St. Louis-based keepsake trunk company Petite Keep has expanded its offerings with the Collegiate Collection, featuring officially licensed trunks with branding for Tennessee, Missouri, LSU, TCU, Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Florida.
“We’re a little fish in a really big pond when it comes to licensing,” said Petite Keep brand manager Kimberly Hall, who has led the brand in getting licensing deals. “Being able to show the colleges and the universities that we have a product that is really like a memory-making keepsake. And it highlights their collegiate experience.”
Hall noted the next question was, “How can we just get it in front of the universities in order to get licensing?”
Featured in Season 16 of “Shark Tank,” the product was created with emphasis on keepsakes for children and babies, before adding wedding trunks. Petite Keep Events & Community Manager Emily Stisser said she noticed collegiate trunks without a licensed or trademark phrase.
The Collegiate Collection trunks are priced at $315 in the petite size, and $225 for the mini size, according to the Petite Keep website.
“We have brought this line to our wholesale collection a little bit, which has been exciting,” said Stisser, noting that boutiques around the country have begun carrying Petite Keep trunks. “We try to meet customers at their highest of highs. And college, for a lot of people, is one of those times, whether it’s graduation or amazing sports memories or just nostalgic moments.” Hall said, “Our ultimate goal is to be able to wholesale in some of the bookstores on campus.” Petite Keeps trunks recently worked with Mizzou and will now carry trunks in the bookstore.
The decision about which colleges and universities the brand would start with for their initial launch came with internal research, noting where customers live and go to school. With that research, Petite Keep began the Collegiate Collection with an emphasis on SEC schools. In the fall, Petite Keep will be launching a second collection with 13 more universities. Additionally, the brand’s website features a button where consumers can submit their schools to draw attention from the brand. That feature has brought in more than 1,000 submissions.
“In the second drop, we’re really focusing on some female-founded universities. Then adding in more diversity as far as location and demographics. We’re really excited to bring a collection that’s a little more diverse than our first drop,” Hall said. “A big goal for our second drop is going to be just seeing a lot of other universities that you wouldn’t normally expect.”
Petite Keep has brought a focus on consumer-generated content creation as its marketing strategy to show how the trunk may be used. The trunk may be styled for graduation, decorated with their diploma, cords and cap. Additionally, the brand is planning Game Day pop ups this fall to each of their licensed universities to meet with organizations on campus.
Stisser, whose father is the NHL Blues VP/Corporate Partnerships Eric Stisser, was raised surrounded by professional sports before graduating from Miami Univ. (OH) after studying entrepreneurship and journalism.
