Many Parents will testify that they are the decision makers in the Supermarket. Sales results would present a different reality. A classic example is the recent Disney Ooshies Campaign by Woolworths Supermarkets in Australia.
For Children and Adults alike tending to a collection can be both enjoyable and educational. Coins or stamps, for example, can spark an interest in geography, history and other cultures. It is this collectability that drives the urge to collect which can be harnessed by marketers. One is the way things form part of what psychologists call the “extended self”. As Russell Belk explained in his 1988 paperPossessions and the Extended Self: “We cannot hope to understand consumer behaviour without first gaining some understanding of the meanings that consumers attach to possessions. A key to understanding what possessions mean is recognising that, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, we regard our possessions as parts of ourselves.”
The excitement of Blind bags are highly conducive to marketers surging sales through the scarcity principle, which makes some selected toys ‘more valuable’. In the case of the Ooshies, there are 36 different toys produced in different quantities. Some are very rare including glitter and special finishes on versions of Elsa, Woody, Captain Marvel and The Mandalorian, for example. This can inspire strong fears of missing out in child peer groups, putting pressure on parents to secure missing toys.
School yard buzz combines with this collecting urge and builds into a wave of higher sales, brand switching and market share grabbing campaigns for Retailers.
