Built-In Newness

Some of you keep telling me that "apparel is dying".

It's certainly changing. It's way too easy for me to buy some knockoff brand on Amazon for $19 and have it shipped to me in eighteen hours when I need a pickleball shirt. More on the commoditization of product in an upcoming post.

If you are a member of a wine club, you get to see the myriad benefits of Built-In Newness. Say you belonged to Reininger Winery (click here). They have a subscription service (four shipments per year, twelve bottles per shipment though you can do less/more).

Each year they introduce a new version of Mr. Owl's Red (click here to learn more). There's a new reason to buy a comparable version of a product purchased previously. They have virtual tastings and they leverage social media and email marketing, they text you that your next shipment is coming and you can change quantities. They CALL you if you are a good customer. Yeah, a dedicated sales rep ... just like a B2B brand ... except they aren't a B2B brand. You'll tell me you couldn't "scale" that. You could as part of your loyalty program.

In other words, they build excitement through the "Built-In Newness" of their products.

Now, I get it, you are bored silly with what you sell ... I can tell because in email marketing you literally do not talk about what you sell. Who cares about your Cyber Monday Preview Sale when you print 60% off in a 72 point font while having an 8 point font hyperlink to your "new arrivals"?

You could have an "annual version" of a product ... with modifications from the prior year. Instead of working hard to link sku numbers behind the scenes to maintain "merchandise integrity", have different sku numbers with items that actually have differences year-over-year, and then market the living daylights out of the improvements you made ... just like a winery does when they brag about how the "cold night" impacted grapes.

Use Built-In Newness to your advantage.