Traditionally, retailers were forced to wait until the official consumer release date of a new collection before being able to promote it to customers. However, in an email sent to retailers yesterday, the brand’s local supplier RJ Scanlan & Co explained that the new approach would allow jewellery stores to promote ranges prior to the in-store release date as well as take pre-orders.
The note did stress though, that products still couldn’t be sold to consumers until the official release date.
“For a long time there has been a request for us to release images and news about a collection prior to the ‘available-in-store’ consumer release,” the letter read.
RJ Scanlan & Co marketing manager Chris Scanlan told Jeweller that the decision – which came from Trollbeads’ head office in Copenhagen, Denmark – was made in response to the difficulty in keeping new product releases “under wraps” in a digital era.
“The Trollbeads community is always abuzz with information on social media prior to any Trollbeads release. It’s almost a competition to see who can get the information first and how widely they can distribute it,” Scanlan explained.
“I think this decision is just recognition that it’s almost impossible to keep the release a secret to consumers once the information is available globally to all Trollbeads retailers.
“Trollbeads is a very communal product and Trollbeads consumers share their passion for the product with each other at every opportunity so a managed pre-release will create even more excitement than an un-managed one.”
While retailers were advised that they could now promote the winter collection that is due for release on Friday 25 October, the business, renowned for its beaded jewellery, had not confirmed whether three weeks would be the official time period for pre-promotion going forward. Scanlan said he expected to announce a revised release schedule in December.
Trollbeads produces two main collections every year, which are available around September and January, and also six to seven smaller ranges staged around specific global events such as Mother’s Day, Christmas/winter, Halloween, Valentines’ Day and Easter.