Brand Collaborations
We are going to look at some famous brand collaborations.
Do you think these collaborations were successful or a failure?
Lego and Shell
Why would Shell want to collaborate with Lego?
Lego’s gas trucks and gas stations had the “Shell” logo on them for about 50 years. Shell also sold those sets at their gas stations.
They thought kids would grow up having a positive image of Shell because it was part of their favourite toy.
In 2014 Lego deciced to end their partnership with Shell. Why?
Shell had announced plans to drill for oil in the Arctic and environmental groups were attacking Shell and any of their partners.
Swatch and Audemars Piguet (AP)
What’s your image of these 2 brands?
Swatch is known for making Swiss quality affordable watches (casual, sporty, business and kids). Prices range from $50 to $450.
Audemars Piguet make luxury high end watches that range from $20,000 to $1 million
Swatch announced a collaboration with AP to make a range of “Pop pocket watches” at a price of $420.
Do you think this will be a successful brand collaboration?
The watches could only be bought in stores so people started lining up outside stores several days before the launch.
Many stores only had around 200 pieces available so many fans waiting in line were furious.
Swatch has 220 stores world wide.
Around 40 stores (US, UK, Dubai, India, Singapore) didn’t open on the day because there were too many customers.
Fights broke out at 20 stores (Milan, New York, Paris, Malaysia)
The Tokyo store had no fights.
Hours after the fights had happened, Swatch announced the campaign had enough supply for several months of sales.
Q: What should Swatch have done to prevent this chaos?
They underestimated the number of customers who would turn up on opening day and didn’t prepare enough security.
Swatch didn’t place barriers to control the lines of shoppers so people could easily cut in line.
Swatch expected local shopping centres or the police to control the crowds.
They should have announced the campaign would last several months from the beginning. People think they wanted all the media attention to promote the brand.
The best choice would have been to have an online lottery system for customers to buy the watch or to get tickets to enter the store.
Forever 21 and Atkins
Forever 21 is a fast fashion brand targeting women under 30.
Atkins is a health-food brand that sells low-carb shakes and bars. They promote the “Atkins diet” which is a famous low-carb diet.
Forever 21 often gives customers surprise gifts with online purchases (often cosmetics, hair clips, tote bags, perfume samples) and in 2019 Forever 21 sent all online customer a free Atkins diet bar.
Is this a good idea?
Bigger women complained because they thought only the larger women were receiving the diet bars and they believe Forever 21 was saying: “You should lose weight.”
Actually Forever 21 sent diet bars to ALL customers but the angry customers didn't realize that. Many customers complained on social media and the newspapers picked up the story.
How could Forever 21 have prevented this problem?
Heinz and Absolut Vodka
Heinz is a popular American brand famous for ketchup, mustard, baked Beans and pasta sauces
Absolut is a famous Vodka brand
At the end of March 2023 the 2 brands collaborated to make a pasta sauce with Absolut vodka inside. People thought it was an April Fool’s prank.
Would you buy this? Do you think it would be popular?
This was a real product and massively successful. It sold out within a few days and people were selling it online for 10 times the price.
The plan was to have a limited-time collaboration but they are re-releasing it every year due to it’s popularity.
Why was it so popular?
Adding Vodka to pasta wasn’t popular in the US or UK before 2020 but some famous celebrities started recommending it on Tik Tok and Instagram.
The vodka adds a slightly spicy kick to the sauce. It also enhances the tomato flavor and if you add cream it makes the cream and tomato smoothly blend together.
Nike and Ben and Jerry’s
Please explain this collaboration:
Name: Chunky Dunkys
Year: 2020
Price: $100
Units made: 25,000
Do you think these shoes would be popular?
I really want a pair of these! They sold out within 10 minutes (online and in stores) and now they sell for $3000-5000 on resell websites
Nike and Tiffany
Nike collaborated with the luxury jewellery store Tiffany and Co in 2023.
The $500 shoe was black suede with silver studs on the heel.
Tiffany sold silver shoe inspired items in their stores:
shoe horn: $475
shoe brush: $475
whistle: $250
Do you think this collaboration was a success?
All the items sold out quite quickly however on social media this was a huge failure. The sneaker design wasn’t seen as “cool” or “stylish” and the price was too high.
Tiffany customers had no interest in these sporty silver accessories.