Louise Marsland’s (@Louise_Marsland) pick of new product, packaging and design launches.
Kiehl’s opens second store; green wine ups marketing efforts; Hippo joins DeskBag project; and Bvlgari launches Man Extreme fragrance using mall media.
Second store for Kiehl’s in SA
New York’s Kiehl’s skin and hair care brand has opened a second store in South Africa following on the launch of the brand in South Africa last September. The new store is in the Eastgate Shopping Centre, Gauteng.
The first store was opened inside Edgars at Sandton City. Business unit manager of Kiehl’s in South Africa, Azhar Moosa, explains that high demand and good sales have motivated for the second store which will first open in a temporary location before moving inside Edgars Eastgate.
The Kiehl brand’s “try before you buy” philosophy is what has made it popular. Kiehl products are also available nationally through Edgars Fashion Hotline.
Green wine ups marketing
It’s been two years since Marthinus Botha and De Vos Meaker introduced their upstart new organic wines from the Swartland to SA consumers and now they’re embarking on a marketing campaign to grow their base further.
The Green Shebeen range includes: an unwooded Chardonnay, a Merlot Rosé, The Blend which combines Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot, and lastly a Cabernet Sauvignon.
Green Shebeen’s ethos is built around the idea of wine as an accessible, affordable luxury for the contemporary and younger consumer who is more concerned with the environment and less interested in the “jargon and mystery” around winemaking and tasting.
Their “sharp” local is lekker wine labels attest to the quirkiness of the product and the millennial audience they are targeting. The brand also contains 70% less sulphates than traditional wines and no pesticides or herbicides are used in the growth cycle.
Green Shebeen’s commitment to green principles behind winemaking scooped them the Blogger’s Choice award at the 2012 Nedbank Green Wine Awards, and has seen their product line the shelves of retail leaders in eco-consumerism locally and abroad, including Cape Town’s very own Wellness Warehouse, as well as The Whole Foods Market in Hawaii.
Hippo delivers to schoolkids
We published BP’s call to other brands to donate their old billboards to turn into durable school bags and pencil cases on February 21 this year, and now Hippo is busy with an innovative CSI project to start recycling its used and expired vinyl billboard faces into ‘DeskBags’ for underprivileged children. This unique concept, conceived by PR Worx, is a functional and portable desk solution, as well as a school bag. The flap is reinforced with plastic, so that when it is folded open, it allows for instant desk support too.
Hippo has so far donated 13 billboard faces which will produce about 135 DeskBags.
PR Worx’s Madelain Roscher explains: “Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga revealed in a written reply to a parliamentary question that schools across South Africa need three million desks, and with these alarming statistics in mind, DeskBags was conceived as a temporary solution to this immense problem.DeskBags offer a viable alternative to make learning more comfortable for children in poor and rural schools who do not get to use at a desk at school or at home.”
Achieving mall media dominance
Shopper marketing and point of sale efforts are important to break through the clutter and influence a cash strapped consumer at the till point.
Recently, Bvlgari launched its new male fragrance, Man Extreme to men aged 25 – 49 years within the LSM 9 to 10 brackets. They used Primedia Unlimited’s Primall Media business to dominate the mall environment at Sandton City, the V&A Waterfront and Gateway shopping centres.
A combination of mall advertising, billboards, hanging banners and digital skyscrapers were strategically placed to maximise impact and visibility close to Bvlgari’s key retail distributors.
– Shelf Life by Louise Marsland is a weekly column on MarkLives. Tweet new product, packaging and design launches to @louise_marsland or email her at louise.marsland at gmail.com.
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Louise Marsland has written about the FMCG, media, marketing and advertising industry for 18 years of her 25 year media career as a former Editor of magazines AdVantage, Marketing Mix and Progressive Retailing; as well as websites Bizcommunity.com and FMCGFiles. She currently edits the weekly Wednesday Media & Marketing Page for The New Age newspaper; and is the co-founder and Publishing Editor of SA’s newly launched industry trendwatching portal, TREND. at www.trendlives.info, in partnership with MarkLives.com.
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