What’s not to like about Steven Singer?

Ever hear of Steven Singer Jewelers? I’ve probably heard this company’s quirky radio commercials a thousand times and never thought anything about them. Until it finally hit me this morning just how bizarre Steve Singer’s marketing strategy is. You see, Steven Singer’s web site is www.ihatestevensinger.com. And, whether the company  is simply promoting discounted jewelry (as it always does) or special 14 carat gold dipped roses around Valentine’s day (yuck), this web URL is proudly highlighted over and over again in all of its advertising.

I found it quite odd that a company would promote such a negative statement about itself. So, I Googled Steven Singer to see if anything is being written about the URL name and then went to its Web site. I couldn’t find much being written, but the “About Us” section of Steven Singer’s Web site gave me what I was looking for. It seems that founder Steven Singer is quite a successful entrepreneur and businessman. He started the company at an early age and then expanded it in the Philadelphia area not long after. He’s won countless awards and has played a key civic role in the community as well. The positioning doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but Steven seems to feel that with each successful move he’s made, it’s a great reason for people to hate him (i.e. when people say, “Don’t you just hate the guy?”). Pretty weak, eh?

Regardless, his contrarian strategy to create a lot of noise around this negative (completely comical) Web site URL seems to work pretty well because the company keeps expanding. I only call this point out because it shows how sometimes counter intuitive, yet very creative marketing strategies can actually work when implemented the right way. With Steven Singer, he actually has Howard Stern preaching the company’s accolades, all while he makes fun of the URL ihatestevensinger.com. That’s caught on with Howard’s fans big time.

Who knows. Maybe this will start a trend and we’ll see Apple create www.ihateipod.com , or Disney promote www.idespisemickeymouse.com. Well… I can’t see this really becoming a trend (and I wouldn’t recommend it to any clients.) But, if it works for Steven Singer, that’s great.

Comments

[Michael D.]

In this economy, neither employee nor agency would ever sanction a move as risky as this. Steven enjoys the benefit of entrepreneurship - if this doesn't work, no one will fire him. Steven is prescient too. A 30 minute walk down 47th Street in Manhattan and you realize what a commoditized, over-crowded, confusing business jewelry has become. He cut through the clutter in an irreverent, memorable, and dare I say inviting way. Who can refute that strategy?

[Sam Ford]

This has certainly gotten people talking over the years. I was recently at an event where the topic of this ad campaign came up. Comments ranged from people feeling it was brilliant to others who really do hate Steven Singer and were especially irritated by the campaign, because they felt the service at the store was terrible. I first stumbled across this a couple of years ago and wrote about it over at the C3 blog: http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2007/03/two_interesting_ad_campaigns_i.php

My cousin and his wife saw the billboard when they were driving up to visit me in Cambridge. It leads me to wonder: by having billboards all over the interstate, it's a great way to capture the attention of people just passing through. But how does the local jewelry store capitalize on that outside interest? I am not aware of anything in their business model that really makes use of this "surplus audience" of those outside their retail area...

[Ed Moed]

Well, one thing is for sure, people talk about the bizarre nature of this campaign. So, it definitely draws attention to the company. Can't talk to it's customer service, but I bet the awareness has helped business.