is that they are "crowdsourcing" their t-shirt designs, so part of the "community" is the "crowd" and community is kind of part of the idea of "crowdsourcing"


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## Titere (Sep 14, 2006)

Thank you all!
Jasonda, I think you are right in many ways. I know that creating and maintaining a forum is not easy. As I ready your posts I am starting to think that if I want a forum it would be best to focus in a niche market (of something I know and enjoy), make a forum about that and then offer t shirts and decals about that.

Rodney, thank you for the examples. The only differences about them and me is that they are BIG and Im small and that they have many people and are very well organized (I suppose) and Im a one person "company". I think I can do it, but probably later when Im well established.

Kelly, your idea is cool. I could have a small forum in a regular t shirt site were customers can talk about the products, leave feedback, post pics of them wearing the shirts and talk about what they want to see on shirts.

Dawg, I know you want to join 

Thank you all. I think Im looking at it from a different angle.

Joe


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