Six secrets to the H&M-Balmain collaboration success

So the launch of H&M’s and Balmain’s collaboration finally hit online and in stores four days ago (5 November), and it was a huge hit. The massive response from fans on this collaboration even surpassed the fashion world’s expectations. The H&M website reportedly crashed minutes after the announced launching, while it’s opening in its brick and mortar stores caused chaos in London. Dutch fans, meanwhile, had started lining up outside the H&M stores in Utrecht and Amsterdam the evening before - hours before store openings.

The first brand to garner as much attention, recently, is Apple whenever the mega brand launches a new iPhone model. Patrons brave weather and night temperatures waiting outside Apple stores just to be the first to get a hold of the new iPhone.

For other brands that do not get as much response out of their marketing, the case of the H&M-Balmain collaboration and Apple’s are worth learning from. Fortunately, both successes did not rely on pure luck alone. It could also happen to your own brand, with the right strategies applied into your marketing!

Let’s talk about November 5. About H&M-Balmain.

Were the designs actually that worth fussing about? (I am now writing in the past tense because the items in the H&M-Balmaination collaboration quickly sold out merely a few hours after launch). I’m here not to critique on the designs of the collection, although, I admit feeling a tad heartbroken after seeing the designs and the “Sold Out” sign below them. Some of them were indeed worth coveting. Yet, such designs are not what I would expect to create a huge clamor among fashion or H&M or Balmain fans, in general. In fact, Balmain’s own launches have never piqued as much mega attention. I also actually two pieces that were left in an H&M store and neither the quality nor design impressed me. Like I said, only a FEW designs are worth coveting. No sour graping here.

Explaining this phenomenon, however, will need a lengthy post if I were to dissect the advertising elements at play. Therefore, I will attempt to explain them subject by subject in succeeding posts. In a nutshell, what occurred was a mixture of perfect brand collaboration, classical conditioning, priming, hinging on each brands’ (not to mention, the Kardashian’s) reputability, creating scarcity, and heavy use of social media marketing (plus, an awful lot of photoshopping!).

See you in my next posts about the H&M x Balmain collaboration!