Capitalising on cultural trends are vital if retail organisations are to maximise their ability to stand out, and create demand. This is shown through various brand collaborations that drop exclusive collections of clothing with limited availability, creating a storm on social media and building pent up demand, which ultimately leads to sold out products and pieces being floated on reseller sites such as StockX.
Surpeme are the powerhouses of the collaboration space, having released limited availability drops with most of the world’s leading brands. The Bathing Ape release capitalised on the streetwear culture, John Smedley coupled quality and style, Jordan allowed them to dabble in sportswear by leveraging the iconic name and North Face entered them into the outerwear arena. Taking an objective view of these collaborations, the clear point here is that they make sense. They allowed Supreme to enter different niches by leveraging big players within the space, and created social media storms.
One of the latest collaborations set to hit the UK’s highstreets is one that will likely surprise 99.9% of those lucky enough to be reading this article. Greggs and Primark are teaming up for a limited edition range. The 11 piece clothing range will be available in 60 Primark stores later this month, with their flagship Birmingham site opening a 130 seater Greggs bakery.
This drop screams comedy, and novelty, but doesn’t make sense like the Surpreme collaborations do. By looking at the BBC article I’ve hyperlinked above, you’ll see an example item from the drop, which is a grey hoodie sporting the Greggs logo. Now, I am a massive Greggs advocate, as my university degree was fueled by their sausage rolls, but I can’t imagine buying this hoodie (or any of the other collection for that matter) for any purpose other than as a joke.
When looking at this from a sales perspective, I struggle to look past the fact that I wouldn’t purchase ANY of the drop myself. Now, I can’t speak on behalf of the general population, but being a 25 year old professional that likes to think they understand trends and the UK culture, makes me wonder who would actually be looking at this collaboration and get genuinely excited about it. The Supreme drops generate demand, and have limited supply, which leads to instant sell outs and extortionate resale prices.
However, viewing this collaboration from a marketing perspective has a vastly different result. You could look at this as one of the best PR stunts I’ve seen in some time. Both Greggs and Primark trended on twitter when the news broke, with thousands of people providing their thoughts on the drop, which had very mixed reviews. It’s led to news articles, blog posts (such as this one) and perhaps more important in the social media world we live in- memes. You wouldn’t be challenged by many if you looked at Greggs and Primark as ‘uninspiring’ brands. Stable and under-appreciated, which doesn’t lend itself well to cultural hype or demand. This collaboration, when not looking at it from a sales perspective, looks fun and tongue-in-cheek.
You’ve likely heard P.T Barnum’s quote ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’. This quote fits perfectly with this example, as the collaboration (if nothing else) has got people talking about brands that otherwise would slip under the radar.
The success of this collaboration really comes down to its intended purpose. Was the goal of this limited availability drop to make sales and build brand hype, or was it an ingenious way of creating public relations and to get people talking?