Strategize for Fad Item Profits

Consumer psychologists define a fad item as one where popularity explodes and then dies suddenly. With fads, it’s in the timing. Stock up too late and you’ll not only miss out on the profitability from the period of explosive sales, but you’ll get stuck with unsold products.
     That’s because of another feature of fad items described by consumer psychologists: They don’t perform any substantial function for the purchaser beyond the joy of possessing what lots of other people want. When the urge to spend good money on a useless object fades, so do fad sales.
     Consider Silly Bandz, those colored silicone bracelets, each of which takes on the shape of an interesting object, character, or word, when not being worn. A recent USA Today article says 7-Eleven stores’ sales of Silly Bandz are now only 3% of what they were last May. The Learning Express Store in Wilmington, N.C. is now selling five packs for what one pack used to cost. The owner of the Doodlehopper 4 Kids stores in Northern Virginia is quoted as telling the USA Today reporter he never wants to see another Silly Bandz pack, although the store sold 4,000 packs in one month not that long ago.
     On the other hand, some fad items have a longer lifecycle. Sales will still die off at some point, but as a retailer, you’ve more time to cash in on the trend. Based on consumer research, here three questions to ask when strategizing:

• Are the groups using the fad items groups that potential consumers want to belong to? Then the fad item can be used as a badge of membership or aspiration, so has a function.
• Does the fad item fit with lifestyle changes? Currently, fad items that seem to support personal health, economy, personalization, and/or community are more likely to last for a while because current lifestyle changes include a desire for personal health and those others.
• Is the fad a reemergence of a successful fad from the past? You can use the lifespan of the prior emergence to estimate the lifespan this time.

     Maybe the third criterion is what Silly Brandz, the brand behind Silly Bandz, had in mind when announcing their newest product. Called the Nano Watch Band, it’s a broad silicone holder for your iPod Nano. It turns your iPod into that durable fad from the past—a wrist watch.

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