How to create an alluring brand

11 Dec How to create an alluring brand

To be alluring, according to Oxford Dictionary, is to be powerfully and mysteriously attractive or fascinating; seductive. What marketer doesn’t want that for their brands (or themselves for that matter…)? So how does one create this quality?

Well, you can start by taking everything you know about marketing and throw it out. Advertising? No chance. Customer experience? Don’t go out of your way. Availability? Forget about it, in fact, make it really hard to find, let alone purchase. Digital ecosystem? I’m sorry…? This is precisely how one of the most alluring (and successful) wine labels has done it.

You see over dinner recently, a friend whispered a story about a revered, cult Australian wine. A wine label that has zigged when virtually all others have zagged. This wine is elusive, fascinating and ultimately, yes, seductive. First of all, the product is very good. Second of all, it’s unbelievably, outrageously hard to purchase.

Here’s what makes this wine so alluring:

  1. To buy it, you need to be on their mailing list.
  2. To get on the mailing list, you need to write a handwritten letter to the winery requesting to be placed on the list.
  3. Don’t bother trying to find their website, it doesn’t exist.
  4. If you are lucky to get on the mailing list, you may be offered a limited number of bottles from the vintage (not everyone gets the opportunity to purchase every year).
  5. Some customers decide to sell their allotment to wine auctioneers and retailers like Dan Murphy’s… but expect to pay at least double for the better vintages.

 

Plenty of hyper-luxury brands (Goyard, Moynat, Ferrari, Rolls Royce…) have controlled the traditional leavers of exclusivity by limiting supply and maximising price. On the surface, this makes them exclusive. But not necessarily alluring.

To create something alluring requires huge courage, total commitment and saintly patience. Short term goals will never be pretty, but longer-term rewards will be high. Oh, and if you want to know the wine, let me know and I’ll send you an encrypted email reply!

Tags:
,