Post by The Hegemon on Oct 30, 2022 15:42:37 GMT
Stopped by two locations yesterday and found zero Mega on the shelves, other than the large scale preschool bloks.
Zero.
We're heading full steam into the holiday season, and Mega has chosen this moment to vanish from the aisles? I'm confident that the stores didn't have a sudden blowout, both because their too-large inventory of Pokemon sets sat on the shelves for weeks more or less untouched, and there's also no gap where product had been.
This seems kind of disastrous for the brand, and it's hard not to read into it. What is Mattel's strategy here? They've spent literal years making the product less and less accessible, and what do they have to show for it?
At one of these stores I counted six separate full-scale Lego displays (including an entire dedicated aisle) but Mega doesn't even make a token appearance.
For that matter, what would they even stock if Mega tried to stock it? They've leaned way too heavily into Pokemon and they're kind of doing the same with repetitive Hot Wheels sets. And MOTU has all but disappeared from retail except for an occasional Skeletor head set and maybe a figure pack.
In terms of revenue, Mattel is the world's second largest toymaker (after Lego!). There's absolutely no way that they've simply fumbled with Mega; this catastrophic marketing and brand development strategy has to be the result of deliberate choices, either an intentional ploy to tank the brand or else a conscious decision to under-support Mega for some arcane reason.
I'm reminded once again of how pre-Mattel Mega released its line of Iron Man 2 sets months after the film had left theaters, while Lego had shelves full of Marvel licensed sets weeks before the associated movies debuted.
I'd love to know what hidden factors are at work that drive our beloved brand to head so often in the wrong direction.
I've said before--and I now maintain--that a formerly in-person retail brand that switches to (almost) entirely online sales is a brand that has ceased to exist. And this has the collateral effect of reducing sales at discount retailers like Ollie's and Marshalls, so people who might take a chance on the brand at a lower price won't have the chance to do so.
Zero.
We're heading full steam into the holiday season, and Mega has chosen this moment to vanish from the aisles? I'm confident that the stores didn't have a sudden blowout, both because their too-large inventory of Pokemon sets sat on the shelves for weeks more or less untouched, and there's also no gap where product had been.
This seems kind of disastrous for the brand, and it's hard not to read into it. What is Mattel's strategy here? They've spent literal years making the product less and less accessible, and what do they have to show for it?
At one of these stores I counted six separate full-scale Lego displays (including an entire dedicated aisle) but Mega doesn't even make a token appearance.
For that matter, what would they even stock if Mega tried to stock it? They've leaned way too heavily into Pokemon and they're kind of doing the same with repetitive Hot Wheels sets. And MOTU has all but disappeared from retail except for an occasional Skeletor head set and maybe a figure pack.
In terms of revenue, Mattel is the world's second largest toymaker (after Lego!). There's absolutely no way that they've simply fumbled with Mega; this catastrophic marketing and brand development strategy has to be the result of deliberate choices, either an intentional ploy to tank the brand or else a conscious decision to under-support Mega for some arcane reason.
I'm reminded once again of how pre-Mattel Mega released its line of Iron Man 2 sets months after the film had left theaters, while Lego had shelves full of Marvel licensed sets weeks before the associated movies debuted.
I'd love to know what hidden factors are at work that drive our beloved brand to head so often in the wrong direction.
I've said before--and I now maintain--that a formerly in-person retail brand that switches to (almost) entirely online sales is a brand that has ceased to exist. And this has the collateral effect of reducing sales at discount retailers like Ollie's and Marshalls, so people who might take a chance on the brand at a lower price won't have the chance to do so.
