Back in the mid-1990s, budding online entrepreneur Morgan Dunn was registering domain names, trying to find the next big thing.
On a whim, he tried the words “wild ties.” Seeing that the phrase was available, he did a bit of research and found that not as many ties were available at retail as in the past.
He soon decided he’d found a niche, says Todd Herschberg, marketing manager at Neckties.com (www.neckties.com), a Garden Grove, CA online marketer of novelty and conventional men’s neckwear.
The company started in July 1996 on a budget of only $300, offering only one product line, Republican-themed neckties supplied by Electric Neckwear, a firm owned by “one of the right- wing radio talk show guys,” says Herschberg.
“It was just the first line of neckties that we got in our stable that we were selling,” says Herschberg, noting the firm has no political affiliations. “We’re not a political organization — they just happened to be the first ones to take a chance on us.”
Soon, the company started becoming known through word of mouth, flyers and other low-tech means, says Herschberg. “It was early enough in the day that back then it was build a Web site and people will show up,” he recalls.
“Basically, the growth was [fueled by] selling the novelty ties which you couldn’t find in the store,” he says. “And then as time went by you’d get more and more people saying ‘now that I’m coming here for this do you have this kind of tie? Do you have that kind of tie?'”
In addition to novelty neckwear such as sports team ties, the company now offers 7,000 ties and accessories including such brand names as BCBG, Kenneth Cole and Principessa.
Gradually, Neckties.com began stepping up its marketing efforts.
So far, it’s drawn about 100,000 active customers from the ranks of professional men ages 25 to 55 ands women of all ages who buy ties as gifts.
The company now relies on search engine marketing, e-mail marketing to draw traffic to the site and tries to hold onto them through online newsletters. The SEO seems to be working out OK: earlier this week, Neckwear.com ranked at number one on Google in both paid and organic listings under the word “neckties.”
In addition, Neckties.com has delved into affiliate marketing and at deadline is in the process of bringing in Doubleclick as an affiliate manager.
Early next year, Neckwear.com going to make its first foray into direct mail, says Herschberg.
“We have a direct mail campaign we’re going to be working on after the fourth quarter,” he says, noting that while the firm’s younger customers prefer to shop online, they tend to spend less than their older counterparts.
“People in 50s and 60s more likely to be swayed by combination of online and direct mail,” says Herschberg, conceding that the direct mail effort is “something of an experiment.”
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