Fake April Fools’ products have led to genuine product launches this year due to mounting demand from customers, demonstrating that customers are more experimental than some brands assume.
Consumer pranks
The 1st of April is used by many brands as an opportunity to prank their followers by posting ridiculous and comical “new products”. However, this joke has backfired in some instances and has led to demands for the product from consumers. Brands such as Tarte and Jägermeister have both responded by launching genuine products this month based on a previous April Fool’s idea.
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By GlobalDataTarte and Jägermeister
Tarte, a makeup brand known for its warm-toned palettes, posted a green and blue eyeshadow palette in April 2018 and later revealed it as a prank, which was met with disappointment from followers.
A year later, on 28 March 2019, Tarte stepped out of its warm-toned comfort zone by releasing a version of the April Fools’ product, described as “the icy-toned vegan palette you’ve been begging us for” on their site.
On the same day, Jägermeister released a limited edition chocolate egg on their e-commerce website. The Easter-themed launch was for a liqueur-infused cream filling based on an April Fools’ joke from three years ago.
Tim Hawley (Innovation Controller at Jägermeister UK) explained “The last three years we’ve been inundated with customers demanding the #JagerEgg, we’ve had everything from desperate DM’s to pleading phone calls.”, as quoted recently in the Cosmopolitan.
These two cases highlight how brands are potentially underestimating their adventure-ready consumers who seek bold, experimental choices from brands.
Tarte’s joke, for example, was likely based on their assumption that their customers would not be interested in a cool-toned palette, but the backlash that followed demonstrated how keen they were for something new and exciting.
Global consumer survey
This is backed up by data from Globaldata’s 2018 Q4 global consumer survey, which found that 78% of women want to experiment often or sometimes when it comes to their skincare and makeup routine.
Additionally, Globaldata’s 2017 global consumer survey found that 45% of people globally like to experiment with new and unusual flavours in food, which explains why the new combination of Jägermeister with chocolate has found a passionate audience.
The fact that these products were initially presented as comical, shows that companies may be unaware of how curious and open to more unique experiences their consumers really are.
Other brands, such as Thinkgeek have been continually releasing several products across the years based on April Fool’s, including canned unicorn meat.