The theme of the day: Corporate Branding and Communities.

POM Wonderful...and how wonderful it is!

It’s always such a pleasure to hear from past APOC students who have made it in the professional world. Especially with the economic recession, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Jeff’s position as the Director of Marketing keeps him responsible for managing everything online for POM Wonderful. As a huge pomegranate fruit and juice fan, I was immediately interested and invested in his advice. With the biggest transition occurring last year to focus on building a community instead of a website, the time could not have been better. I perused the POM Wonderful site prior to the class lecture, and it does exactly what Jeff aimed for it to do: build a community. While some of the interface applications and content deals with the product, most of the homepage focuses around the community.

Even though POM Wonderful is off-season (defined by when the pomegranate fruits are sold and harvested), the campaign online still exists and must thrive. Just off the home interface, one of the major tabs is labeled “Community” with an easy-to-sign-up option to the right of the button. Below, it labels community activity and shows what people are posting about POM and its products. With an opportunity to see what fellow fans are twittering, how many other fans joined the Facebook page, and the stories people can share about their love for POM, the community has definitely and successfully been engendered.

Under the POM Community and Engagement, the interactivity and targeting is there. And it’s apparent on its easy-to-use interface. Customer testimonials and even contests centered around POM cleverly give viewers motivation to get involved. And it has been ingrained in our mind that the biggest, most die-hard product fans can serve as the best marketing. Word spreads like wild fire and one tweet can reach tens of thousands of people.

But who knew that 1,200 blogs posted specifically about POM Wonderful? But the new pills, bars, and concentrated product shots will give Tweeters something to Tweet about. Seeing POM focus on grassroots blogging and low cross-product promotion gives them a great avenue to move forward.

I’m sold. And now I’m more prompted to actively seek and try their other products. After all, POM is building a community, one member at a time.