4 lessons from Missoni mania

A few weeks ago, the Missoni for Target line launched to great fanfare. In fact, fanfare is an understatement. Shoppers clamoring to buy the products on launch day crashed Target’s website! In this video, I look at four lessons that craft business owners can take from the Missoni launch.

The four lessons I took from the Missoni for Target launch are:

1. Branding still matters.

2. It’s important to generate buzz BEFORE you launch a new product.

3. Limit supply to create a sense of urgency.

4. But, make sure you’re prepared for demand.

How about you? Did you get swept up in Missoni mania? And do you think you could apply anything from the launch to your own business?

5 Comments

  1. I totally missed all this. Thanks for the video Megan. Great inspiration.
    Do you know what kind of language they used to get everyone amped up? Any further links about their specific strategy? Thanks Megan!!

  2. I loved this post, really meaty, really got me thinking. Thanks! The thing I am really (really really) weak on is creating pre-launch buzz. I just don’t know how to do it or what to say. I feel dumb going, “There’s something coming! It’s coming soon…!” Could you maybe sometime give us some pointers or a tutorial on what to do/say to create that pre-launch buzz without tipping over into being cheesy or downright annoying? I, for one, would be deeply grateful! 😀

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  4. I learned this lesson hard last year. But at least it was on someone else’s dime and not mine. I had started a job in late october at a bookbinding and printing press who had a great production team BUT was horrible in managing its office and finances.

    When I came in they were getting major press (I’m talking every conde nast publication). My job was to be sure that everything shipped. Here was the problem. The inventory rooms were a mess and production was constantly having to stop because they were out of ink, which I had to purchase with the credit card that was maxed out.

    By the time December rolled around production was flowing and custom made cards were being made last minute. BUT we didn’t have the shipping supplies and bascially I had to make sure that every item was produced, the supplies were in order, i had the shipping supplies, and they were shipped. And oh yeah… I was supposed to manage all of this AND personally do quality control, box, wrap, label, do the UPS info, and get them to UPS by 6pm when they closed all by myself.

    This was a company made up of at least 20 employees, split between production, design, and office. I seemed to be the only one (including the owner) who even had a grasp on what need to be done to make this happen.

    I had only been their 7 weeks. The third week of december I was out for two days because of fatigue. I came back and my desk was clean, and I was cursed at for not making ‘not doing my job’.

    I walked out the door and enjoyed the holidays with my family.

    Lesson – If you can’t bring Vogue quality production, don’t be thrilled when you get press in vogue and expect good results.

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