“Coming from a rewards and loyalty background, I often wondered how to combine the best of rewards with the expanding universe of social media,” says Jennifer Katz,
founder and chief executive officer of StuffDOT, Inc.
“Further, it seemed really unfair that only a few people were benefiting from all the content millions of people were providing for free online. I believe the individuals creating all this online content deserve to benefit from their efforts,”
says Katz.
“Thinking about this, one day our marketing director came into a meeting and explained how a really cute anchor bracelet that she posted on a social sharing site went viral. But now she faced a six-week backlog to purchase it. So we all said, if she made a commission on every anchor bracelet that was sold because of that one post, she could have bought five. Right then and there,
StuffDOT was born,” explains Katz.

While the young social network is constantly changing, its beginnings in 2013 offer a valuable case study.
StuffDOT’s VISION, BRAND NAME,
AND LOGO StuffDot is designed to be the all-in-one site for online shopping and sharing. StuffDOT’s vision is to reward users for what they are already doing online. Most other sites tend to keep all the affiliate fees and commissions for themselves. StuffDOT, however,
enables users to benefit from all this online shopping and sharing. This is the first time, to StuffDOT’s knowledge,
that a firm has developed a platform where the people posting to social media are the same people who are rewarded for it.
In addition, the StuffDOT team has added coupons and loyalty elements that broaden its reach, as well as its value to merchants.

“We chose the brand name StuffDOT because it was catchy and [we] felt we could really build on it,” says Katz. “With the name StuffDOT, we could use Stuff,
DOT, and StuffDOT, which also gives flexibility. The name also is great for campaigns like ‘CareDot,’
‘Spot the Dot,’ or ‘Stuff I Like.’
The team tried other names, but they just didn’t have that fun stickiness that the name StuffDOT does,” says Jennifer Katz.
The StuffDOT team tried and tested several different logos before coming up with its memorable,
attention-getting logo shown here. “People see the orange dot as friendly, familiar, and eyecatching.
It has proven to be an easy logo to build on,” says Amanda Axvig, StuffDOT’s marketing director.
HOW StuffDOT WORKS Kelsey Fisher, StuffDOT’s creative director, explains to a group of student interns what a “Dot” is and the steps in “Dotting”—keys to understanding how StuffDOT users earn and redeem their resulting rewards.
What Is a “Dot”?
“Dots are posts ranging all the way from products, Do-
It-Yourself projects, recipes, and news stories to funny videos to random photos,” Fisher explains. “A dot is something posted to view, to share, or to track for a future purchase. A dot is simply a post of anything you want to display on the StuffDOT site,” she says.
How to “Dot”
Kelsey Fisher walks the interns through the three steps to dot:
1. “Use the simple drag-and-drop process to add the
‘Dot It’ button to your toolbar in your web browser.
2. “Dot or post items you ‘like’ online by clicking on that button on your toolbar. For example, if you are browsing Macy’s online store and see something you like, you can click on the ‘Dot It’ button in your toolbar and it will show up on your StuffDOT page.
3. “Watch your rewards grow as people share, buy, or click on the stuff you’ve ‘dotted.’ You can also earn rewards on your own purchases!” Fisher says.

Questions
1. What recent StuffDOT actions have added to its user-friendliness?
2. (a) Who are StuffDOT’s major competitors and (b) what point(s) of difference should StuffDOT use to distinguish itself from them?
3. How should StuffDOT be marketed so that it becomes an integral part of everyday life?
4. How can the team create “buzz” for StuffDOT and grow its user base most effectively (a) using social media platforms (like Facebook and Twitter) and (b) using its own website?