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Shopkins marketing lessons for small business

Shopkins marketing lessons for small business Shopkins marketing lessons for small business

During a TV commercial break I channel flicked and found an old episode on Gruen , the segments name was Target market and the topic of discussion Shopkins.  For those who have no idea about Shopkins, on the surface they are miniature figures of grocery items.

Shopkins are a phenomenal marketing masterclass waiting to be taught.

Let me explain why this is true.

 

Target market

The Shopkins marketing focuses on the Target market of children aged 4 – 10 years old.  Everything about the branding and promotion of the product is meticulously focuses on appealing to the target market.

  • Colours
  • Music
  • Products

In Shopkins advertising are all chosen and designed with 4 – 10 year old children in mind.

 

Marketing strategies the owners of Shopkins employ to make them an amazing success

Tap into something that has genuine appeal to your target audience, in this case cute, colourful items that allow the child to feel like they are grocery shopping like Mum or Dad;

 

Create a craze or  fad with your target audience by releasing a large number of Shopkins  to collect;

Release the product for a limited time to fuel the frenzy and scarcity.

Shopkins creates two important things

  1. The old Shopkins become rare and more collectible;
  2. Collectors are encouraged to buy the next release to keep up with their friends and continue to be a part of the craze.

 

To increase the scarcity of the product further, the makers have created 227 ultra-rare Shopkins.

Shopkins have distinguishing characteristics like being gold in colour, glitter or choc frosted finish.

 

Gemma Stone, the rarest Shopkin of them all

In a stroke of marketing genius,  in 2015 Gemma Stone sold for $21,500!

To find out  the full story about Gemma Stone please click below

https://money.cnn.com/2015/12/08/smallbusiness/shopkins-gemma-stone/index.html

Once the target market is established, additional products are created to encourage collectors further.

There are Shopkins playsets, TV shows, t-shirts, live stage shows and even a toothbrush.

 

Pricing the product

The entry price Season 10 Shopkins sales at Target for $3.  The pricing of this product allows its target audience to buy their first Shopkins with their own pocket money.  Imagine the excitement and joy a little child experiences when they hand over their own money to buy something they really want.  Now imagine the same child being happy with just the one small plastic figurine.  I don’t think so!  The child will want to buy their figurine a friend, perhaps a playset to put the figurine in and then when they see the stage show advertised on TV, they will ask Mum or Dad to go along.  That $3 initial purchase has probably cost Mum and Dad tens, hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending how deep the child wants to dive into the product universe.

 

What if the household has more than one child aged between 4 -10; your product universe has another person to engage with.  As a parent of twin 8 year olds and a 10 year old, I can tell you that all children will want their own figurines, playset and t shirt.  Sibling rivalries spark a nice amount of increased purchasing, especially if one child receives a rare Shopkin and the other doesn’t.

 

How these lessons relate to your business

When  small Australian companies can start off selling small plastic figurines turning this into a $600 million product empire with a global following of loyal customers, why wouldn’t your business want to use the same strategies?

 

Shopkins marketing strategies summary

Having Identified your Target audience;

  • Find out the target markets likes dislikes, budget, product and services desires;
  • Create a product or service that genuinely appeals to you audience on a personal level;
  • Build in product obsolesce to drive demand;
  • Think of a way to introduce Scarcity to drive demand for your product or service;
  • Cultivate  communities passionate about your products and services;
  • Create opportunities for your target market to buy new products or services on a regular basis;
  • Try the Base model / offering to let the audience try at a low entry cost;
  • Build complementary products and services that help  collectors engage  with your offering;
  • Offer an ultra-premium product or service, with an ultra-premium price.

To read other innovative marketing content on our website please check out these articles

Business lessons learnt from Build a Bear 

WOW article 

 

The team at Complete Accounting would love to help you market your product or service more effectively; you may  be wondering how an Accounting firm can help your business with marketing.  We can help by sharing awesome content like this article and by offering an introduction to experts in the field.

 

Check out our Referral partner’s page here for our featured marketing partner.  To help prospective clients and customers find your business, we can help by making an introduction to a Signage and design expert.

 

 

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