| I’ve been telling you I’m going to focus on seductive brands and the tactics they use. So I’m doing a breakdown of one of them today. The brand I’m looking at here is Last Crumb, a luxury cookie company that started out of Los Angeles in the early 2020’s. Seductive brand breakdown: Last Crumb The first thing that jumps out with Last Crumb is the price. One box of 12 cookies costs $158 w/shipping and tax. And I know you’re thinking… “That’s insane for 12 cookies.” And that’s the point. You’ll see comments on the ads saying things like… “I’d never pay that much for freaking cookies.” Then your mind goes… “Well, if they’re expensive, maybe they’re actually really good. Now I want to know.” Kind of like when every girl makes fun of Pete Davidson for dating really hot celebrities even though he doesn’t look like a male model. First they say… “Who does he think he is? Then the mind wanders… “Well, if he’s getting girls out of his league. There must be something about him.” That’s what Last Crumb is doing here with the price. They’re taking something that shouldn’t be this valuable (cookies) and making them appear valuable (charging $158 for 12 of them). Here’s some of the seductive tactics they use to justify the price. Seducer Brand Principle #1: They build anticipation with the unboxing The unboxing of the cookies is an experience in itself. It all unfolds smoothly. There’s no duct tape or annoying things to unscrew. Each cookie is individually wrapped. They have the cookie packages angled so you can see them all at once. Then there’s the big bold title on each cookie, and a sensory description on the back of each cookie wrapper, showing you the high-quality ingredients and what it will feel like to eat it. There’s even a book with a quote from famous rebellious writer Charles Bukowski. I gotta admit… I wanted to not like the Last Crumb experience because I didn’t think pre-packaged cookies could taste very good. But the marketing still worked on me. I found myself wanting to slowly eat each cookie. I paid $12 for it, after all. So the anticipation worked on me. I also found myself thinking about the next one. Summary: Create the experience and don’t leave any detail out. Principle #2: They played hard to get (but for real) Last Crumb built their brand on “weekly drops” that were designed to sell out almost instantly. But unlike a lot of brands that use “fake scarcity” like the countdown timer that isn’t even really true, Last Crumb actually started out using real exclusivity. They had a limited number of boxes, and they’d sell out in less than 1 hour. They’ve since moved on from the weekly drops model in 2023, but the reputation still proceeds them. People want what they can’t have. Summary: Exclusivity makes the product seem cool and special. Play a little hard to get. Principle #3: They use minimalist design to focus on the product Seductive brands don’t try to overexplain themselves. Last Crumb says “why wouldn’t you want this? Just look at it.” The minimalist design is a reflection of that. Here’s the picture of the box. Just a basic black color and a logo. Everything is a build up to the object of desire – the cookie. Anything else that gets in the way is scrapped. The design makes you feel like by the time you finally eat the cookie – it’s gonna hit harder and you’re going to remember it. I found this true in my experience of eating the cookies. I didn’t like all of them. The Donkey Kong Banana Cream Pie is the best one by far, with the birthday cake are lemon bar not far behind. But even though I didn’t like them all, I found myself appreciating and remembering them because of how they were packaged. Each cookie was an experience in itself. Summary: Don’t crowd the product with your needless copy and design. Let the product be the allure. Next week I’ll show how I’m using these tactics in my own offers, including one thing I stopped doing that made my offers more attractive overnight. |
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