The Luvlets brand, which was showcased at the Sydney trade fair, is PFJ’s first foray into branded product. The new range comprises composable charm bracelets that consist of sterling silver and enamel alphabet and numeric beads.
PFJ head of marketing Angela Han said the new range had been received extremely positively by retailers at the fair. “The response has been beyond what we thought it would be, it’s been sensational.”
PFJ hopes the collection will help nurture children’s creativity in a more innocent way than other tween products. Han said: “We believe that as a children’s brand it is important to encourage, endorse and push creativity as a worthy cause.”
“We’re trying to remind children they can still have fun without a computer.”
The Luvlets stand at the Sydney fair was decked out with colourful branded wallpaper and an array of supporting packaging that comes with the branded jewellery product.
The marketing campaign will include giveaways through selected retailers, giving stores the opportunity to reach out to their local community by launching competitions to encourage local children to be creative. The winners of such competitions will receive free Luvlets product.
Local radio stations, primary schools and churches will also be invited to get involved in the giveaways, which will help put retailers at the heart of community activity.
Alongside this, PFJ intends to use its website as a tool to aid creativity. Children will be able to go online and download Luvlet-branded craft activities such as origami and paper dolls, with the aim of getting kids away from computer games and “back to their coloured pencils, scissors and glue”, according to Han.
Recognising that mothers are the purchasing influencers in the tween market, PFJ also hopes to get mums to interact with the brand by tapping into these consumers’ blogs and networking forums to develop a relationship with them online – possibly using the web platform to initiative further product giveaways.
Han perceives this to be a more organic form of guerrilla marketing that has so far remained untapped in the Australian jeweller industry. She believes the strategy may prove more advantageous than traditional ads in glossy magazines because it can be more highly targeted.
PFJ expects the community marketing initiative to also help increase stockists’ customer base, by bringing the parents of tweens into jewellers’ stores. Han explained: “People who have never set foot in the store before will come with their kids.”
Luvlets is being marketed to retailers as a “one-stop-shop children’s jewellery solution that consumers can easily access”. The range has been designed for a lower price point, and the product comes with themed packaging such as carry bags, compartmentalised jewellery boxes in which kids can keep their Luvlets jewellery, and booklets to accompany each purchase.
PFJ already has a number of local and international distributors lined up to take the branded range, including some as far afield as the UK and US.
The company has specialised in children’s jewellery for more than 40 years, but has only just expanded its range to include a tween collection in response to changing consumer trends.