‘Retailtainment‘ – making customer’s retail experiences engaging and entertaining in order to increase dwell time, purchase intent, brand affinity and loyalty – is a concept that’s been around for years. But it used to be focused on making physical retail environments more entertaining. Gradually its shifted into online too but yesterday I stumbled across a great example of it working the other way round with the entertainment driving the retail.
High-end menswear and editorial lifestyle site Mr Porter (the ‘cousin’ of Net-a-Porter.com) are selling an exclusive Kingsman collection, so you too can dress like the debonair gentlemen spies in the film. The backstory to the deal is (where else?) at the FT and with prices starting at £55 for a discretely Kingsman branded pocket square (aka a silk pocket hanky) to £14K for an as-seen-in-the-film watch there’s something for all Mr Porter’s target audience of affluent fashion-forward men who appreciate quality gear and have the kind of lifestyle that necessitates a blue velvet smoking jacket.
The tie-up does work both ways, to an extent, with Mr Porter’s influencer, early-adopter customers more likely to then see the film and spread the word, but from a financial point of view its all about the entertainment product driving retail sales in way that is a very, very long way both from from Frozen’s Elsa fancy dress costumes or an ‘entertaining’ free hand massage in a supermarket car park.
Quite aside from all that, since my Dad spent his whole career in classic menswear (and as a result I know more about ideal trouser length and optimum visible shirt cuff than is entirely healthy) I love suiting and I love how a really good quality, well fitting suit makes any almost man look amazing so I LOVE the whole concept.
