Comments on: Does Mr Wonderful Really Exist?

By: topgunn

topgunn — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:45:04 +0000

I have one of those dolls and I belly laugh every time I hear it

Great work Mal

By: nancy shelton

nancy shelton — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:25:33 +0000

hey mal,

interestingly, the American Girl stores also have a “hospital” where girls can bring their dolls to be “nursed” back to health (repaired or refurbished).

the numbers tell you that American Girl stores are doing something right, huh? their dolls all have names and biographies, personalizing them to the girls. the dolls also reflect all races and apparent class statuses, which appeal to well, pretty much every girl out there who likes dolls.

once they buy the dolls, there are the outfits and accessories to buy, the visits to the “bistro” (which has excellent adult food as well, i can tell you firsthand!) etc. they also sell books and stories about each doll.

one other thing American Girl does right is they heavily invest in charitable grants and donations to relevant girl related organizations like the one i helped form 10 years ago while living in Chicago (Girls on the Run Chicago –www.gotrchicago.org — a running/self esteem program for girls 8-12 years old). Our non-profit group is part of a network that puts on running races in multiple sites in almost every state in the US where the runners are mainly……8-12 year old girls! So American Girl is well known and prominantly displayed in front of its ideal customer with its ideal message (“Girl Power!”).

we know from experience that the American Girl company carefully cultivates its image and who they do business with, since it all reflects back on their success.

thanks for a reminder of my days in Chicago!
kindly,
nancy

ps do you know where i can get a 6-foot tall version of Mr. Wonderful? i’m thinking he would sell great on eBay!

By: Glenn Twiddle

Glenn Twiddle — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:23:53 +0000

Hey Mal, Now I’m not as funny as you pair, but a story lately. We were buying a bed recently and took my two boys aged 5 and 2 along with us. We were in Snooze and the boys were (understandably) bored within 5 minutes so were playing up and jumping on beds, and were sick of being told to stop, so we left without making a purchase.

We go into another bed store, similar if not the same beds, and they an old arcade machine with all our old favs on it, galaga, pacman etc, and we could barely drag the boys out of there (and if I wasn’t forced to be interested in taking part in the bed decision process, ‘she who must be obeyed’ would have had a hard time dragging me out of there too.
A $500-$1000 arcade machine and I’m sure my $2500 bed covered much of the cost of that machine.
Maybe we should think more like that bed shop. That’s a tamed down version of what the bass store is doing. In this case though,
entertaining the kids, so the sale can be made unencumbered.
Not completely unrelated to your post here, so I thought worth mentioning.

The other thing I wanted to quickly mention/congratulate you on was this months rant. I ask the readers, how could you resist clicking on the email that directed you here? Mal very, very skilfully FORCED you to come to his website by telling you enough of the story to get you curious, then said
‘…for the rest of the rant click here…’ or something, and here we are.

Mal you’re a genious and I’m honoured to be a student.

Glenn

By: Mal Emery

Mal Emery — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:51:07 +0000

Thanks for your comments Alison.
I got just as many belly laughs from you as you hopefully got from me. Thank you for believing there’s still hope for me!

By: Alison

Alison — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:55:29 +0000

Dear Mr Un-wonderful
A small part of me wants to be girly and pout and say ‘oh Mal, that’s sexist’….but most of me is laughing out loud!! I spent 2 nights this week on an old motorbike mustering cold, wet sheep in the rain, (to put them in a shed to prevent them from dying) COMPLETELY under-impressed with my NOT-at-home partner, for being a BLOKE (ie farmer type) and NOT a Mr Wonderful. Although NOT to the point of considering trading him for battery operated toys.

But guess what? I think I’d shove ‘Mr Wonderful’, for being completely UN-entertaining. And as for the Doll Craze above – what the????
(Now don’t get me wrong, I can shop with the best of ‘em. I just do it quicker and cleaner … probably more like a bloke. Or a smash n grab thief!)
But I certainly understand the ‘entertain the crowd’ side of the doll thing for our businesses. Its added a great dimension (and a few more hours’ work and planning to my day) to the marketing plan I’m working on for a client. Thanks for sharing your research and knowledge. I’d bet there are plenty of takers for your Mr Un-wonderful qualities!