By Georgie Gallagher
This month we’re going to take a look at Smiggle – the clever manufacturer and retailer who has taken the Australian, UK, Singapore and NZ markets by storm with their highly targeted stationery products. Their goal? To be the world's most exciting and famous stationery brand – and they may just be getting there.
Many of us have fond memories of getting new pencils and stationery before the start of a new school year – it was probably the only thing to look forward to! Smiggle took this concept and have turned it into a fantastic retail store for tweens – it’s Charlie’s Chocolate Factory of the stationery world. They’re a great Australian brand going places. Gotta love that.
So what’s made this brand work?
Smiggle has a very sound brand strategy that they adhere to.
- The Smiggle brand has a highly defined target market – their core target market are kids who are aged 9 to 12 years old nor tweens – but from experience, I know younger kids LOVE it too.
- Smiggle has consistent branding with strong core colours and clear messaging. Smiggle – where a smile meets a giggle.
- Smiggle offers a clearly defined customer experience
“We think we’ve created a place that’s well worth a peek. It’s small, it’s not spacious, and it’s incredibly bright, with friendly and passionate Smigglers who will happily take you through the range. So come on in, experiment, explore, poke, prod and play, because a visit to our stores is just like a hug from your best friend. Where a smile meets a giggle, it’s the world’s greatest place.”
- Clear pricing strategy offering price points that kids can buy – and more expensive items for parents and birthday presents.
- Strong social media strategy – they have 326,000 followers on Facebook – pretty big when they’re target audience shouldn’t even be on social media :)
And the results?
Premier Investments, the parent company of Smiggle, reports the following.
- Global sales in FY15 of $132.6 million, up 26% on last year with 2H15 sales growth of 36%.
- Stores in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore (19 stores) and the UK (24 stores with plan to grow to 60 stores by the end of 2016).
- Plans for Asian expansion to Hong Kong and Malaysia in calendar 2016.
So the message is clear - get your marketing strategy right at the outset really does deliver results. And narrowing your target audience is one strategy that really works.
Happy Marketing,
Georgie
Georgie Gallagher is the founder of Wildmoon, a specialist marketing agency for manufacturing and B2B businesses based in Perth and Western Australia. Wildmoon helps with brand development and strategy, marketing strategy, marketing communications and strategic content marketing.