Californian Inspirations… Liberty of London at Target
Liberty of London is for me an iconic brand. An uber-brand that manages to not only sell beautiful product, but also carries a lot of brand equity in it’s own right. I mean, the other day I found a Liberty carrier bag on eBay for four pounds. Has the world gone mad? Four pounds (plus P&P) for a carrier bag? Anyway, I digress. I love Liberty prints and the whole experience of visiting the arts and crafts store.
So you can imagine my absolute delight (and Mr H’s disappointment) when we walked into Target – a huge US discount store (possibly like Matalan? Not sure as I haven’t ever been in a Matalan…) to buy a stroller and I discovered the Liberty/ Target collaboration. The whole thing has been fabulously promoted with liberty-print giant rabbits in the window, gorgeous dangly point of sale and some very tempting items.
Three looooong trips later Ellie and I walked out with picture frames, a new tankini, a dress and a top for Ellie and a scarf and nightie for me. And the best thing, other than the gorgeous print? The fabulous prices. My scarf, which must contain at least 2 if not 3 metres of fabric was just $15. I couldn’t make it myself for less. Which got me thinking… Could such a collaboration work in the UK? I’m not sure it would. Because I suspect it would undermine the Liberty brand too much. Surely one of the things that keeps Liberty so desirable is the fact that it’s so elusive. Until a few years ago you couldn’t even buy their fabrics online. Would you want to see it on every high street?
Doing some digging it seems that Liberty have teamed up with Target to license their pattern, rather than supplying the fabric, which explains why it’s so cheap. And once I got home, there is a big difference in my gorgeous Liberty Tana Lawn fabric and Target’s cheaper blend. But I have some divine items and enough Liberty print to satisfy my cravings for oooh, at least a month…
Interestingly, Googling for this article I find that Liberty at Target is being sold in the UK. But the scarf that I bought for $15? £25 from Liberty of London… Interesting. Anyway, I can’t possibly comment on these big strategic decisions, I know nothing about them and don’t purport to. But I am inspired by the way it’s been marketed.
Again, there are a few inspirations I take from this. First their creative use of pattern in the point of sale (check out the hanging rabbit!). Secondly the fact that they’ve created numerous pieces to cater for the whole family (sadly Mr H isn’t a fan of the ties or boxers) as well as homewares.
And finally I loved the fact that around the store they had these hanging signs above every Liberty range to call you the whole way round the store. Now we don’t all have stores the size of a Target – but we can learn from the way they “called” us around the store… hmmm… that could even apply to websites.
