Old Brands, New Tricks: Using Social Networking to Reach ‘Always On’ Generation

By Julie Tangen
Coleman, a well-known retailer of outdoor equipment, was pretty smart to come up with its ‘Original Social Networking’ campaign. This is a great example of a traditional brand leveraging new trends to make itself relevant in a digital age. You’ve probably seen the commercials— folks gathered around a campfire while the narrative talks of the good old days, reminding us that Coleman has been bringing people together long before Facebook and Twitter were invented.

What’s most interesting to me is that Coleman is promoting itself through Facebook and partnering with Apple to integrate the tradition of outdoor activity with today’s technology. By bringing the two together, customers can enjoy the best of both worlds.

At first the idea of this 109 year-old company joining the Web 2.0 movement is a bit like stumbling across your Grandfather on Facebook. But if you check out their profile you’ll see they have some really fun apps available for free download. (My favorite is the one that turns an iPhone into a hand-held light.) Its interesting to see Coleman making the correlation between old and new ways of socializing and actually taking steps to reach a new generation of consumers. I love that after a century of doing business, Coleman still remains true to its mission of creating stronger bonds with family and friends—no matter whether these bonds are created around the campfire or over an Internet connection.
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