Drops, Community, and Other Stuff.

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. This is the third edition of Building Wide, and I'm going to explore some of my experiences with drops, product releases, and collections.  Should you push scarcity, limited editions, early access, etc? What's the best and worst ways to do it?

But first, this edition of Building Wide is brought to you by another one of my favorite apps, Box Builder - several of our clients use it, and it's a fantastic tool.

Let your customers build the perfect bundle

Thinking of ideas to reduce your reliance on ad dollars? 

Try Box Builder to create high-performing product bundles and see your revenue soar. 

Even better, you can position it as a service to let your customers build custom gifts. 

Here’s what Okra and Molly, a dog cake bakery from the US had to say after installing Box Builder:

“This is the app we've been waiting for. streamlines the buying experience for a customer and I've already seen sales increase by an average of 20% each purchase. It's been a week. Fantastic.”

Try it out free for 7 days →

The Drop Model:

Plenty of brands do it, particularly in the streetwear scene - think Kith, Supreme, Young LA, and more.  It even extends to cookies (sorry, $12 for a cookie is obscene. There's my hot take for the day). BUT! My thoughts don't matter. Last Crumb sells out every single drop, regardless of the hellish price tag. Scarcity, community and status are the only emotions that make the drop model work. In my opinion, you must have 2 of those emotions - if not all 3. Notice I said emotions.

You need to determine if a drop model makes sense for your brand to begin with. This is why the drop model for Marshall's will never work - they cannot latch onto any emotion besides, maybe, scarcity. Community? People aren't exactly passionate about Marshall's, besides for the deals. And that has nothing to do with any sort of community Marshall's has built. Status? Well, it's Marshall's. So not quite - you won't see people throwing Marshall's stickers on their laptop to prove they shop there.

Let's take a step back and quickly discuss what IS the drop model. Essentially, a brand will "drop" a new product(s) with limited supply, and push the urgency to purchase before they're "gone for good".  Often, existing customers/fans will cause a fast stockout, meaning the brand doesn't have to run ads on these products.  It's not uncommon for certain segments of fans to get early access as well - past purchasers, FB group members, SMS subscribers, etc. 

How Can I Make The Drop Model Work For Me? (hint: community)

I can't pretend like I'm a master at this, however we have had several sellout product drops - albeit smaller quantity than I'd like.  But I have studied brands who are masters at this, so here we go. 

It's easy to put the cart before the horse. Implementing drops before passionate fan base. No passion? Nobody cares. While easier said than done, you must get a group of passionate customers in your ecosystem before trying drops. However, it doesn't take as many as you may think.  1-200 dedicated customers who will at least *consider* buying what you put out there is a great place to start.

This is a community: people who feel connected to you. Your story, your stance, your ethos as a whole. Do you have a brand that makes you feel this way? Why is that? What bridges the gap from "good product" to "good brand"?  Your time, money, and attention are limited - what makes you focus your most precious assets on Brand XYZ?  To me, it comes from reciprocated emotions and mental connection via a persona. Let's take something simple like purchasing a duvet cover. 

Brand 1. No community: Your purchase arrives with an insert requesting you write a review for $10 off your next order. 

Brand 2. Community: Your purchase arrives with a note from the founder, and a QR code linking to a video on how to properly wash your duvet cover to make it last longer. Video is made by the founder, Michelle, who quickly shows some of the other products they sell in the video. WITH a prompt to email her directly if you have any questions.

When a friend comes over and compliments your duvet cover, which instance will cause you to advocate for the brand? A "thanks" vs. a "thanks, it's from Brand 2. I like them a lot."

When you get a marketing email about a new pillowcase, are you more likely to care about Brand 1 or 2?  When you see an ad on Facebook from Brand 1 and 2, which one makes you more likely to comment "I got mine and love it!".  Customer vs ADVOCATE.

The best time to start a community for your brand was launch day. The second best time is right now. It doesn't always mean you need a private Discord or Facebook group. Sometimes the loyalty is all you need from your customers to call it a community. Community is communal ethos - not a place.

Scarcity: 

So, you have a community you feel will be excited when you drop something juicy on your website. Next thing to focus on is scarcity - now, there's a few ways to play this to really take it to the next level. Some ideas below:

• Only send it to a certain group of people (SMS, FB Group, past purchasers, etc) - make sure they're aware they have exclusive access

• Showcase how many were made, and mention that NO more will be made

• Shut the product off after 24, 48, or 72 hours. Flash drop, boom. Gone, that's it.

• Keep an "archive" or "time capsule" section on your website showcasing past releases, and their status as sold out. It will increase the urgency moving forward and reiterate that these products actually do go away.

Whatever you do, stick with it. Maybe your drop is a failure. You can always hide the product, chalk it as a small loss, and try again. 

Status:

This "emotion" is the toughest, so I am going to gloss over it a bit. However, I will say that it is EXTREMELY hard to "step up" price points once you establish them. Take Shelly Cove for example: we sell $30 tees. If we released a $70 "limited edition" shirt, I doubt we would sell 10. Our customers don't buy Shelly Cove for the status, they like the community we built, and the mission we stand for. Rolls Royce buyers will feel very differently about that. Determine right now if you want to shoot for status or not. There's really no going back.

If you read this far into my community/drop model ramble, thank you! Hopefully you found a nugget or 2 that was helpful. See you next week, and thanks again to Box Builder for making this week's edition possible!

Shameless plug, our 3PL (Tidalwave) is taking on 1-2 more brands before Q4 this year. If you run a sub-25 SKU brand, with 500+ monthly orders in the US... reply to this email and I'll give you a $250 pick/pack credit if you sign on with us. Same goes for referrals. Thanks:)