Zappos customers did a double take four months ago when the retailer announced it was selling “footmade” candles that smelled like athletic shoes. “You asked, we delivered!” Zappos wrote on its Instagram. The products were ultimately an April Fool’s joke, an example of how Zappos is trying to bring “fun and a little weirdness” into its marketing campaigns, its senior director of creative strategy told Modern Retail.
But that tagline — “You asked, we delivered!” — is also emblematic of Zappos’s wider strategy to resonate with shoppers. In addition to regularly collecting customer feedback, Zappos increasingly places actual Zappos shoppers at the center of its marketing efforts. Since 2017, Zappos (which is owned by Amazon) has also run a program called Zappos Adaptive that caters to those with physical or sensory disabilities. With these initiatives, Zappos is working to position itself as a company whose products can fit into anyone’s everyday life.
In February, Zappos rolled out a campaign highlighting runners who use Zappos products, including a new mom, a United States Marine Corps veteran and a women’s fitness instructor. Then, in the spring, Zappos partnered with the pet-sitting and pet-walking app Rover to curate shoe collections for dog walkers. These were broken down by activity level; Zappos recommended a Hoka sneaker for the “10k-steps-a-day walker” and an Ugg slipper for the “woke-up-and-ready-to-roll walker.”
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