Squishies - No Marketing Needed?
The Beanie Babies of Gen Z.
Many of us blog, post and talk about how to market to the younger generations, Y and Z. Marketers now use more social media, technology, and mobile campaigns. However, kids are still going to be kids, and certain products aren't going to need all of these newer marketing tactics to saturate the market. I have one word for you: squishies.
For those of you unfamiliar with squishies (as I was just a few short days ago) - they are rubber pencil toppers in the shape of different animals. They are a new craze for Gen Z who can be found sticking quarters in vending machines hoping for a new squishy to come out or pestering their parents to buy them online. Young Gen Z entreprenuers have started their own websites selling these tiny animals. Adam, who runs the website, Adam's Animals, with his mom, sells about 1,000 squishies a week.
One can get a variety of different squishies. Zoo Mania, Jungle Mania, Pet Friends...there are even a few rare squishies that glow in the dark! Once the kids have them they keep them, trade duplicates, make videos, but rarely do these pencil toppers actually make it to the tops of pencils.
While all of this may seem surprising to the older Gen Y, we have to remember there was a time when we were crazed over something that have seemed silly to older generations. Remember Beanie Babies? I collected them, begged for the rare, expensive ones, and got upset when my younger brother would unknowingly rip the Ty tags off when he was playing with them. And you can't forget about Pogs, Tamagotchis, and Cabbage Patch kids, just to name a few popular toys of the '90s.
So, althought Gen Z might be the highly sophisticated generation in regards to media, technology and the Internet to date, they are still kids, and in many ways they are still similar to their preceding generations. While everyone is using social media and technology to market to these younger generations, squishies have shown us that certain products end up needing no marketing at all.
-Jocelyn Fielding, Account Coordinator/Gen Y Contributor
Lunch Today: Carne Asada tacos from Freds!
