Cariloha was featured in July’s issue of Inc. Magazine, one of America’s leading business and entrepreneurial magazines. Cariloha Founder & CEO, Jeff Pedersen, was interviewed for the article, and Cariloha’s bamboo socks were spotlighted as part of the article that included the Cariloha brand.

How to Cultivate Product Disciples

by Sarah Todd @sarahlizchar

Don’t demand that employees double as product endorsers. Turn them into advocates with creative incentives and room for constructive criticism.

Former PayPal president David Marcus made headlines last year for a memo in which he exhorted employees to use the company’s mobile payments app–or look for another job. It seems logical to expect, or demand, such devotion from staffers. But where do you draw the line between encouragement and ultimatum?

Start with the former. “You can’t mandate engagement,” says consultant Paul Marciano, author of Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work. “However, you can mandate that your supervisors and managers treat people with respect.”

PayPal has done that in part by making it easy for employees to integrate the payment service into their daily lives. The company’s cafés, mailrooms, and on-campus food trucks all accept PayPal, so staffers can walk around wallet-free. There are any number of ways you can create employees who are enthusiastic customers.

Preach to the convertible
Local-food delivery service Good Eggs looks for workers who share its zest for hand-raked littleneck clams and seasonal fiddlehead ferns. But new hires don’t have to be farmers’ market fans.

“Sometimes there are people who want to do good in the world but aren’t particularly knowledgeable about food,” says Rob Spiro, co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based firm. After sampling Good Eggs’ free daily lunches, featuring dishes like spring leg of lamb with grilled little gems, employees tend to become converts. “Tasting the food every day,” Spiro says, “changes the way they eat.”

Ambivalence is the enemy, so screening potential hires for enthusiasm is a must, says Marciano. Some people, no matter how qualified, aren’t going to show the love you want. Vegans will be unhappy at fur companies, and couch potatoes will resist promoting gyms. “I understand the reality that people need jobs,” says Marciano, “but it’s critical that their values align with the organization’s.”

Cariloha founder Jeff Pedersen embraced the fact that employees were spurning the bamboo-apparel maker’s socks for pairs with wild patterns and clashing hues. “Employees said they loved wearing these socks that are really colorful and add personality,” says the CEO of the Sandy, Utah-based business. “So we made a line of socks to appease that group, and they’ve become really popular in our stores.” Read the entire article here.

Read the entire Inc. Magazine article featuring Cariloha here.