Yesterday, I read about one of the most brazen tactics
deployed by businesses to push their sales in periods when there are few
takers. It is the case of Toy manufacturers in the U.S. who face a slump in
sales post the Christmas sale.
Usually, in the West, people buy gifts for their kids and
loved ones on Christmas and post that it is just for presents on specific occasions.
The companies wanted to tap into the market post the festival season too. They
tried different tactics such as increased marketing, and offering discounts but
it only led to losses owing to the increased costs. They needed a way to bring
the customer back to the stores and needed a creative solution for it.
The manufacturers tapped the psychological spectrum associated
with gifting. Usually, parents gift toys to their kids on their demands. Kids
see the advertisements on TV channels they watch or the places the children
visit. Usually, the ad fervor is high in the pre-Christmas season. The ads are aggressively
run so as to prime the children to ask their parents for that specific gift.
Now, parents usually promise their children that they
would buy them that particular gift their child has sought. The companies
played on this emotion to tap their future sales.
It is shocking to know the strategy being deployed by the
companies around this. Innocent parents have promised their children that they
would buy their kids the product which has been aggressively promoted on TV
channels. The product is a new launch and is highly sought after owing to its
new feature and relatability to the currently popular TV character or anime.
Children want that particular product badly.
Now having promised their kid that the product would be
gifted on the coming Christmas, the parent visits the Toy store around
Christmas. They are fumed to find that the product is not available in the
market. Dejected, they choose some other toy to compensate for their kid’s
demand. They usually buy multiple products to placate their kid.
After Christmas, the devious plans of the companies come
to the fore when they push their ads again on various media. This time the kids
crave the toy even more than they did earlier. Parents who would have not
wanted to visit the Toy store again as Christmas was over, are forced to visit
again to find the toy they could not find on Christmas. The shrewd companies
have pushed their inventories into the stores by now. They did not push the
inventory at Christmas on purpose. This was their astute plan.
Parents now get to fulfill their promise. Kids get the long-awaited
toy. Stores meet their sales targets. Companies rejoice in the execution of
their psychological tactics. In the end, consumerism wins.
The frenzy around the Cabbage Patch Kids Dolls in the 1980s and the Furby, a robotic toy in 1998 are evidence of the intentions of toy manufacturers. This even led to state leveling charges against the manufacturers for false advertising even when there was no inventory to be sold.
This shows the vulnerability of humans to falling for
psychological traps that businesses resort to. The tactic discussed above by
toy manufacturers was brilliantly orchestrated indicating careful planning and thought
processes. Although this particular trick has now been unraveled, we are not
aware of other traps that companies may be deploying on clueless people.
Comments
Post a Comment