The essence of luxury marketing: exclusivity

When it comes to celebrating 50 years,  gray flannel just doesn’t cut it.

The Range Rover’s golden anniversary called for a celebration and a new suit. Accordingly, the brand collaborated with Henry Poole & Co,  located on on London’s Savile Row,  to create a unique fabric pattern that  incorporates the colors of the original 1970 Range Rover:  Tuscan Blue, Bahama Gold, and Davos White.  

The fabric itself would be woven out of lambswool in Somerset by cloth manufacturer Fox Brothers & Co Ltd,  The limited supply of 120 m. would be just enough to make  50  bespoke men’s and women’s jackets.

Luxury marketing and exclusivity in common 

It may seem odd to connect a car to a jacket, but the branding approach does make sense in the context of the target market. Referring to the sense of heritage and luxury that the car brand and tailors have in common,Land Rover’s Chief Creative Officer Prof Gerry McGovern OBE touches on the essence of luxury marketing:

  “Rarity does play a role, exclusivity in the appeal of the products from these brands. We’ve deliberately limited the amount that we will produce both on the jacket and on the vehicle itself, and I think that rarity is something that appeals to both our customers and Henry Poole’s.” 

Read more in The Man in the Range Rover Suit

To the sleeper the spoils

A good night’s sleep is not just desirable but essential for top performance. That’s the lesson of the IKEA ad that envisions a prequel to Aesop’s famous fable about the tortoise and the hare.

See “The Hare” commercial on YouTube Note the name of the place where the hare hangs out with friends before playing video games and posting pictures all night rather than getting the solid night’s sleep enjoyed by the tortoise.

Perhaps they can play off the whimsy in this adaption with creatives that offer backstories to other famous stories about sleep. I can just picture it working for Sleeping Beauty, or better yet,  The Princess and the Pea. 

Read more in IKEA Presents the Night Before the Fabled Race

Schoolcation post makes the LinkedIn List

One of the great things about writing for Optimove is that I get to review hundreds of interesting marketing stories to select the very best ones to be featured on the PostFunnel site. My most recent one just got this LinkedIn mark of distinction:
"Congratulations! Your post was featured by the LinkedIn News team in "Home-schooling...at Disney World?"

To read the post, click on Hotels Now Offer “Schoolcations”

From Shakespeare to Starbucks: Pumpkin spice marketing mystique

Popular wisdom used to say "It's the sizzle that sells the steak." Well, today it's the PSL buzz that sells the drink. But if you know your Shakespeare, you know that it's not a wholly new idea.



Retailers don't wait until October to push pumpkin in the form of special scents and flavors. Even those who don’t sell drinks or food have hopped on the pumpkin spice bandwagon with scented candles, body lotions, soaps, and even deodorant.

In fact, the most highly-anticipated pumpkin spice of all made its grand arrival in August. I refer, of course, to pumpkin spice latte (PSL) that fans look for every year at their favorite coffee shop.

The pumpkin spice mystique is not just about the flavor; it’s about building a connection with customers that heightens anticipation and engagement. Starbucks does it brilliantly.

During August, Starbucks rides the buzz on the return of the PSL. It lets it build up with much speculation about when the first one will be poured, as the date changes each year to maintain a feeling of mystery and maximize anticipation.

That's the essence of the PR strategy that Shakespeare's Prince Henry adopts, as he tells the audience  in Henry IV Part I:

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behavior I throw off
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time when men think least I will.

What works for heroic kings in plays also works for brands that know that even pleasurable things lose their sparkle when they are around all the time, just as we take the sun for granted when it is never hidden by clouds. The perception of rarity grants the object in question a particular status that it would not have if it were always available.

For more marketing posts, see a collection of links to blogs posted on various publications here and
Marketing in Uncommon Times

For more references to Shakespeare, see The Marriage Plot: Expectations for Novel Ending Must Be Met, The Marriage of Opposites, and Happy (Early) Birthday, Shakespeare.