Five reasons your business needs to think about Limited Editions

Creating a limited edition can be daunting, but it can also be an essential part of growing your brand and increasing sales of core products. In this article we list five ways that limited editions can help your business.

1. Engaging with a new consumer

Limited editions are the perfect way to reach out to a currently untapped target audience. If you are clever in defining the exact new audience you believe you have potential to target then you can create a limited edition that appeals directly to this demographic. This will bring your current brand into their world, making it seem more relevant to them.

2. Encouraging trial

People are more likely to try something that they know will only be available for a short amount of time as they don’t want the fear of missing out. Creating limited edition products creates a feeling of necessity for people to try your brand, and trial is the most important step for creating a returning customer!

3. Keep things exciting

With the amount of advertising people are faced with every day, only the most eye-catching things will stand out. As a result, people are more likely to look for the next new and exciting thing on the market. To avoid your brand stagnating and losing customers to the shiny new kid, creating a limited edition keeps people engaged with your brand. This could be an entirely new product, or just temporary packaging which could celebrate a certain time of the year, showcase a collaboration or even become a collector’s piece.

4. PR opportunity

Releasing new products provides genuinely ‘new’ news that customers want to hear about. It will give you those valuable column inches as well as providing a reason to connect with journalists and influencers and have them try your products. This in turn results in better relationships and the increased chance of more coverage of your core products later down the line.

5. Keep your retailers happy

Just like brands, retailers need to keep their customers engaged too. If you’re able to offer a limited edition, the retailer has something new and exciting to draw in customers, especially if you’re in the position to offer exclusivity. This will help strengthen your relationship with the retailer which could result in better shelf spacing and in-store promotion opportunities.

Limited editions can be more expensive than your core products due to increased packaging costs for smaller runs as well as the NPD process, but if you create something desirable enough, you can often off-set this cost by up-charging.

In order to create a limited edition that really meets your business objectives, you need to do a lot of thinking at the outset and develop a strong strategy and project plan that will deliver your goals. Shaw can help you through the NPD process from start to finish by determining what your intended customer is looking for through user research, design and development of the packaging and then promoting the product once it’s been developed. We can make what may seem like a scary venture turn into a profitable and enjoyable project for your business.