Why Last Crumb can charge $12 for 1 cookie

$140 cookies???  In this economy???

That’s right. Last Crumb Cookies are the latest product in the "premiumisation" trend, and people are quite literally eating them up.

So what the hell is "premiumisation"?

Well, according to Forbes, it's a retail megatrend and strategic move by consumer brands to elevate product offerings and charge higher prices.

Let’s use Dyson as an example. Do I want to pay $899 for a fancy hair dryer? F*** no.

Does anyone else offer a product with such remarkable craftsmanship and capabilities? Also, no.

So, do I have a Dyson AirWrap? ALSO NO. Girl, be for real.

But if you're looking for the very best, the Dyson AirWrap's your only option, putting them in a league of their own.

Okay, but, what does this have to do with cookies?

First of all, we're not talking about just any cookies. We're talking about Last Crumb Cookies. Learn the difference!

Last Crumb Cookies is a rebellious cookie brand founded on the idea that cookies should be crafted with the same zeal as fine wine. Not only that, but they believe cookies can be a luxury status symbol.

Crafted over a 3-day process and supposedly worthy of a Michelin Star, these cookies claim to be so good, your own grandmother will disown you.

And they're so good that the company does over $10 million in revenue.

$10 MILLION ON SOME COOKIES.

So how are they convincing people to spend $140 on 12 cookies?

It comes down to their genius marketing strategy, which is made up of four main pillars:

Hype. Exclusivity. Branding. Positioning.

Let’s unpack these a little.

Hype.

The brand generates hype by sending packages to influencers to create hype around their product. Nothing groundbreaking. However, Last Crumb has tailored their unboxing experience to be sharable, thus increasing their virality.  

Search up Last Crumb on TikTok, and you’ll see thousands of UGC videos of people excitedly ripping into their purchase.

The most viewed? Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart doing an ASMR-style unboxing. “I got sent a PR box of cookies,” she whispers. And she’s not the only one featuring Last Crumb cookies in her content. There are tons of other creators who have done the same.

Exclusivity.

The brand has 84 unique flavours of cookies, but many are yet to be released. Harnessing the power of limited drops is something we’ve seen countless times in fashion and streetwear. And Last Crumb has adopted this model, claiming it’s due to the hype and demand for their product.

However, you can’t deny that FOMO is one hell of a drug, and it's an even better marketing ploy. In their first year, the brand amassed a waitlist of tens of thousands as each drop sold out in seconds, confirmed CEO Matthew Jung.

Branding & Positioning.

Last Crumb's marketing strategy hinges on creating the feeling you’ve struck gold. Carefully crafted to be the designer sweet, everything about them screams luxury, right down to the unboxing experience. This is a huge point of difference for a cookie brand.

How do they do this? Each cookie flavour has a story. They come in matte coated bags set with a creative brief. And they are, apparently, baked with excellence. In fact, everything about the brand, from the product photography to the packaging and social content, positions the cookies as a luxury product.

But there’s a cost of living crisis?

Last year, a combination of climate shocks and the pandemic disrupted food and energy production. We saw consumer prices increase all around the world at an average of 7.4%. Things have been tough for many people.

So, who’s buying cookies for $140 a pop?

According to J.P. Morgan, even amid the current crisis, the demand for luxury goods remains high. In fact, the luxury goods market's currently sitting at $387 billion. This is why non-luxury brands are turning to premiumisation, despite the contradictory climate.

The consumers for these products are on the younger end of the demographic. While Gen X and Boomers are motivated by product functionality, Millennials and Gen Z have been bombarded with choice. So functionality has become a bare minimum requirement.

We want to be won over by excellence in design, style, and what it means to own a product.

We want to steer away from “mass-produced" and “processed” and opt for “organic” and “small-batch.” We want quality.

Millennials and Gen Z also fall victim to coveting what others have, every damn time. Add in the social media hype train and you have people cutting down on essentials just to buy premium. 

Look, I’m not saying I’m filling my trolley with 4-ply toilet paper and lobster tail.

But after writing this article, I might just buy the damn cookies.

-Sophie, Copywrite2