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Great
Moments in Kiddie Marketing
Fast-Food Toys
Fast-food restaurants have used premiums to attract impulse buyers for decades;
however, the reliance on toys as premiums started in the late 1980s. The
phenomenon was attributed to several related factors:
1) Too many hamburger chains
2) Low inflation had put a ceiling on price increases
3) Health-conscious "thirtysomethings" started to avoid fast-food.
More important, chains' marketing departments had discovered that kids
accounted for much of their sales. For instance, a Wendy's study revealed
that 83 percent of parents are influenced by their children in deciding
where to eat, and premiums heavily influenced their choices. Accordingly,
the company more than quadrupled its budget for toy premiums. Other chains
were thinking along the same lines and the strategy appeared to be working.
According to Newsweek (12/12/88):
Selling about 40 million California Raisins helped boost Hardee's revenues
to an expected $3.3 billion [in 1988], up from about $2.7 in 1986. Led
by Jack Laughery and William Prather, the company has become the third
biggest selling chain, behind McDonald's and Burger King but ahead of
Wendy's. Despite its problems, Wendy's has also benefited from the toy
strategy: after losing $4.9 million in 1986, the chain earned $22 million
in the first nine months of 1988.
Toy marketers, in turn, realized that restaurants were becoming one of
the best places to sell toys. Some even started selling goods via vending
machines in restaurants. Brandweek reported that several Burger
King and Pizza Hut restaurants in the South installed machines to vend
trading cards and stickers.
Of course, one of the most assured ways of turning a profit was to tie
in to popular movies, TV shows, and other licensed properties, e.g. Toy
Story and Pocahontas. These deals were cut any number of ways; movie
studios even offered product placements in return for large-scale promotions.
For example, in Fox's Bye, Bye Love, 20 percent of the film took
place in a McDonald's.
(adapted from Fashion and Merchandising Fads and Brandweek,
"Toys," Feb 14, 1994)
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