Goblin Squad Member
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This is an interesting article that I think is fully worth all three minutes it takes to read. While about television it seems to apply to crowdforgers while we do our thing.
The jist is some TV executives wanted to sell boatloads of action figures to young boys and made some TV shows to get them excited about it. When the TV shows started getting successful attracting larger amounts of girls and some parents, they scrapped their action figure production and cancelled the shows. Those weren't young boys, and they believed they weren't going to sell enough action figures.
The article closes with this gem
The Toy Industry Association has annual sales data up on its website, although I don't see a spot where it breaks down sales data by gender. One thing that is interesting is that, in 2012, action figures and roleplaying toys accounted for $1.39B in sales, while dolls, which are typically aimed at girls, accounted for $2.69B in sales.
Rescuing failure from the jaws of success because the monster didn't look like the photograph in their coat pocket.
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Goblin Squad Member
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There is only one conclusion that can be drawn.
My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic must be shut down because college age males are clearly not it's target audience. Besides is not like they will buy any My Little Pony products. Oh wait...
Anyway that's just idiocy. If the show is attracting a gender neutral audience and they actually notice lower than expected action figure sales because of this (something I'm not convinced will actually happen) then why not offer more gender neutral products? Circumstances changed (in a favorable way) so change your business plan. Don't scrap it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Don't you feel there is something wrong with te DNA of these shows when they reveal it's purely a vehicle for advertising and marketing to sell you; your children stuff?
Is TV really an advertisement delivery medium with shows to get you to watch the adverts?
I feel the Western world is saturated in adverts and selling. It's a cacophonous background noise.
If I had kids I'd like them to learn their reading and writing via something like Aesop's Fables which has healthy DNA in it. They are also entertaining.
Perhaps I'd be a boring parent or an unrealistic one to ban TV!
Edit: It's not addressing the OP's question, but reading that article I feel sick. Still I grew up watching Watership Down, so that might explain.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I call flimsy rationalization: The history of fictional female characters being weaker than male characters goes back far beyond tie-in merchandising, and extends out beyond venues which do tie-in merchandising.
This is a case of a (possibly unintentionally) misogynistic decision being rationalized as 'good business'. In an efficient market with a suitable number of rationally acting agents, the series would be bought by someone else and made profitable.
I bet the guys who managed to get funding for this research could sell it....or anything else come to that
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Goblin Squad Member
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I think their marketing strategy just sucks. 100 boys are potential buyers, only 80 are going to buy. Add 100 girls to it and maybe 25 buy it. You don't pull the project because you might sell more ! That was 25 more sales and 75 more word of mouth that might lead to more sales. Those 75 that didn't buy, you need to find why and what they want and fit it in the marketing. If they are watching it, some thing appeals to them. And maybe of those 20 boys who didn't buy would if the neighbor girl did. We all know we males buy stuff just because the female liked it.
Dumb, just dumb.