In a previous post we reported on a store in Paris selling only one type of product : Éclair. L’Atelier de l’Eclair has reached the excellence and its reputation spreads online has you can see if you browse consumers’ forums.
We stumbled upon other stores of the same type in Paris
“Comme à Lisbonne”
Even after touring in Paris so many times, you can still miss something. This is the case for “Comme à Lisbonne”, a store which opened in 2011 and which sells only one product : Pasteis.
If you don’t know Pasteis, that’s a famous Portuguese pastry that has made the fame of one pastry in Lisbon (which is said to sell more than 10000 pieces of it each day).
Like in front of the original shop in the south of Lisbon, we were impressed to see a long queue of people waiting for their daily treat.
Popelini
Popelini is yet another trendy mono-product shop launched by Lauren Koumetz. The brand sells only cream puffs (however in a broad range of flavors) and has already two sales point in Paris : one in the Marais (pretty obvious … where could such a concept take off?) and one on 44 rue des Martyrs.
Lomography
Lomography is a brand whose shop on Rue St. Croix de la Bretonnerie (in the Marais area) attracts film camera aficionados. What you will find in this shop are exquisite old-looking cameras, re-editions of Polaroid cameras which will appeal to people nostalgic of vintage photos or aspiring artists looking for new means of expression and experimentation. Do not hesitate to visit the shop … besides being well designed the staff is also super friendly.
Our take on mono-product marketing strategies
We do think it’s a very difficult and risky strategy. You won’t be able to launch it everywhere (thus there are serious scalability issues) aside from large trendy cities like New-York, Tokyo, Paris and London. When it comes to culinary products like the ones above, you’ll face also the issue that it must be aligned with the culture of the country or be so famous that it transcend cultures.
Last but not least, such a strategy will not be forgiving if your products are not of world-class quality. You may find a small segment of consumers willing to travel and buy your stuffs but you may expect they will have very high expectations. Be ready to satisfy them! It will be a real challenge.
Posted in Marketing.
