Two examples of how companies are segmenting and balancing their product and marketing efforts between children and “eternal children”.
First: “Where the Wild Things Are”
Detailed by Saki Knafo in the NY Times in Bringing ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ to the Screen, the different approaches in bringing “Where the Wild Things Are” to the market by the studio and by the director Spike Jonze are quite telling:
“Where the Wild Things Are” seems sure to appeal to the sensibilities of a certain cohort of urban young adults — the type who read comic-book novels and wear skateboard sneakers; who might concur with a note I saw one day scrawled on a legal pad in Jonze’s office: “There is no difference between childhood and adulthood.” Finding an audience beyond that demographic, though, may well pose a challenge to Warner’s marketing department, which is trying to position the movie as a family-friendly film for kids of all ages. They have adopted a broad-based strategy to lure children into the theater, buying advertising on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. They’ll also be making a special effort to reach what one executive described to me as “hip, tastemaker” kids: Ugg will be selling a special “Where the Wild Things Are” kids’ boot, and Urban Outfitters has a collection of “Where the Wild Things Are” T-shirts and shadow puppets.
Jonze’s team, meanwhile, has been pursuing its own marketing strategy, one not particularly oriented toward children. Jonze directed a short documentary about Maurice Sendak [the original author] that will be shown on HBO. Eggers wrote a novelization of the movie and is publishing it (with a fur cover) through his own publishing company, McSweeney’s. There’s a line of “Wild Things” skateboards, a soundtrack album by Karen O of the art-rock group Yeah Yeah Yeahs and branded “Wild Things” jewelry for sale at a boutique near Jonze’s Lower East Side apartment.
The difference in approaches could not be more stark.
Which one will be more successful? How will the two approaches overlap, interact and conflict?
Second: Lego
Nelson D. Schwartz in the NY Times, Turning to Hollywood Tie-Ins, Lego Thinks Beyond the Brick:
“In the end, you’ve got to go where your consumer is going,” Mr. Barbour says. “And the reality is that themes and movies are what kids want. There’s no point in developing the best product in the world if you can’t put it on the shelf.”
To me, Lego’s shift from their traditional less-structured sets to Hollywood-themed sets strikes me as short-sighted and disappointingly lame.
Why? Returning to the article, note these opinions by two parents:
[Parents] like Alyson Richman Gordon of Huntington Bay, N.Y., say Lego has retained its innocence, especially when it comes to toys built around the traditional bricks. “It echoes back to a bygone era,” she said. “And I find as a parent that I’m drawn to things from my own childhood that inspired my creativity.”
Lester Munson, a father of two in Alexandria, Va., agrees, even though he sees a difference between the Legos of his own childhood and those favored by his 8-year-old son, Jonas. “The most exotic thing I could build when I was a kid was an ambulance,” he says. “Now Jonas can build the Death Star.”
“I still like Legos, and I’m 41,” he says. “Instead of watching TV or playing computer games, the kids are building something, and Jonas and I will build stuff together. The pieces and the sets are a lot cooler than they were 30 years ago, and if the price you have to pay is these tie-ins, that’s fine.”
Perhaps. But my guess is his kids won’t feel the same way, because they will have developed a very different sort of attachment to Lego. While the move to license more Hollywood content (applying EA’s playbook from the video game industry) has paid off in short-term profitability, I find it hard to believe that the strategy will create the same passion, lifelong attachment and recurring sales that has historically driven Lego’s success. Will the short-term pay off in the long-term?
Thoughts?
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Besides the detailed look into the great Jonze and the history behind “Where the Wild Things Are”, the article also noted a bit I loved about how criticisms are compliments in different contexts (and vice-versa). A broken record: context matters.
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UPDATED 9/12
Jason Kottke on Legos becoming just another single-use plastic toy, referencing a note by Gerrick Johnson, a toy analyst at BMO Capital Markets in the same NY Times article,
Man, when even the financial analysts are saying that you need more open-ended play toys, you’ve really gone off the rails.
Just saying…
