Rainbow wall of lip kits at the KYLIE POP-UP #repost @westfieldtopanga [1]
According to POPSUGAR beauty editor Emily Orofino, Kylie Jenner's Lip Kits [2] really are great beauty products, and she can see why they are so beloved. But people don't just love Kylie's products — they covet, pine, and salivate over them. They go to desperate measures to obtain them.
So how does Kylie create such intense, massive demand for her products? It's a little something called "the drop." In an article examining the drop [3], The New York Times explains it this way:
A seller controls the release of exclusive new items outside the traditional fashion cycle, cleverly marketing the impending arrival of the product to build demand. . . . Even Snapchat itself tried to jump on the bandwagon last month when it began exclusive sales of its new Spectacles glasses via randomly placed bright yellow vending machines, giving no indication of where they would crop up next. The overwhelming majority of drop customers, whatever the product, are younger than 30.
This strategy has worked to ratchet up the hype surrounding new items so that by the time they are actually released, consumers are frenzied to be one of the chosen few who receive the products. It's a combination of a limited release (lending immediate cred to anyone who actually manages to grab the items) and the "personal" touch of celebrities — like Kylie — appealing right to you (via social media) and telling you about their wares.
Merry lip kit! Free with every order for a limited time only. @shopaholicsworld_ 💋 [4]
It's a tactic that works particularly well with consumers in the coveted Generation Z demographic [5], which is "far more entrepreneurial than its predecessors," says Lucie Greene, the worldwide director of the innovation group at advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. "If millennials are digitally savvy, then Generation Z are total digital natives. Their identities are defined by their interactions and relationships online, both with one another and celebrities. That's why stars like Kylie Jenner, who interact with them like peers on the mediums they feel most comfortable with rather than more traditional retail platforms, are seeing such astronomical success."
Experimenting with tactics like the drop and enforcing rules to shopping at her pop-up store [6] only adds to the excitement and exclusivity of Kylie's brand. And having resulted in an estimated $10 million in personal sales from her branded merchandise, love her or hate her, the 19-year-old businesswoman must be doing something right.
happy thanksgiving 🦃🌼 [7]