now that’s smart marketing: BOB strollers

As you know, when I find something good, I sing like a canary. I simply can’t hold back. This is a twofer, a 2 in 1; hits my professional and my personal side. Drumroll…it’s a stroller.

I love when people do it RIGHT.

Inspired Marketing

The BOB company has a brilliant tagline: Built by BOB. Powered by Mom. But taglines are easy (when you have a good copywriter), it’s what you do with them that counts. BOB is doing many good things including a full embrace of social media:

1. They have a blog that they update on a regular basis with news, company info, product info, contests, customer feedback…
2. The current contest promises a stroller for the best giggling baby video – culling customer communication and web traffic.
3. You can ‘Join the Conversation’ – giving you access to your BOB community.
4. BOB made a fantastically hysterical and viral video about their strollers that they have on their website and on YouTube.
5. The quality and user-interface (UI) of their website is top-level.
6. The writing throughout the site is simply superb – it has personality, good information and makes you want to get up and yell, ‘Yes! I want to be a part of this!’ without sounding cheesey.
7. Besides the YouTube vid, they have several high quality, information-laden videos (so it’s not all talk, they actually show you why their strollers are so good).
8. BOB is building more than strollers – this is a life-style and they’re proving it with sections on health and partnerships with Stroller Strides and Ironman.
9. They (practically) gave me a stroller to review in exchange for my thoughts on this blog, Twitter, Facebook and my other social media networks – understanding the strength of the mommy blogger is smart, smart business.

…and they have the goods to stand on

If you haven’t heard, I have 2 toddlers. I love them more than life, but I’m sick of carrying them around. Most recently, we survived by pushing them in a double stroller by Baby Jogger. To be honest, we never liked it. Hard to manage, hugely awkward to fold and put in our car, made our backs hurt, the seats were huge for the kids (leaving them to flop around especially on the trails)…I could go on and on.

Then, two weeks ago, the metal frame of the stroller snapped. In half. Just like that, no big event or cause, just snapped. We tried to get our money back, but alas we didn’t have proof of purchase (hmmm, well, we bought it 2 kids and 1 house ago – you do the math!). We were left with no alternative, so we went searching for our next stroller. Our dream stroller.

We found it fast at BOB’s. Of course, because I’m me, I was taken by the marketing show I just listed above…but it’s not just good looking fluff, there is real information that made us say, ‘I want that one!’

Now, we’ve had our duallie Sport Utility Stroller for a week…and it’s amazing.

1. I think it’s jet propelled. It used to be that the person walking the dogs went ahead of the person pushing the stroller because the old stroller was so big and awkward you had to go slow. Now the person with the stroller has to go first because it is so darn fast and efficient. I’m not kidding – I got left behind yesterday because I was going too slow.

2. My back doesn’t hurt. Somehow, they designed this stroller so that when you hold and push it, you’re in the correct ergonomic position.

3. When you fold it up, lift it and unfold it, it does NOT hit you in the shins. Yes, the Baby Jogger did. Every time.

4. Our kids fit in their seats. They aren’t sliding around like they did in the old stroller.

5. Safety. BOB put a feature in that actually holds the seat of the stroller down. So if you go over a bump, the kid and the seat don’t pitch forward.

6. No words. I don’t know how to explain this in a word or two: the stroller is just so ‘tight’. With our old stroller, we felt like we were driving a big old 1960’s station wagon that could come unglued at any moment. The BOB stroller is so compact, everything moves and works together – which makes it feel light and totally easy to manage (like my Subaru Imprezza).

7. Shocks. This Sport Utility Stroller has shocks creating a smooth ride for the kids – we off-road over rocks, roots and other natural paraphernalia.

8. Thinner. I’m talking width – this double stroller fits through our front door. Now, that is amazing.

9. It’s beautiful, of course.

10. Everytime we use it, we discover something else that we love.

11. Our kids love it…and who wants to deal with screaming kids in a stroller? Here’s a picture of them playing in the stroller in the house (they aren’t strapped for safety, just for fun – fyi). Silas, the dog, had to be in the picture and wants you all to know that because this stroller is more compact than the other one, he can get around it with his log-sized sticks, and for that, he gives thanks…as do we.