More on operations as marketing.
I wrote a little while ago about how company operations are starting to subsume the marketing function. Eric pointed out that the recent announcement from American Apparel that they are putting RFID tags on all their garments is another reminder of this fact.
In fact, American Apparel has been a shining example of how an operational decision can become a marketing idea. Its “vertically-integrated, sweatshop free” manufacturing has arguably been more effective at growing its business than its seedy advertising (although the exploits of its founder could top both of these).
It is strange then, that AA appears to view the inclusion of RFID as an simply an inventory management tool. They are quoted on Websitegear saying:
“American Apparel takes pride in being a vertically-integrated manufacturer, distributor and retailer of fashionable, high-quality basics, and we embrace any technology that allows us to further realize this vision to better serve our customers,” said
I think AA have an opportunity to take this a lot further by building a website on top of the RFID tracking that exposes the data to its customers as well. For example:
RFID could let me know who at the LA factory made my garment and then let me see its trip to my store.
Adding a simple carbon calculator on top of this would enable AA to show that its products also have lower carbon footprints than its competition.
These data could make celebrities of its employees – imagine if a certain worker’s pieces became more sought after?
Additionally there are a host of post-sale opportunities for allowing customers to create communities around the clothing.
Or enable services like outfit configurators based on the AA garments that you own.
The opportunities are quite literally limitless, I’ll be eagerly watching to see what happens.