Fisher-Price's marketing mix strategy includes a stellar promotion strategy characterized by out-of-the-box thinking and innovative concepts. One example of this strategy was Fisher-Price's idea to show their commercials for interactive learning toys right on the shelf with the related products. Since toy store and departments store or discount store shelves are not powered with electricity, this seemed like an unlikely idea, but Fisher-Price pursued it with Ovation In-Store, a firm that creates unique marketing displays "that will stop a consumer in their tracks and compel them to interact with your brand" ("About Us," n.d.).
In Fisher-Price's case, Ovation In-Store "thought of inventing wireless electricity" but quipped that "it wasn't in their budget" (Weschler, 2007). Instead, what they came up with was "a battery-driven solution that would provide enough power to run their program for three months" (Weschler, 2007). Since there were no batteries available capable of providing power for that length of time, Ovation In-Store undertook research and development to determine how to get around that drawback. Finally, they developed "a custom display with its own power source, which has solved this issue" (Weschler, 2007). Benjamin Weschler, the founder and president of Ovation In-Store, remarks that "Fisher-Price is truly selling sophisticated technology here and the only way to communicate to the consumer is to use sophisticated technology to sell it" (2007).
Another promotional strategy that Fisher-Price has employed is that of the e-mail campaign. In 2003, for example, "an e-mail campaign by Fisher-Price more than doubled FisherPrice.com's share of all traffic to toys and hobbies," according to the Internet traffic measurement and analysis company, Hitwise ("An e-mail campaign drives traffic to FisherPrice.com," 2003). Not only did Fisher-Price's Internet traffic for toys and hobbies rise from 1.3...