© Tia Maria
BY KIM VAN ELKAN MANAGING DIRECTOR, HORNALL ANDERSON
The tie-up between Tia Maria and Grazia ahead of Christmas to create a special limited edition is a marketing match made in heaven. Marrying a fashion and celebrity news magazine with a liqueur will create a product with considerable appeal.
The eye-catching limited edition gift packs (launched to celebrate Grazia’s ten year anniversary) will drive sales during the party season when consumers are more likely to splash out on alcoholic drinks. But limited editions can be launched any time of year and to great effect, as they provide the sort of gift consumers will want to hold on to, even after the contents have been consumed.
The pre-Christmas push for the chic monochrome bottle is supported with campaigns across a wide range of platforms, including social, traditional and digital media. Billboards are popping up featuring a set of stylish and influential women (who are big on social media) and sport the catch line “all we want for Christmas”.
When limited editions are done right, they can help to build a brand. It enables both brands to expand their reach beyond their normal target audience, tapping into one another’s loyal fan base. And a clever limited edition like the Tia Maria and Grazia tie-up showcases the brand’s personality and strengthens its presence. A new product that reveals a different facet of a brand’s personality builds our relationship with the product – as long as we like what we see.
If the product looks good and tastes good it will win a spot on consumers’ shelves. Consumers love collecting and if you get the design of your limited edition right, it can become part of people’s lives. What could be a better marketing ploy than a product so great and so well packaged, that the customer keeps it even after the bottle is empty? Instead it remains on the shelves, as a reminder to the consumer to buy it again.
Create your own special event
But marketers do not need to wait for a big event like Christmas to make their mark. They can create their own special events too. For the launch of the Vaseline special edition Crème Brûlée Lip Therapy, Unilever and Selfridges created a pop-up boutique in Selfridges in London and Manchester, complete with a pout mistress instructing on perfect pouts and a photo booth that uploaded your pouty portrait straight to Facebook. With press in print, online, on blogs and social media, this self-created event became so successful that Crème Brûlée Lip Therapy was the fastest selling product in Selfridges’ history, moving 2,700 units on the first day of trade and 12,449 units in three and a half weeks.
How do you create the right limited edition?
Brands need to meet the consumer and get to know them. If you want to design something they will love, cherish and want to keep, you need to know who they are and what they want. It might even go up in value and become a collectible.
And a limited edition needs to be limited. Churn out millions and you’re taking the consumer for a ride by calling it a limited edition. When they are put together well, limited editions are one of the most successful ways we have found yet to stoke love for a brand while conveying its personality and its bravery. And remember limited editions can be for life – not just for Christmas.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024