It’s not often that a product or service can have a large, loyal following before it even exists. However, that’s just the case with the newly launched Jabot Cosmetics line. Jabot was previously a fictional product featured on the Emmy Award winning daytime soap, The Young and the Restless. In fact, the product has been referred to so many times throughout the series, that it’s as much of a staple as the show’s long-running cast.
Jabot made their products available to consumers this month. The cosmetic line will also continue to be written into the storylines of Y&R. “To generate viewer excitement and motivate sales, we’re tying the whole thing to what’s going on dramatically on the show,” said Steven Kent, senior exec VP-programming at Sony Pictures Television, which produces the program.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time a movie or television show has inspired companies to create and market a fictional product. The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant Chain was started in 1996, just two years after the release of the movie classic, Forrest Gump. Similarly, Banana Republic just launched a clothing line due out later this summer inspired by the chic 1960s style of AMC’s Mad Men. Promoting products to an already loyal fan base is a marketer’s dream. It makes their job easy and consumers get what they want. In the case of CBS’s latest marketing venture, The Young and the Restless fans will now be able to look, and smell, as fabulous as their favorite Y&R characters.
Sources: AdAge.com, BubbaGump.com, Fashionista.com