The Brilliant Marketing Ploy Used by Toy Manufacturers
How it’s used to jack up post-Christmas sales
It’s a cold Saturday afternoon in mid-January, and instead of kicking back in front of the TV, you find yourself, yet again, in the toy store at the local mall. “Do you have the new Furby?” You desperately ask one of the workers.
“Yeah, we got a shipment in this morning”.
“Oh thank god — finally”, you say, and let out a sigh of relief. Not wanting to seem like a perv with a Furb fetish, you hastily clarify. “I promised my daughter I would get her one for Christmas, but you were all out of stock. So I ended up getting her a Barbie instead. I thought that would be the end of it, but rest assured, as soon as she laid her hands on it she pouted and said ‘but you promised me a Furby’. So here I am.”
“Yeah”, he says, “I’m not surprised, many other dads have been coming in for the past week with the same story”.
Coincidence? Not a chance.
The problem and its impressive solution
According to Robert Cialdini, a social psychologist professor, toy manufacturers have always had a problem with low post-Christmas sales. During the holiday season, Shoppers would visit the mall frequently to purchase Christmas…
