Mark Wright’s Blog

With the recent Swine Flu outbreak, more people have taken to wearing surgical masks in the hopes they will not catch the disease.  A number of online companies are taking advantage of this by offering potential customers the opportunity to not only order the masks, but to make a statement.

These companies are designing mask with designs.  You can get everything from a pair of lips to a pig snout on them.  You can even go so far as to get a mask with a moustache and beard or the bottom half of a skull.

One business reports shipping out more than 2,500 masks in the past week to people wanting to protect themselves from the virus.  This ability comes from being able to market their products on the internet.  Since I am in the business of website design and search engine optimization, stories such as these fascinate me.  These stories also help to instill the concepts we preach to our clients on a regular basis.

Your customers have to be able to find you.

They have to like what they initially see.

They have to be compelled to purchase.

If you have a strong internet presence, you have the ability to reach so many more customers than with a simple brick and mortar storefront.  You can become a national or even international company if you so desire.  You also have the ability to change or expand your message or products almost instantaneously.  The designer masks are a perfect example of this sort of marketing. 

While some might say that this is exploiting a bad situation, I strongly disagree.  If they were the only people that had surgical masks and they were selling them for $100 a pop, I would say that is exploitation.  People are going to buy the masks.  If they want something with a little more flair, then they have that option.  They are meeting the needs of their customers.