Why is Squishmallow popular?
Today, with all kinds of social media and online entertainment everywhere, traditional static plush with relatively single function seems difficult to attract people's attention. But Squishmallows, a plush collection, proves this is not the case. In the past 12 months, people in Europe and the United States have queued up to buy it, despite the fact that it does not rely on IP licensing and blind box gameplay, two popular marketing tools. So how does it work?
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Like the necessities of life
Squishmallows plush series was launched by KellyToy in 2017. By the end of 2020, the sales volume has reached 50 million in 40 countries and regions around the world. By the end of March, that number had climbed to 73 million. The Learning Express Fort Collins toy store alone sold about 11,000 Squishmallows in 2020. Just three months into 2021, more than 9,000 have been sold, and the craze continues unabated. Store orders in the first three quarters of 2021 were three times higher than in the whole of 2020. So by the end of this year, officials estimate there will be a staggering 100 million.
How much do people love it? It's like grabbing toilet paper and masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, Squishmallows plush animals became so popular that people queued up in long lines to buy them when they learned that shops were ready to buy them, and even scalpers snapped them up. The Squishmallows have also been sold out at one time, forcing shops to limit the number of purchases per customer.Many fans risk infection by visiting shops, creating a phenomenon called "SquishmallowsHunt" that resembles treasure hunting and hunting. Not only offline such, online is often second empty phenomenon. There are even people who are swindled to buy their beloved Squishmallows online.
Squishmallows's original audience is teenagers, but its actual fans range in age from 10 to 30. Crazy fans have dozens or hundreds of them.
Rebecca Brown, a 21-year-old college student in Alabama, has 325.
1) Unique congenital conditions
To analyze the reasons for a product's popularity, we must analyse both internal and external factors. Squishmallows, as a plush product, has quite unique innate conditions.
* First, high quality and low price. Squishmallows allows extraordinary flexibility: not only is the outer fabric smooth to the touch, but the inner filling material also has very great extension. The whole is like cotton candy, no matter how to hold very comfortable. Except for larger sizes, the official price is limited to under $15. At some bargain stores, like FiveBelow, you can even get it for as little as $5. This is really quite affordable among similar products.
* Secondly, products push new fast, varieties of choice. KellyToy is very diligent and fast in promoting new products, and comes out with a seasonal collection whenever there is a holiday. Social events will not be missed. For example, during the epidemic, a series of products were launched to pay tribute to frontline medical workers and social workers. In addition, the products are available in sizes ranging from 2 to 24 inches (5 to 60 centimeters) to meet the needs of different preferences. Manufacturers even offer custom-made designs for different retailers. Product types are standard plush, baby rattle plush, children's neck pillows and other different types. Product styling not to mention, there are a variety of animals to choose from, dazzling. After more than 4 years of development, more than 800 different images of plush products have been launched, almost every day and a half.
The same model has different sizes to meet the needs of different preferences
In addition, the anthropomorphic setting.
Plush toy is a kind of category that pays special attention to emotional value. When KellyToy introduced a new character, it named it Hollythe Owl or Piperthe Penguin, and gave it a life story and personality printed on its factory label. Manufacturers also pay attention to a few marginalized groups. Squishmallows, for example, suffers from social anxiety, making her anxious fans feel respected and valued. These are small things, but they do help people understand and respect minorities. At the same time, it has unusual emotional value for fans who have similar experiences.
High quality and low price is not difficult, many products, push new fast is not difficult, for the toy personification set is not difficult, many manufacturers can do one or two of them. But to be able to do all three at once, for years at a time, is not an easy task.
Continues to provide emotional value in the future
After the product leaves the factory, the manufacturer continues to provide emotional value and service to the fans. In line with the factory personification strategy, Squishmallows can use the same title as human on the official homepage of social media on purpose to enhance the product's personality impression. In addition, Squishmallows allows consumers to register online as a full member of the official community, receiving official adoption certificates, exclusive offers and new product updates.
In addition, the company also attaches great importance to the interaction with fans on social media. Squishmallows's fans can post pictures of him on social media and @the authorities. The official will regularly repost fan posts and share them with the entire community of friends. Not only that, the official will also pay attention to the fan's account, pay attention to the fan's dynamic. This kind of recognition and equal interaction makes the Squishmallows fan circle very harmonious and friendly. Some fans even create new Instagram accounts just to share their Squishmallows, which some Facebook groups allow to trade. Many fans have made many good friends in the process of online sharing, treasure hunting and exchange.
Kellytoy is in the process of updating Squishmallows and its collection guide to improve its community engagement experience. In addition, Squishmallows has created a new range of plush products called Squishville, which allows for a new home for Squishmallows, creating more scenarios and possibilities for play.
Great success comes at the right time
If the combination of nature and nurture above allows Squishmallows to gain popularity within the fandom, then the rise of short video platform TikTok and the onslance of COVID-19 have contributed to its popularity.
TikTok started Posting videos after a fan accidentally bought the first Squishmallows. She found Squishmallows so cute when she saw all the different images and became one of the avid buyers. Many TikTok users posted videos of themselves going to shops to buy Squishmallows, or introducing them to Squishmallows at home. One fan, called Lambert, said: 'Squishmallows can feel like a fun adventure going from shop to shop in search of its available models. On TikTok, videos with the hashtag Sauishmallows have been viewed more than 1.6 billion times.
During the epidemic, Sauishmallows' healing function even more attracted many people who were full of anxiety about the reality. One fan, Bula Blanco, said: 'I think Squishmallows is really lovely and since everyone is trapped at home now and has a lot of time, they can be used as decorations or pillows as if they have someone around them, it's really comforting and healing.' As a result, Squishmallows allows allows many university students. Some universities even have their own Squishmallows community, where fans can communicate and even have video conferences.
There was also a reaction in Sauishmallow. According to the platform, Squishmallows has sold nearly 60,000 listings on eBay since 2021, with nearly 700 new listings added every day. This year, 58,000 have been sold.
Not only need innate conditions (pre-sales research and development), the day after tomorrow efforts to support (after-sales marketing, promotion and service), but also need to promote the situation. Squishmallows's recent fire could not have happened without a perfect combination of these three conditions.
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Why is Squishmallow popular?
