Respected companies 2005 and the financial times

Respected Companies 2005’” PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Financial Times,
, (accessed October 13,
2011).
51. Form of promotion that
focuses on getting a company
or product mentioned in a
newspaper, on TV, or in some
other news media.
52. Communication activities
undertaken by companies to
garner favorable publicity for
themselves and their products.
Chapter 9 Marketing: Providing Value to Customers
9.5 Promoting a Product 487

Marketing Robosapien
Now let’s look more closely at the strategy that Wow Wee pursued in marketing
Robosapien in the United States. The company’s goal was ambitious: to promote the
robot as a must-have item for kids of all ages. As we know, Wow Wee intended to
position Robosapien as a home-entertainment product, not as a toy. The company
rolled out the product at Best Buy, which sells consumer electronics, computers,
entertainment software, and appliances. As marketers had hoped, the robot caught
the attention of consumers shopping for TV sets, DVD players, home and car audio
equipment, music, movies, and games. Its $99 price tag was also consistent with
Best Buy’s storewide pricing. Indeed, the retail price was a little lower than the
prices of other merchandise, and that fact was an important asset: shoppers were
willing to treat Robosapien as an impulse item —something extra to pick up as a gift
or as a special present for children, as long as the price wasn’t too high.
Meanwhile, Robosapien was also getting lots of free publicity. Stories appeared in
newspapers and magazines around the world, including the New York Times , the
Times of London, Time magazine, and National Parenting magazine. Commentators on
The Today Show, The Early Show , CNN, ABC News, and FOX News remarked on it; it
was even the talk of the prestigious New York Toys Fair. It garnered numerous
awards, and experts predicted that it would be a hot item for the holidays.
At Wow Wee, Marketing Director Amy Weltman (who had already had a big hit with
the Rubik’s Cube) developed a gala New York event to showcase the product. From
mid- to late August, actors dressed in six-foot robot costumes roamed the streets of
Manhattan, while the fourteen-inch version of Robosapien performed in venues
ranging from Grand Central Station to city bars. Everything was recorded, and film
clips were sent to TV stations.
Then the stage was set for expansion into other stores. Macy’s ran special
promotions, floating a twenty-four-foot cold-air robot balloon from its rooftop and
lining its windows with armies of Robosapien’s. Wow Wee trained salespeople to
operate the product so that they could help customers during in-store
demonstrations. Other retailers, including The Sharper Image, Spencer’s, and Toys
“R” Us, carried Robosapien, as did e-retailers such as Amazon.com. The product was
also rolled out (with the same marketing flair) in Europe and Asia.