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A few shipments arrived this week. If you log into your account at www.toywonders.com, before clicking on any of the links below, approved wholesale accounts will see wholesale pricing.
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DIECAST Collectible Model Cars And More
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Image |
Item# |
Description |
Stock Status |
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2101D |
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Restock |
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2105FD/3 |
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Restock |
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2171D |
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Restock |
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73226/16D |
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Restock |
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73305/16D |
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Restock |
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73306/16D |
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Restock |
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73330/16D |
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Restock |
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73347/16D |
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Restock |
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73360/16D |
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Restock |
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73360BU/6 |
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Restock |
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73361/16D |
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Restock |
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73384/16D |
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Restock |
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79312BU/6 |
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New |
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79314BK |
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New |
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79314/16D |
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Restock |
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9669D |
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Restock |
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9912FD/3 |
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Restock |
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9918D |
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Restock |
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Thank you
Lu
Toy Wonders, Inc.
www.toywonders.com
201-229-1700
God and the Art of Toy and Diecast Marketing
Branding Gone Mobile
By L. S. Su
You wouldn't think by my youthful picture, but I'm old enough to have witnessed three shifts in retail market strategies when it comes to the use of brands. I guess before going into the three different strategies, I should define what I mean by a brand. I like Seth Godin's definition, author of Linchpin, the best.
A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.
The oldest marketing strategy, which incidentally is still popular today, is that the retailer acquires space at a market place and thendoes their best to acquire profitable brands that people want to purchase. An example of this is Habib acquiring space in a 17th century open air market and filling his pushcart with different musical instruments and accessories; One of which would be cymbals made from Mr. Zildjian. Incidentally, what started in Mr. Zildjian's home in Turkey, has become one of the oldest musical instrument brands out there. If you know a drummer who hasn't heard or seen Zildjian cymbals, runaway from them; because most likely they are an alien inhabiting their body.
Today, the owner of the brand Zildjian is the largest cymbals and percussion accessory maker in the world. A more modern examples of this retail marketing strategy would be Sears retailing their exclusive line of Craftsman's tools or their line of Kenmore appliances. Another example would be your local grocery store offering Tide, Coca Cola, Peanut Butter Crunch, and Kleenex tissues (but not necessarily in that order).
I'm going to estimate that in American it was roughly starting in the 1960's there was a fundamental shift in retail strategy, when it came to implementation of brands. Maybe "shift" isn't the best word. I think "divergence" would actually be better. But since I market diecast model cars I think most of my customer base is more acquainted with the word "shift" (as in shift gears) than "diverge", so I think I'll stick with the former word.
My guess is that it started from famous brand owners being frustrated in their ability to get retailers to allocate enough space for their product line. These store buyer's are paid to be choosy. From experience, many buyers will flat out refused to carry certain items and even entire categories of goods/services. I'm sure it started with a owner of a well known brand being unable to agree on the terms of sale with a retailer. So a shift in retail branding strategy occurred.
Owners of brands started acquiring their own space at marketplaces themselves (e.g. The Gap, Old Navy, Claire's Boutique, Panera). If you want to see an example of this vertical integration, go to any mall in America. The anchor stores on the ends of the complex tend to follow the older selling strategy. The stores in between the anchor stores tend to follow the later strategy. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but have you noticed that it does not seem to matter what State or time zone you are in, the store offering at these large malls seems ubiquitous and identical (at least to me).
In the 21st century and with growing speed of the internet, desktops, smart phones and tablets have dropped considerably in price. The result is that these devices have started to flood into our work places, schools, homes, purses, and pockets. I would venture to say that most of us in America now personally own multiple devices like this. I even see toddlers with them now! This event is now allowing another fundamental shift in retail marketing strategy. Understand that I'm not saying the two older branding strategies are going away any time soon; but mobility has given new impetus on how brands are being marketed to the end-consumer. More importantly though, it has opened the playing field for consumers to have access to more branded goods and services that they otherwise couldn't purchase at these tightly controlled and high barrier to entry market places.
I think a good example of this is product called Candy Crush. Aside from lowering productivity at work, I noticed how enamoring and addictive the product was to a few of my colleagues. How did they acquire this product? How did it end up on their tablet or smart phone? No physical store was required for them to obtain it. The owner of this game no longer has to depend on buyers from brick and mortars to carry their item or warehouses to distribute their product. They can now market products and services directly to the end consumer. Owners of famous brands are aware of this too and now have reallocated large chunks of their marketing budget towards mobile marketing. Branding gone mobile has huge advantages:
- A physical location (meeting place) is no longer a requirement to convey your brand message
- Mobility give you access to individuals during non-traditional working hours about your brand message
- You are better able to tailor your brand message just for that particular individual
- Your brand message is now conveyed on a one to one basis
instead of a one to many basis
- You can reach people with your brand message that you never could have reached in the past
So this might all be very interesting, but what is the point and take-away from all this?
Branding gone mobile is not a 20th or 21st century invention. It was around LONG before the internet came into existence. It's actually a 1st century invention designed by a really smart and creative person. At the time, it was such a radical shift in end consumer marketing that it took the inhabitants of the world by surprise. The end result has almost all people on this Earth now knows something about this particular brand. See if you can pick up how the founder was able to accomplish this by this simple but really bizarre statement.
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” -John 2:19
These words were uttered about 2000 years ago. Jesus was standing in the temple's courtyard in Jerusalem. Today the Western wall of the temple is the only remnant of what was a magnificent facility. But this statement was a bizarre and incredulous thing to say because construction of the temple that they were standing in started around 583 BC and wasn't completed until 70 BC. Needless to say it required a huge amount of resources, labor and financing to build such a temple.
At that time, it was one of the most magnificent structures ever built where people gathered. This physical location catered to groups of all sizes regardless of their race, ethnicity, or faith. So what took basically over 500 years to build, this revolutionary marketer said, "Destroy this temple, and I'll raise it again in three days." The way, this statement was so outrageous, the very same claim was used as testimony against Jesus during his illegal trial.
Notice that Jesus didn't say, "Destroy this temple, and I will build it up again in three days." Jesus said, "raise it" in lieu what would be the more normal to say (i.e. "build it"). At the time people didn't realize that Jesus was referring to his own body as the temple and NOT the physical structure that they were standing in. This statement coupled with the event of Jesus Christ being raised back to life, started the first mobile revolution.
In the past worship of the Judeo-Christian God had to be conducted at a specified physical location. Note that most other theist and non-theist still have this requirement (that you must physically go to a location to worship). In the past, God's spirit was in the mobile Tabernacle (during Moses' time) and then later in the brick and mortar Temple located in Jerusalem that King David financed and his son Solomon built. The physical manifestation that God was actually present took on the form of fire or a cloud. But God does a revolutionary and mind boggling marketing move. God does a temple transplant and moves it from Jerusalem and into his people. How radical is that?
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; - 1 Cor. 6:19
If your body is now the the new physical temple with God's spirit dwells inside of you, you should be alarmed with all the new ramifications this brings on. One of which is how you treat your body and what sites your bring your mobile temple to go visit. Though I think it would be really cool if the physical manifestation of God's presence in this new temple was still fire or a cloud, it's not any more. The physical manifestation that people are suppose to be able to see in his children is something called love.
So the brand message we Christians should be conveying with these mobile temples is the Gospel message. The Gospel message is just Good News. And that good news is that Christ's death and resurrection brings new hope now to all who are willing to believe. To reiterate a point, branding gone mobile has huge advantageous:
- A physical location (meeting place) is no longer a requirement to convey the Gospel message
- Mobility give you access to individuals during non-traditional working hours about the Gospel message
- You are better able to tailor the Gospel message just for that particular individual
- Your Gospel message is now conveyed on a one to one basis
instead of a one to many basis
- You can reach people with the Gospel message that you never could have reached in the past
The take away? Take advantage of this branding gone mobile revolution. It was VERY costly to provide you this opportunity. Only you have access to people that others cannot reach. Don't be afraid to convey the brand designed to preserve and improve life.
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