As kids we watched and looked up to cartoons such as Spider Man, Thunder Cats, Transformers, Ninja Turtles, as well as many others. We would try to do our best imitations of our heroes and heroines. We would make a beeline for our favorite character when buying a Halloween costume. And it doesn’t stop there. Today you can find your favorite heroes imprinted on many children’s products like water bottles, lunch bags for kids, spiral notebooks, folders, pencils, stationary, kids’ backpacks, and many more.
Cartoon heroes have made their way into their own type of marketing after gaining much positive feedback from sales. This kind of marketing, called ‘Character inspired merchandising,’ is one of the top trends for marketing at the moment, boosting sales and promising a continuing upwards trend for manufacturers.
One particular good example is Hannah Montana. With this idolized girl who leads a double life’s popularity consistently on the rise, sales of products with her face on the cover of everything from lunch bags for kids to backpacks, to kids’ watches to Halloween costumes to blouses and to shirts, have also been on the rise. The market for kids wear is going through a major boost, with an increase of independent children shoppers, no longer accompanied by parents who do the shopping in place of their kids.
It seems that many of the more popular cartoon characters boost higher sales. For girls, Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Barbie, Powerpuff Girls, Wizards of Waverly Place, Totally Spies, and even Cinderella are the ones that rake in the most sales. For boys, Spider Man, the Hulk, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, and Transformers are the cartoons that bring in the most in sales. Then there are toddlers. They love Barney, Teletubbies, SpongeBob Square Pants, Dora the Explorer and Lilo and Stitch.
In especially high demand are lunch bags for kids. Lunch bags for kids as well as water bottles are what kids these days want to go along with their clothing attire. Since kids are the ones who are mostly interested in these products, lunch bags for kids are the best products to cover with faces of iconic cartoon characters. Kids want to be a part of the world of their peers, and use what they use. So if friends are using products with Hannah Montana, then kids with those friends will want to do the same. The trend spreads.
Brands that include GAP for Kids, Disney, the Tea Collection, and JC Penney are all companies that are focused on shoes, clothing, backpacks, lunch bags for kids, stationary, and Halloween costumes. Many kids who love their heroes are psyched to see these same heroes on the clothes they wear and things they like to use for school. Character inspired merchandising, a hot marketing trend, will never fade away. As long as kids continue to love their cartoon heroes and new cartoons keep popping up to take over toon world, there will always be products with their favorite characters on the cover for sale.