Are you an automobile fan? If you are, then you’ve probably seen “LE” inscriptions on certain car brands. This two letter acronym stands for “limited edition”.

It signifies that a particular product within a brand has been manufactured in limited or strict numbers, for a very specific purpose, or for a special set of users.

This is much unlike base or regular products which are manufactured in countless numbers and for the general public. But why would a car manufacturer or any company at all decide to produce mere one hundred, ten or two copies of a highly coveted product?

It all revolves around scarcity marketing which fuels product drops. Follow us as we discuss what this is and why you should care about it. 

What is a product drop?

A product drop is a strategy that involves the release of a limited number of attractive, high quality products. This strategy is based on scarcity marketing and it is everything from risky to unique and effective. 

Its uniqueness comes from the fact that it goes against the usual process of mass producing products. On the other hand, product drops are effective since they promote exclusivity and create a rush amongst buyers.

They are also highly risky. The reason for this is that a failed product drop could mean huge losses for a business, especially if it invested so much in developing the product. 

What makes product drop an effective marketing strategy?

As we mentioned, a product drop is an effective but risky marketing strategy. You might want to know if it is more effective than it is risky and we would say that that depends on factors like the cost of manufacturing products and the target market. Moving on, the following are the reasons why product drops work. 

It creates hype around a product

There’s nothing a manufacturer would want more than to have a lot of hype and discussion around their product. Fortunately, this is exactly what they get when they implement a product drop.

A hype happens when influencers use and feature a new product, especially when they are one of the very few owners of such a product, or when large numbers of previous customers speak highly about a company’s products or services.

Actions like this inspire their followers or audience to do the same, therefore, bringing attention and patronage to the company or product in question. 

Keeps customers anticipating new products 

Imagine that an influential celebrity misses out on an exciting and hyped product drop from their favourite brand. Certainly, this individual will begin anticipating a new product drop.

As a result, they will develop interest in the company’s products or services and even pay attention to communiques such as newsletters or magazines.

Gives customers a feeling of exclusivity

Product drops give user’s a feeling of exclusivity and distinction. In fact, the marketing strategy takes advantage of this feeling and the competitive nature of people as it entices users to purchase an exclusive product just so that they could stand out as one of the few owners of such a product. 

What are the benefits of a product drop?

Increases brand influence 

With all the hype that comes with it, product drops are incredibly useful for putting a company on the map. This simply translates to increased brand awareness.

And when a company achieves a high level of awareness for example, by having a large customer base or by earning positive reviews from industry heavyweights, then it is already on its way to securing influence in its industry. 

Brings in huge revenue and quick profits

Product drop is as much of a revenue generating tool as it is a brand awareness tool. Why? The reason is that brand awareness typically attracts new leads.

These customers, first of all, purchase the items on display in a product drop and if they love it, they typically go on to search for other regular products or services from the company. These activities can result in huge revenues for a company. 

Asides this, a product drop is effective for making quick profits. For instance, a company that is low on revenue could produce a small number of new products, peg it at a high price, and then sell it through a product drop campaign. 

Attracts high-profile clients or customers

As we mentioned earlier, product drops feature the release of a limited number of attractive or valuable products. Most often, these items are pegged at a high price to compensate for their limited number or for the high cost of producing them.

But the high price of product drop items make them all the more competitive. Typically, this means that lower or middle class customers may be unable to purchase them and it gives access to high-profile clients or customers. 

Allows testing of minimum viable products

Rather than mass producing a line of products and risking huge losses if such a product is not well received by a target market, businesses can simply perform a product drop.

Releasing a few hundred copies of a product and monitoring its performance will indicate whether the product idea is good and profitable or not.

With this, businesses have a testing ground and since they don’t spend too much time or resources, they find it easy to bear a negative turn out with their MVP. 

Tips on how to make a successful product drop

Product drops do not always go as planned in terms of success and profitability. In such an instance, a company could be looking at losses whether big or small. This is something every business wants to avoid.

So what do you need to do to ensure that you score a successful product drop? We have four tips for you. 

Create a community around your to-be-released product

Before your products are even available to the public, ensure that you create a lot of engagement and hype around it. This is one of the driving forces behind a successful product drop.

And the best way to go about this is by building a community. Your community should provide a meeting point for enthusiasts, fans, and even former customers or clients of your product drops or business in general. 

Offer product highlights or flashes 

Highlights of your product will help to boost anticipations for your product drop. Some ideas for creating these highlights include sending out push notifications through your business app, sharing short trailer videos or flash photos in your newsletters or magazines, and providing early access through presale orders or registrations. 

Prevent abuse and illegal access to product drop items

One of the biggest spoilers of a product drop program is abuse or illegal access to products. For instance, imagine that a company initiates a product drop for a highly sophisticated technology but the product becomes illegally available to the public days before the intended release.

Since it is already in the hands of users, most people who would have bought into the product drop market would no longer do so. 

Such incidences could ruin the exclusivity nature of the product drop and also lead to losses since users are purchasing the product without patronising the company. 

Collaborate with influential businesses or individuals 

If you want a successful product drop, you should think of influencers. Influencers are entities that have a massive followership, authority, or customer base. It could be a business, an individual, a smaller group of people.

These kinds of people are useful when it comes to getting engagement, participation, or presale orders for a product drop. 

For it to work better, it is advisable that you source influencers who operate or exist within the same industry as your business.

However, this is not a strict rule and so it is possible to still achieve product drop success with the help of influencers outside your industry. 

Offer shout outs to customers who participate in your product drop campaign

Another step to take in achieving success in your product drop campaign is by celebrating customers who patronise you.

By this, we mean that after you must have put out a product drop notification and realised a total preorder sell out, you could go ahead to feature all the customers who now own your limited-number products.

A good place to do this shout out is in your company newsletter. Alternatively, you can highlight your product drop customers in your social media posts, hard and soft copy magazines, or even through a press briefing. 

What are examples and case studies of product drops?

NFT Sales

Anyone who has closely followed the development of NFTs will confirm that some of the digital asset’s most valuable projects are promoted based on scarcity and exclusivity. An outstanding example is the Bored Ape nft collection. 

This collection is a set of 10,000 unique nfts which are scarcely available and highly coveted so much that the nft community has evolved into a club known as the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).

And as if owning an NFT that sells for over $116,800 is not enough, the community has created even more exclusivity by offering BAYC members - who are also strictly owners of one or more bored ape nfts - some rather enviable perks like VIP club accesses, intellectual property rights, and exclusive in-person events. 

Kim Kardashian’s clothing line

Kim Kardashan’s clothing line repeatedly makes use of product drops. The company has made huge profits from this strategy; building massive engagement and then issuing a limited number of products.

At its launch, SKIMS sold 100% of its clothing line in just ten minutes after extensively announcing the event. In a similar scenario, the fashion company completely sold out another highly anticipated clothing line through a presale waitlist - that is, before the actual release of the product. 

Conclusion

Product drop is a growing strategy and it is one that is breeding a brand new set of customers. These are people who are interested in owning limited, rare, and quality products.

The fact that product drops create a business environment which is increasingly appealing to high social statuses is really exciting. It means an opportunity for product-based companies to make quick profits.

Also, the strategy is useful for testing minimum viable products (MVPs) before businesses go ahead to mass produce a commodity.

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