There are lots of loyal Strawberry Shortcake fans out there and there will likely be more as the brand launches its first loyalty program to incent consumers to stock up on the playful doll and her related products.
Berry Points began showing up on Strawberry Shortcake product packaging Sept. 15 so kids could clip and collect and redeem the points for a variety of products such as a branded mouse pad, iron-on patch, growth chart or CD. The prizes will be refreshed every six months tying to themes such as Seaberry Beach in Spring 2005. Redemption levels include 15-30 and 75 points.
A variety of Strawberry Shortcake merchandise will carry the points including apparel from Children’s Apparel Network, Fox Home Entertainment’s Strawberry Shortcake DVDs and videos and Bandai’s dolls and play sets.
Kids go to Strawberryshortcake.com to learn how to redeem points and download an application that has to be filled out by mom or dad.
“If kids are invested in collecting these Berry Points because they know they’re going to be rewarded, it’s a great incentive for them to go buy Strawberry Shortcake over other competing products in the market,” said Jedd Gold, the director of marketing for DIC Entertainment, who in partnership with American Greetings Corp, the creator of Strawberry, launched the Berry Points program.
Langer Juice Co., the first promotional partner to join the loyalty program, will begin carrying Berry Points on the packaging of 600,000 64-ounce bottles of its new group of strawberry blend juice drinks to be in supermarkets nationwide at the end of October.
The brand “has great recognition and great brand equity, for us its exciting to be part of Strawberry Shortcake,” said VP Bruce Langer, a son of the founder.
About 200,000 members of the Web site’s Friendship Club will get a newsletter update on Berry Points and other news from Strawberryland.
A promotion kicking off the program offers a free growth chart for the first 10 Berry Points redeemed with no charge for shipping and handling.
Strawberry Shortcake first appeared on store shelves in 1979 as a series of greeting cards and ultimately brought in more than $1.2 billion in retail sales during the early 1980s when she was a must have doll for kids. The brand was given an updated look and relaunched in 2003 targeting three-to-eight year old girls, many whose moms played with Strawberry Shortcake when they were young girls. The year of the relaunch, the brand sold more than $200 million in retail sales in the U.S. and this year sales are nearing $500 million in worldwide sales.
“There’s always been a following for Strawberry,” Gold said.
In addition to the new loyalty program, lots more is underway for Strawberry including a national mall tour with live shows, major packaged goods promotions, character appearances at retail outlets and charity events and a multi-million dollar national print and TV campaign.
The brand has more than 320 worldwide licensees creating accessories, clothes, books, toys, dolls and videos.
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