Comic Con; the last stage boss of all pop culture conventions. And like last stage bosses, they contain a lot of pretty neat stuff, like toy exclusives. Picked out the following from a recent emailout.
Of course, none of these are ever going to reach me, though if I had to pick one, that Fafi noir one looks pretty neat.
This year's Toy Sale battle amongst the retail giants is epic. Really, really epic. And it helps that it is supported by the release of Toy Story 3 (which, in case you didn't know, is a 90 minute advertisement for the toy industry).
I'm not talking about the prices, which show absolutely beautiful finesse in procurement for toy retailing (and that deserves its own blog entry), but the boundaries they have pushed to be the leader in the pack by:
Purpose-built catalogue designs
Adding the internet to their deck of cards
I pay particular attention to Kmart and Big W, with other retailers in the race being Toys R Us and Myer. And I must stress that when it feels that Toys R Us are not on top of their game for what is essentially their specialty, something definitely will be changing in the company over the next few months if they are going to stay alive.
The July school holidays is marked on the calendar of every person who works in the toy industry. Children are going to be out shopping with their parents, and toys need to be around to try to win their hearts. It is also the start of the 6 month stretch towards Christmas, the time of the year the industry champions and relies on for its bread and butter. I am more inclined to believe that Christmas was invented by the toy industry, like how Valentine's Day was invented by the gift industry.
What prompted me to write about this were two things, oneKmart's way and one Big W's way, which will keep them competitive and dominate this year's toy sale. And this plays further testament to the idea that it doesn't take much to make a huge impact.
The Catalogue
This is going to be the bible for every child; they will be getting their markers circling what they want or cutting out the product out of the catalogue and giving it to their parents. I'm 24 and I still do that.
Children only see the product, and possibly any cool freebies that come with it. If they see that $100 Nerf gun or that $80 Barbie, all they will see is the Nerf gun and being able to shoot their friends with it, or the Barbie and being able to groom her. They don't see the $100 or $80 pricetag.
Parents only see the prices/ deals, possibly any educational features about it. Most anyway (there is the adventures with Mr Hot Wheels, one of my favourite customers who is an account manager at Wrigleys who collects Hot Wheels cars, and Mr ThomasLegoMan, who is a lovely father who seems more keen about building that giant Lego city in the spare room than his son does...). If it fits the budget, yes, if it doesn't, "go find a cheaper toy."
Which brings me to these specimens: the first, a page out of Toys R Us' board game deals, the other two is Kmart's.
VS
On both of them, I can still see the board games I want. Connect 4, Scrabble, etc. Heck, on the second Kmart page, there is space for me to draw my circles, like so:
It is pretty obvious that I want Hungry Hungry Hippos, and the price is strikingly clear at $18. Kmart cuts to the chase on the pricing; not clearly mentioning how much is saved. But because it goes straight to the point, it doesn't leave room for parents to think about finding a better deal.
With the Toys R Us' one, it was a bit tricky.
The circle is now touching two other products. WHAT NOW???
This is exciting for a child: there are toys EVERYWHERE and there is so much happening on this page! A parent would see the same, but think otherwise: there are numbers everywhere and it doesn't look as clean, with clouds everywhere, tabs and all this... TEXT. Like cleaning and tidying their kid's rooms wasn't enough, now they need to look at cluttered advertising. There is an obstructive layer screaming "be reluctant' in place for the parents, but it is quite clear this catalogue is intended for children.
A clean look which is parent-friendly and the final bottomline: Kmart sells Hungry Hippos for $18, $9 cheaper than Toys R Us.
Catalogue Page Summary:
Myer - 32 pages
Toys R Us - 32 pages
Kmart - 70 pages
Big W - 132 pages
Utilising the Web
Big W have their catalogue online where you can make purchases and have it delivered either immediately or closer to Christmas time. This allows parents who normally struggle to secure that awesome deal instore to just go online.
Kmart's Christmas layby allows customers to layby off the catalogue, irregardless of stock availability onsite and have it available around December. They can go online, compile the list and take it to a layby counter at any Kmart.
This implies the following:
Customers don't need to pay for most of it until December
Kmart is 'taking orders'.
Therefore, Kmart does not need to carry as much stock as before
Therefore, Kmart can lower its margins further to take into account the reduced risk they would have had of stock that doesn't turn over.
What clever bastards!
One of my biggest concerns is that if major brick and mortar retailers are now taking their business online, what room is there left for independent or smaller online stores?
This is going to be the trend for years to come, and I can't wait to see how other giant retailers serving different industries continue to take advantage of the power of e-commerce and an aging Gen Y, who have essentially been brought up by the internet, start joining the workforce and have a lot more disposable income. I will be keeping this year's catalogues as a reference and hopefully compare how the industry progresses.
One final thing: Kmart has captured the Star Wars demographic with the following offers:
8089 Hoth Wampa Cave before it has hit the Lego Shop@home website, and the Tantive IV exclusive. Like... woah.
This entry was written by admin, posted on July 2, 2010 at 2:26 am, filed under Blueprints. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I noticed this poster on my way to the newsagent. No message has been so bold, so powerful and so want me to purchase a toothbrush. Their product development team mustve been desperate, but whoever is behind this creative probably saved a few jobs. Wow.
This entry was written by admin, posted on June 17, 2010 at 1:04 am, filed under Blueprints. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This is the type of movie where you will feel like a bit of a jerk for downloading because it is pretty genius. And you should pay for good things.
I was going to write up some review, talk about some of the ideas, appreciate some of the artists, love the characters, etc.
But it is wrong because this movie provided a canvas for anti-establishment, and writing anything remotely about the movie's ideas would prove its point.
Four Tet's Kieran Hebden is quite the eclectic sound mixbag. He has had all sorts of amazing collaborations, a nice roster of albums and a genre reach that makes him a guy you would've touched on at least once in your musical experiences. This track is from his latest album, which brings a whole new meaning to 8 bit sounds.
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This song really flew under the radar. Forget Praise You, Right Here Right Now & Weapon of Choice. Actually, maybe not, but this one is quite the gem by Fat Boy Slim. The video starts off a little bit slowly, so if you're feeling a bit impatient, skip ahead a minute.
Had a massive nostalgia trip. Even though the 'Tom Baker' years technically occurred outside of my existence, they were the only ones I watched during my upbringing. The intro is so iconic and synonymous with the science fiction genre. Doctor Who > Star Trek. When developing the Tom Baker Doctor character, he was described as a 'cosmic hobo'.
I wonder who really planted the seeds to eventually give birth to the whole rave scene in the UK back in the 80s? Club owners, the drug culture, or quite simply, everyone's fascination with Doctor Who?
So James Murphy, aka LCD Soundsystem, said that he will be stopping at their current album 'Sound of Silver'. They were showing a lot of promise; pulling the plug a bit too early?
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My admiration for Perth drum and bass boys Pendulum shot through the roof. This was played as a bit of a gag and promo for Pendulum on Triple J radio: a dance remix of our beloved ABC News opening theme music. I knew something good had to come out of listening to the radio whilst driving out of my way to pick up some paperwork; I literally froze in my car.
Would it be anything like Bill Bailey's BBC News Rave spot?
0:48: THIS IS THE BBC! DO NOT LISTEN TO THE OTHERS! THEY ARE FALSE PROPHETS!
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Who does a better remix of their respective news theme?
People need to drop this connotation that negotiations are battles, but rather a meeting where two parties have a huge interest in whatever the outcome may be. Each party wants a piece of the pie, it just depends what part of the pie they want.
Listen to the other side. Before any figures start getting thrown around, make sure you understand what it is the other party wants out of your negotiation. Maybe it is something more pragmatic. Maybe rather than trying to bargain, they are trying to get more out of their money, or vice versa. Suss out their needs and respond accordingly.
Research. Know what you're talking about and go in there with a bit of a goal. Are you trying to lower the price of supplies you are getting? Get an industry average and back up those figures. Are you trying to increase your prices? Have a value proposal as to why. Most people usually lose out here because they simply don't know what to expect.
The Theory of Relativity. This is the part where you have the least control over: the type of person you're dealing with on the other side. Are they natural hardballers? These are the type of guys whom you'll need other hardballers backed with a lot of facts. Developed a bad relationship with them? Send your charmer. The guys who try to drain every cent out of you? Well, have to fight fire with fire.And the guys who simply want to work with you and build good, mutual business with you? Don't forget to send that sample pack to their missus.
A few weeks ago I tweeted about a chillwave band (I'm still uncomfortable with using this term, but since it's the only term most people can relate to to describe the genre of music...) under the alias, Chill Murray. I heard about them on triple j when they were talking about their SXSW experience, but hipsterrunnoff has it covered pretty well.
One thing I'm pretty confused about is this: if they are so chill, how come their music is not available? I want to purchase/download it onto my mp3 player and share it with my friends and all, but alas, it's not publicly available other than through a stream through the myspace or muxtape. It is not chill to load a page everytime I want to listen to cool stuff.
And it is pretty clever of them to ride off Bill Murray's awesome branding, because he is the godfather of hipsters. ESPECIALLY with all the little flowers on his beard. Maybe we can expect guys to start wearing flowers in their beards.
The movie which revived Bill Murray's movie career, made Scarlett Johanssen's and gave shoegazer music a new brand and visual representation.
Bill 'Groundhog day, Ghostbusting ass' Murray!
Anyway, irregardless, because "I'm so chill", I'm going to send them some love their way. Also because I have a man-crush on Bill Murray.
Latest offering from the Chemical Brothers; following from the Escape Velocity public release, put yourself at ease with another dose of what's to come in their up-and-coming album.
Heard this on the radio and couldn't resist doing a quick write-up. Hailing from Chelmsford, UK and currently hanging around London. Has done remixes for a few big names and is now releasing some of his own stuff.
There is something particularly hypnotic yet simple about 'You'.
I shared this on my twitter the other day, but I'm still not over it. There is something fundamentally right about EVERYTHING in the video; the lyrics, the ridiculously cheesy background images/ video, the complete disregard to how uninterpretable it is. Oh and there is a wookie on a guitar halfway through the video.
Celebrate the love!
Yeah, they actually say that. Tear-jerking stuff, eh?
Spotted this neat fella in Angus Black, a little boutique in Fortitude Valley during my recent trip to Brisbane.
Was one step away from getting it until I realised the shirt cut didn't do it for me. Don't you hate it when you come across interesting designs, but poor shirt cuts? T_T
Not too fond of when work keeps you out of the loop of your essentials, but back on track and The Chemical Brothers have a new song out in the airwaves (JJJ have been playing it pretty regularly) which is a part of their forthcoming album Further. Accompanying each song once the album is released in June would be a mini-movie by the same guys who do most of their live gig visuals. They really are a mixbag; they never stick to one formula which is probably one thing I admire most about them. The great thing is everytime they do try something different, it's still pretty fucking good.
The Pinin team for Supanova Brisbane 2010. Plus Ben who had to leave early.
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