Grown Up Thinking

I’m a huge fan of what Threadless stands for. They were in on the crowdsourcing game from the very start and ensured that the tees they produced had an audience ready to buy them. Fast forward, and other breakthrough fashion brands are ready to follow their lead.

Inc. Magazine recently published an article showing how Modcloth, an online clothing retailer, has tasked consumers with choosing the fashions they’d love to see on the site. This, quite frankly, makes everyone happy. Customers get the gear they want, and ModCloth benefits from taking the guesswork out of buying and creating an even more loyal fanbase.

Mass retailers could take a cue from this and build deeper community by inviting consumers to participate in the buying process through voting, commenting, sharing and demanding a specific product. While sites like Polyvore do a great job of allowing consumers to create and share a look, a deeper level of demand and exclusivity could be achieved. Why not let fashionistas reserve an item before it hits shelves (or screens) and receive a group discount for doing so?

By creating a group savings structure similiar to Groupon.com,  retailers could project inventory needs, thus eliminating a surplus and obligatory price slashing at the end of the season. Those who agreed to buy the product upfront win too, thanks to a savings perk.

The force and immediacy of social media could only amplify demand further through the sharing and voting elements. It would allow both brands and retailers to see if an item was trending high before it was produced or ordered. Who knows? Maybe there actually IS an audience for Duct Taped Prom dresses.

With a single evolutionary change to its search engine, Google has facilitated a major shift in user experience for finding, exploring, and purchasing music online.

The search giant has tapped leading social music platforms Pandora, iMeem, Lala, Rhapsody, and the recent MySpace acquisition, iLike, to provide intelligent music-related search results and legal downloads through the Google Music Search.

Search Google for an artist, album, song, or string of lyrics and you’ll be greeted with full-length previews of the music streamed from Lala.com or MySpace Music.

Google search results for "david bowie"

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