A Zhu Zhu By Any Other Name?

What is the importance of the product name in an advertising and marketing campaign? It’s a difficult question, but based upon one popular product it seems to have a huge influence on the level of sales.

If you go to the Amazon “Toys and Games” category and look at the bestseller list, you will find that eight of the top ten positions are occupied by Zhu Zhu Pets. These are robotic, motorized hamsters which use artificial intelligence together with sensors to interact with each other, with the kides who are playing with them and with their environment.

In addition to the hamsters themselves, there are a number of different environments and toys which children can set up in a variety of arrangements for their electronic pets. It isn’t too difficult to imagine why kids in the target age group (4 to 10 years old) are so eager to get their hands on the Zhu Zhu hamsters. They are small, furry and cute. They produce a variety of cute little noises. They interact with external stimuli and their hamster environments – tube, tracks and toys, can be pulled apart, “redesigned” and then reassembled in a variety of combinations.

From the perspective of the doting parents there are plenty of plus points as well. They don’t required to be fed and watered, there’s no cage cleaning required – and they don’t shuffle off to hamster heaven, leaving the parents to explain that Hammy has gone to a better place.

So it’s no surprise that, despite being launched only at the back end of August, the Zhu Zhu pets are a such big hit with both parents and children. They might even be this year’s best selling Xmas toy if sales keep going the way they are.

On the other hand, if you take a look at the UK version of Amazon and check out the bestseller list in the Toys and Games category, you won’t find the Zhu Zhu pets anywhere in the top hundred. Partly because, in the UK, they are still being marketed under the name of Go Go Pets? Regardless, despite the fact that they are considerably cheaper to buy in the UK, the Zhu Zhu/Go Go pets don’t make a blip on the radar.

Cepia, the company who market the Zhu Zhu hamsters in the USA, have done a great job of rebranding and promoting these toys. After a successful local test launch in the Phoenix area, these toys have been flying off the shelves since their national launch in August. Prices are beginning to creep up as high demand puts pressure on existing stock levels. If stock levels are able to keep up with the demand, it is extremely difficult to envisage that some other toy might beat the Zhu Zhu Pets in the fight for the Christmas number one slot.

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Tags: go go hamsters, go go pets, zhu zhu accessories, zhu zhu hamsters, zhu zhu pets, zhu zhu toys

This entry was posted on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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A Zhu Zhu By Any Other Name?

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