Hey Outliers ☀️
Hope you’ve had a good week!
This week’s email is a tad late, but who doesn’t love a bit of Sunday evening reading?
Anyway, if you love cookies, this email’s for you.
And if you want to learn about building hype and product drops, this email is definitely for you.
I came across luxury cookie brand Last Crumb through their copywriter Cole Schafer a while ago.
Side note: if you haven’t heard of Cole, open the link above and bookmark it now, trust me.
Sadly, Last Crumb cookies aren’t available in the UK (yet) but they have become the Rolex of cookies with their super smart marketing, so their story is definitely worth getting our teeth into.
Without further ado…
Here’s what to expect today:
📰 Story: How Last Crumb became ‘the Rolex of cookies’
🧠 Insight: Play hard to get
💪🏼 DIY: How to build hype
🔗 Good links: A cookie lookbook, drop strategy & a deep dive
📰 Story: How Last Crumb became ‘the Rolex of cookies’
If you want to get your hands on a new Rolex, you could be waiting YEARS (and there will be limited stock).
Yep. Years.
But people do wait.
We all want what we can’t have.
Last Crumb works in a similar way, but the wait time isn’t quite as bad as Rolex’s.
The cookie company that acts more like a streetwear brand releases its limited edition cookies in drops.
“The drop model came about because of our constraints,” Matthew Jung, CEO
Unlike other cookie brands, Last Crumb does its own baking, packaging and shipping.
So there’s only one way to get hold of one of their irresistible cookies…
You wait.
Then when they’re ready there’s a limited amount available so you have to be fast.
Each week, Last Crumb lets its customers know that a new batch of cookies is ready on its site. They sell out in seconds and the company has sold over $1 million of cookies in this way.
The ‘product drop’ model is more commonly associated with trainers and streetwear brands but Last Crumb is making this sales tactic work in the cookie world.
And it gets better…
The only way to get notified about an upcoming Last Crumb drop is to sign up to its mailing list; the company now has a waitlist of over 100,000 subscribers.
“We could only make so many cookies, and we had to start an email list from scratch. This was an organic way for us to build through the consumer experience and brand, and it allowed us to create the experience we wanted and pay off the brand in a cool and interesting way.” — Matthew Jung, CEO
And it’s paid off. In their first year, Last Crumb cookies were selling out in less than a minute every week (at about $150 for a box of 12 cookies!)
Naturally, the limited edition drops get people talking but the experience is what Last Crumb has become known for.
The brand has made sure that people who buy their cookies want to tell the world about them.
They arrive on their customers’ doorstep in a sleek black box that opens to reveal 12 fully loaded, individually wrapped cookies as well as a leaflet with instructions for activities like hosting a cookie tasting.
It’s an unboxing experience that has earned the brand 19.1 million views on TikTok and hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram.
Not only do these product drops tap into customers’ FOMO, but they also help the brand strike up a direct conversation with its customers — reducing their reliance on paid advertising channels.
🧠 Insight: Play hard to get
Scarcity creates demand — we all want what we can’t have and love to talk about the things we have that are hard to come by. Limiting the supply of a product, whether it be through restricting access or decreasing production, is a good way to build hype, increase sales and avoid having to discount leftover stock.
Products that sell well using the drop model also tend to have some element of built-in virality e.g. insanely tasty cookies with an unreal unboxing experience.
One survey found that 45% of consumers are interested in product drops specifically because they value access to products that are difficult to obtain.
💪🏼 DIY: How to build hype
Some products naturally lend themselves to the product drop model more than others but there are great examples of everything from sandwiches to garden furniture being ‘dropped’ these days.
The key is making sure you have a genuine reason to drop products rather than making them available all the time.
Last Crumb can’t make enough cookies and have endless recipe ideas to keep things fresh. MSCHF considers its products to be art pieces. Two very different reasons, but both are fair justifications for letting items sell out and for people to come back for the next drop.
If you’re thinking about product drops for your brand, here’s what to do:
Make sure you have a genuine reason for limited production
Build up demand by clearly communicating what’s coming and its value
Maintain a fresh product offering with regular new collections/collaborations
Get influencers involved to help build trust
Avoid discounting at other times so that hype feels genuine
Capture newsletter sign-ups and followers with waitlists and notifications
Nurture loyalty with early access or private sales
🔗 Good links
🔗 Indulge in the cookie lookbook
🔗 The power of the product drop
💌 Tell us what you’d like help with…
We started this newsletter for entrepreneurs just like you, and we want it to be as helpful as it possibly can. So tell us what you’d like help with and we’ll dig into it.
Or if there’s a brand you’d like to know more about, let us know and we’ll reach out to them.
Until next week…
Keep being an Outlier,
J + K