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This fact was amply demonstrated to me last week during a walk around a local supermarket when my two and a half year old son spotted a product with a picture of Thomas the tank engine prominantly displayed on its packaging. The product was small, to my eyes easily missed, but being on a low shelf he noticed it immediately and then of course he had to have it in the way that small children have to have something and cannot wait until the mystical "another time" or "later" of which adults are so fond. It was quite clear that his demand was irrefuseable, that is unless I was prepared to do the rest of my shoppping dragging an unwilling small tantrum behind me. My son initially came across Thomas the Tank engine through videos after which we started to come across toy Thomas trains which added together to start to form a collection. Some of his first words and most of his sentences include some or many of the charachters of the Thomas Tank engine series, Thomas, Percy, James, Henry, Terrence etc, he cannot quite manage "The fat controller" yet but it is only a matter of time. The point about this is that the product which caught his eye was not a video, or a toy train, it was a set of mini books in a small rectangular box. He could have had no idea that they were books when he picked them up because the opening was pointed away from him, but on seeing the image of Thomas he already knew he had to have the item. The image of Thomas could (although it would have been most innapropriate so the owners would not have allowed it) have been on a container of bleach and my son would have wanted it. The image of Thomas and other popular icons has and can be used to sell all sorts of things through association, duvet covers, tee shirts, jackets, mugs, and baseball caps being the first that come to mind. All the above are also sold with images of disney characters and are quite irresistable to children. The use of popular icons allows effective cross product marketing. It should come as no surprise, that association remains a powerful selling tool to all ages. Beckham the current English football team captain and Manchester United player only has to have a new hair style and thousands of youngsters rush to the hair dressers all over the UK for an imitation cut, keeping up with the icons important in their lives. Merchandising allows the owner of the image to gain wider exposure and the producer of the item to gain greater sales by association with the icon. It is not always clear who is paying whom for the benefit because both entities benefit from the arrangement. Merchandising works. Author Mark Abraham (mark@sticky-marketing.net) 19th October 2001 |
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