Business Opportunities Weblog

What You Can Learn from Tickle Me Elmo

By on December 1, 2011 in Ideas

Tickle me Elmo

Fifteen years ago, Tickle Me Elmo took over Christmas.

TThe hottest toy of the 1996 holiday season caused shoppers to turn vicious, inspired a whole new kind of black market (the $35 dolls sold at a several-thousand-dollar markup) and sparked a salacious scandal. During Tickle Me Elmo’s epic reign, Tyco “the toy company behind the mega-craze” saw its sales soar from $70,000,000 to an astounding $350,000,000, all thanks to a simple plush toy.

Since that mania a decade and a half ago, Tickle Me Elmo remains the benchmark for products’ must-have status.

OPEN Forum has a list of some things that you can learn from the genius marketing behind the frenzy.

marketing

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,208 posts to the site.

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  • http://wahm.business-opportunities.biz Angela Shupe

    I remember it well, and it was quite the phenomenon. Even older kids joked about wanting one, just because they found it amusing. They definitely hit the mark that so many companies have striven for during the gift buying season.

  • Martha

    The TickleMe Plant Greenhouse seems to be the must have product this year for plant and nature lovers. Of course kids love it. In it you can grow a real pet like plant that moves, closes its leaves and even lowers its branches when Tickled. It re-opens in minutes!
    The I love My TickleMe Plant Jingle is hard to forget. I really do love my TickleMe Plant. While supplies last I guess

  • Martha

    Here is a direct link to grow your own pet TickleMe Plant. Best gift I ever received. http://www.ticklemeplant.com

  • http://n.a. Cindy Hawkins

    Every year about this time I read about some ugly pre holiday shoppers melee. I am old enough to remember the CABBAGE PATCH DOLL riots, where at one store, they showed store employees actually throwing packaged dolls into a crowd of screaming shoppers. Greed at full tilt. Hello?? Maybe some people need to revisit what the holiday season’s all about…

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