Episode 3

Episode 3 of 3

DURATION: 1 HOUR

Jacques reveals how the lessons learned from selling to children were used to make childlike consumers of us all. From the rise of product-driven kids’ TV in the 80s, to the man who designed cars that appealed to children, and the contemporary creators of games that hook adults, Jacques asks how spending turned into a game – one that we can’t stop playing.

Comic ConDURATION: 01:30

BBC Two - The Men Who Made Us Spend, Episode 3

Have you heard of Peppa Pig?

Peppa Pig.png

Merchandise

Peppa Pig, the Entertainment One (eOne) brand, grossed over £200 million in UK merchandise sales in 2010, far exceeding the 2009 figure of £100 million. Additionally, for the first time in the brand’s history, NPD figures for the year reveal that Peppa Pig was the number one pre-school property in the total toy market for 2010 – moving up four places from its previous position in 2009. Now in its seventh year, new licensees continue to join the Peppa Pig licensing programme, which currently has 63 licensees on board.^[4]

In addition to episode DVDs, a variety of licensed Peppa Pig products is available, including video games and other toys such as playsets, playing cards, vehicles, and stuffed toys. There is also a series of books based on the character, one of which, Peppa Meets the Queen was written to coincide with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The line has also been expanded to include household items such as bathroom products, bed-linens, food, drink, clothing, and jewellery. Licensees include Holland Publishing in the United Kingdom.

Peppa Pig - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Product licencing can increase pricing on products by 50%...

And it's very, very big business:

Top 150 Global Licensors

May 01, 2013

The most authoritative guide to the world's largest licensors and properties, which represent almost $230 billion in global retail sales of licensed merchandise, provides sales data and trends for a broad spectrum of popular brands.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE REPORT AS IT APPEARED IN PRINT.

The exclusive annual retail sales ranking of the world's largest owners of intellectual property, compiled by License! Global, has been expanded yet again. What began as The Nifty Fifty in 1998 and was subsequently expanded to 75, 100 and 125 licensors, now officially becomes the Top 150 Global Licensors.

The addition of more than 25 prominent companies representing many well-known brands not only reflects the popularity and sophistication of brand licensing worldwide, but also its importance to retailers across all sectors as a bona fide merchandising and marketing strategy.

Despite uncertain economic factors and retail challenges to varying degrees around the globe, the salient fact is that brand licensing is clearly still a growth business. The Top 150 Global Licensors accounted for almost $230 billion in retail sales of licensed products worldwide in 2012. An impressive 56 global licensors reported retail sales of $1 billion or more.

Among the top licensors added to the Top 150 are Meredith, IBML, Rovio, Ralph Lauren, Hershey, Blue Star Alliance, Authentic Brands Group, Focus Brands, Sequential Brands, HIT Entertainment, Activision, Televisa and Tommy Bahama. These licensors represent dozens of renowned and diverse properties in apparel, entertainment and corporate such as Better Homes & Gardens, Everlast, Angry Birds, Marilyn Monroe, Hickey Freeman, Cinnabon, William Rast, Thomas the Tank Engine and Skylanders, to name a few. The new licensors appearing on the ranking for the first time account for almost $30 billion in retail sales of licensed merchandise worldwide.

Acquisitions and restructurings have resulted in several licensors being dropped from the rankings, but still are very much a part of brand licensing. They include:

Lucas Licensing–Disney acquired George Lucas' company, parent to the venerable Star Wars franchise, in October 2012, and is now in the midst of a corporate integration process as well as planning for the next film, Episode 7, in 2015.
Classic Media–DreamWorks Animation acquired the owners of an extensive library of classic content including Lassie, Casper and Rocky & Bullwinkle last July.
Lazytown–Turner acquired this kids' property with a health and wellness theme in 2011.
Marathon Media–With an ongoing restructuring of operations and accounting methodology, Marathon/Zodiak Kids, which reported $710 million in retail sales for 2011, is not included in this year's report.
Other notable licensors–Ford, Paramount, Lionsgate and Discovery, among others, are not included in this exclusive report for various reasons, but their respective properties are still viable in the marketplace and represent an estimated $4 billion in retail sales.

The Top Global Licensors experienced a few changes this year as one new licensor joined the top of the list and another reported a significant jump in retail sales.

Disney Consumer Products, once again with the distinction as the world's largest licensor, reported a total of $39.3 billion in retail sales of licensed merchandise worldwide in 2012, including Marvel and Lucas.

Top 150 Global Licensors | License! Global
Brand licensing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It all started with George Lucas who needed to raise money back in 1977 for his film Star Wars, "turning children into voracious consumers" ever since...
Steve Stansweet worked for Lucas, creating a franchise of action figures which had never been successfully marketed before. He has the largest collection of Star Wars memorabilia - or merchandising:

Rancho Obi-Wan

Rancho Obi-Wan | Inspired by the Force of Imagination

Now, such merchandising has made £13bn worth of products...

In the late 1970s, however, there was a backlash against “turning kids into mini-consumers” and the Federal Trade Commission started to lobby for restrictions to be placed on marketing to children.

Prof Benjamin Barber of Rutgers University, who has considered the politics of selling,
Benjamin Barber - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... worked with the FTC, family values campaigners and the Consumers' Union to counter industry's attempts to 'bypass the gatekeepers' (ie, parents) through TV.

But Fred Furth representing Kelloggs
U.S. DROPS 10-YEAR ANTITRUST SUIT AGAINST 3 LARGEST CEREAL MAKERS - NYTimes.com
... claimed that the US didn't need a ‘national nanny’ and that the should not play a ‘social agency on a liberal crusade’: “In an American democratic capitalistic society we all must learn, top to bottom, to care for ourselves and what the last thing we need in the next twenty years is a national nanny.”
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (2008) - IMDb
Then the US economy hit recession and with the presidency of Ronald Regan, industry was given a 'mandate' to dismantle rules protecting children. Now the US was free to screen TV programmes - acting as advertising - to children...

Action for Children's Television (ACT) was founded by Peggy Charren and Judy Chalfen in Newton, Massachusetts in 1968 as a grassroots organization dedicated to improving the quality of television programming offered to children.^[3][4]

In 1970, ACT petitioned the FCC to ban advertising from children's programming. In subsequent years, it sought a more limited prohibition, eliminating commercials for specific categories of products. In 1971, ACT challenged the promotion of vitamins to children. "One-third of the commercials were for vitamin pills, even though the bottles said, 'Keep out of reach of children' because an overdose could put them in a coma," said Charren. Responding to ACT's campaign, vitamin-makers voluntarily withdrew their advertising.

In 1973, responding to concerns raised by ACT, the National Association of Broadcasters adopted a revised code limiting commercial time in children's programming to twelve minutes per hour. Additionally, the hosts of children's television programs were prohibited from appearing in commercials aimed at children.

In 1977, ACT, together with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, petitioned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to ban television advertising targeted at children too young to understand the concept of selling, as well as advertising for high-sugar foods pitched at older children.

In 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan had appointed Mark Fowler as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Fowler, a longtime proponent of deregulation, had determined that children's television should be dictated by the marketplace. So that year saw the cancellation of many long-standing and Emmy-winning shows such as Captain Kangaroo, Schoolhouse Rock, Kids Are People, Too, Animals, Animals, Animals, and the CBS Children's Film Festival, all of which ACT had vigorously fought to keep on the air. It also saw the debut of many toy-inspired programs, which ACT contended were nothing but half-hour commercials: G. I. Joe,My Little Pony, Transformers, M.A.S.K., He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and the controversial Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future.

All throughout the 1980s, ACT criticized television programs that featured popular toys such as G. I. Joe and He-Man, saying that they "blur the distinction between program content and commercial speech", and successfully barring Garbage Pail Kids from the air. It also opposed the proposed introduction of Channel One News, a television news show featuring advertiser-based programming, into the schools, an effort which met with only limited success.

ACT brought many cases before the courts, including "Action for Children's Television v. FCC, 821 F.2d 741 (D.C. Cir. 1987)", often cited in media law.^[9]

ACT's efforts culminated in the passage of the Children's Television Act of 1990, establishing formal guidelines for children's programming, including rules governing advertising, content and quantity.^[10][11][12]

Action for Children's Television - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then along came Transformers - a TV series created by big toy manufacturers...

By 1984, U.S. regulators had removed many of the restrictions regarding the placement of promotional content within children's television programming. The way was cleared for the new product-based television program. Hasbro had previously worked with Marvel Comics to develop G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero for a three-pronged marketing scheme - the toyline, a tie-in comic book by Marvel, and an animated mini-series co-produced by Marvel's media arm... Given the success of that strategy, the process was repeated in 1984 when Hasbro marketing vice president Bob Prupis approached Marvel to develop their new robot series, which Jay Bacal dubbed "Transformers."[3]

The Transformers (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Merchandise-Driven

Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost!

"How can Transformers possibly 'sell out'? It started as a 20-minute toy commercial."

—Ethan, Shortpacked!

The Merchandise Driven show, otherwise known as the "half-hour toy commercial", is not merely a television show (or other work) with a line of toys licensed on the side, but a television show created from a line of toys. The program exists largely to sell these products to the audience, and this is most commonly associated with cartoons and anime targeted at a younger audience. It is rare for an independant show's merchandise to become so successful that it puts selling merchandise first.
Note that there are very few instances of the Merchandise-Driven cartoons of today that predate the deregulation of children's television in the Reagan years

. The FCC classified 1969's Hot Wheels cartoon as "a thirty-minute toy commercial", which pretty well killed the show

Main/Merchandise-Driven - Television Tropes & Idioms

The product came first, followed by the story line, giving the toys 'characters': were these advertisements masquerading as programmes or the ‘finest TV programmes’?

Then came along Mattel's Masters of the Universe:

Zodac from Masters of the Universe Classics - Another Pop Culture Collectible Review by Michael Crawford, Captain Toy

And there is the phenomenon known as

... where the advertising is hot - and not just for kids' toys, but for fast food
Nearly 70% of Food Ads on Nickelodeon are for Junk ~ Newsroom ~ News from CSPI ~ Center for Science in the Public Interest
... and for the family car, with the role of parents as the 'gatekeeper' being reversed under the new influence of children who are watching the adverts and 'acting as a Trojan horse'...

Or you could get adults to behave like children...

.

big - film scene - YouTube

Release and channel the 'inner-child': indulge the child within us:

The boundaries between child and adult are blurred: both find pleasure in the same purchases: today everyone wants smart-phones and video games...

Considered by some as a curiosity in the mid-1970s, the computer and video game industries have grown from focused markets to mainstream. They took in about US$9.5 billion in the US in 2007, 11.7 billion in 2008, and 25.1 billion in 2010 (ESA annual report).

Video game industry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's big:
Nintendo is back: why summer 2014 belongs to the Wii U | Technology | theguardian.com
PlayStation 4 hits 10m sales as Sony announces SharePlay initiative | Technology | theguardian.com
Gamescom 2014: Xbox One's Fable Legends Multiplayer Beta Starts October 16 - GameSpot

There’s also a look at how new technology simply represents a method of creating a new product – for instance, when computers were so big they were immobile, nobody could have predicted the rise of virtual pets, but now the Neopets craze is all the rage, and Jacques talks to some of the people behind its rise.

TV preview: The Men Who Made Us Spend - Yorkshire Evening Post
Welcome to Neopets!
This is where the idea of ‘stickiness’comes in: that games become 'fiendishly compulsive'.

This is 'play plus rewards': coming back for more and ranking to play more...

In daily life, we are not getting 'that dopamine rush':
5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted | Cracked.com
Computer games are addictive and use psychological ploys first tested on lab rats | Mail Online
Electronic entertainment: What makes video games addictive? | The Economist

With the rise in CREDIT, the reflective/deliberative approach to shopping where adult consumers might 'think too much' can be replaced by giving in to 'instant gratification' and the 'mpetuous narcissistic buying on impulse'.

Adults do not experience discomfort as when they spend with cash: we will spend 100% more when we use a credit card:

Tim Harford

3/19/2009 @ 6:00PM

Your Brain On Credit

“Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money.”

Exactly what credit does to our judgment remains unclear, but some of the research is alarming. One early study, from the mid-1980s, asked experimental subjects to say how much they would, hypothetically, be willing to pay for various consumer goods. When the experimenter, Richard Feinberg, “accidentally” left cues lying around to remind people of credit cards, willingness to pay increased dramatically–up to threefold, in some cases.

Later research by two MIT economists, Drazen Prelec and Duncan Simester, turned the hypothetical into the real. They split their subjects into two groups and invited each group to compete among themselves in an auction to buy tickets to sold-out basketball and baseball games. One group was told that payment had to be made by credit card; the other group was asked to pay in cash within 24 hours. The credit card group offered much more for the tickets–in one case, more than twice as much–despite the fact that the experiment was arranged so as to make paying in cash easy and convenient.

Your Brain On Credit - Forbes

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In 'Confessions of a Shopaholic', Avis Cardella shows herself struggling to keep her compulsion to use her credit card under control:
Shopaholic masked grief with out-of-control spending | PopScreen

Both adult and child 'want it now': now that we have infantilised adults, £1.4tr is owed by Britons.

PayPal means that the internet has brought the shopping mall into our lives: with a fast and secure way to pay on-line, PayPal means that there is no need to enter credit card details, making shopping faster and without pain. One-click shopping is worth £100bn in the UK, making it the largest in the world.

To finish, the consumer behaviour expert Philip Graves says its all about making a purchase as easy as possible - and not allowing us a moment to think and consider the alternatives:

Uploaded on 7 Dec 2010

http://www.TheMarketingSpot.com Business owners like to think customers want choices. They do, but not that many choices, according to consumer behavior expert Philip Graves, author of Consumerology. In this excerpt from the Power to the Small Business podcast with small business marketing expert Jay Ehret, Graves explains why too many choices, and too much information is not a good thing for customers.

Consumerology - How Customers Make Choices - YouTube

Consumer.ology | Philip Graves
BBC News - Shopping: The new tactics to get you spending

Our desires can never be satisfied:

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be... - Dalai Lama at BrainyQuote
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Jay Doubleyou

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

the men who made us spend: part three

Episode 3

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Merchandise

Top 150 Global Licensors

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