CNBC said we needed a black Friday-esq plan. Racked.com had its multi-step strategy to 'be the boss of' Phillip Lim for Target collection! With a very successful PR strategy of building the enthusiasm among fashionistas, an overcrowded launch/pre-sale party in New York and a huge social media buzz, 3.1 Phillip Lim Collection for target made its debut on Sunday. I knew it was going to be a popular collection and will be sold out very quickly. Of course FOMO (fear of missing out) made me download the Target app (in case the site crashes down), log into my target account, ready to pounce on Pashli doppelganger at the first sight! I knew we all will be talking/tweeting about the collection, but what I didn't predict that this event will become a never-heard-before collective shopping experience on Twitter. The kind that might make Phillip Lim for Target collaboration shopping a business schools/communication schools case study, which will be a guide for brand managers during any such collaboration in future.
How it started: So, Target said they will launch the collection online 'in the wee hours' of Sunday morning and store doors will open at 8 AM. But somehow people were tweeting links that were either 'decoded' during early load testing or they found a way to go around the home page and go directly to the product, or may be target was releasing the products one by one and they were available to people who clicked on the links at a particular time! However the links became available (pardon my limited technical knowledge) , an amazing thing happened! On twitter people started sharing product links (that were not even available through the home page) with hashtag #philliplimfortarget (making me believe in the goodness of humanity!) Because of twitter links (special shout out to Hallie of Corals and Cognacs who magically produced shoppable product links even before they were available via Target Homepage), I could shop for coveted trench coats and animal print sweater even before the collection became available in general. The key was to checkout as soon as you had products in cart lest the item got sold out while you waited to fill up the cart. At around 4:30 AM, the whole collection was available to buy online, and as predicted most bags were sold out online even before the stores opened. For those of us who didn't live very close to Target store, collective Twitter shopping not only became a fun, shared experience, a bond in 'exclusivity' but also a very convenient thing. I shopped in my pajamas!! LOL! And here is what I have coming to me in mail! (** sshhhh...don't tell my husband!)
Some items here are still available online (HERE), some are only in stores now! You can check the availability if you haven't shopped them already!
The bags were gone almost instantly!! I am glad to get the yellow mini satchel!
Now, only thing that worries me is --
So what did you get from this collaboration? Or were you not impressed, just like my best friend:-)
Please share your thoughts!
