Using Invite Only Marketing As A Winning Strategy
Using Invite-Only Marketing As A Winning Strategy In High-End Luxury Branding
Studio Succes founders Michael Hakopian and Taron Mosesian, Amstel Hotel AmsterdamTARON MOSESIAN
The high-end luxury world of exclusive jewellery, cigars, whisky, cars and fashion is only available to the selected few rich and famous. And with Trump’s new threat for tariffs on EU top luxury brands, these products may become even less affordable and more exclusive soon. A conversation I had with Michael Hakopian and Taron Mosesian, co-founders of the Dutch luxury branding agency Studio Succes, gives us an insightful peek into this world and into how they approach it with their strict invite-only policy.
Common forms of invite-only marketing
Invite-only marketing is a popular marketing strategy to increase the desirability of a product or service by restricting access to invited people only. Its main characteristic is that you can only buy a product or service when being invited by the company, or by an inner circle around it.
Facebook used this strategy to get started, Google used it when launching Gmail and OnePlus used it when launching the One phone. Furthermore, it is also used by startups as an inexpensive word-of-mouth tactic that, so it is hoped, will generate a lot of free publicity.
What these and most other cases of invite-only marketing have in common that circulate on the Internet, is that the invite-only principle is only used in the early stages of a product launch. They all target at a mass-consumer market where, after the initial buzz-generating stages, the product is widely available and mass-marketed in a more open way, making it accessible to everyone interested.
Sometimes the invite-only concept is taken much further and is even made the core of a company’s marketing strategy. We especially see this in the high-end luxury market where store doors only open for the selected few, where it may be close to impossible to even find a company, and where brands circulate that are unknown to the general public. To have access to such products, you need to have the right amount of money, the right friends and the right mindset and image. Having that may produce you an invitation.
Invite-only in luxury branding
As a high-end luxury branding agency, Studio Succes envisions, designs and produces branding experiences for their clients. They organize personalized events in which their clients’ customers get to experience a product in a luxury environment. Think of, for example, presenting a new line of jewellery at the Paris Fashion Week.
