Word: storch
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...like Mr. Squiggles, Pipsqueak and Num Nums, scoot around and coo like real pets. Kids can add accessories like a car, a skateboard and a wheel to their own little hamster world - without the inevitable mess or traumatic death. "This is the hottest toy of the year," says Gerald Storch, chairman and CEO of Toys "R" Us. "There's absolutely no doubt about...
...companies, like Mattel or Hasbro, can provide. The Zhu Zhu Pets are a small-business success story. The toys are made by Cepia, a seven-year-old St. Louis, Mo., company with only 16 employees. "It's fascinating, as you talk to executives from other toy companies," says Storch. "They are thumping themselves on the side of the head, wondering, 'How did I miss this...
...noticed something that reinforced his decision: a slew of videos starring hamsters. He figured his toys could also become YouTube hits, and they have. "When they are running on the wheels, going through tunnels and driving a car, it looks like the physical manifestation of a YouTube video," says Storch. "That's one of the reasons Zhu Zhus are so hot. It is so cool that people love to exchange them and post them...
This spring, Toys "R" Us tested the Zhu Zhu Pets in the Phoenix area. "When the first numbers came in, we could hardly believe them," says Storch. "We fell in love immediately." So have consumers. Cepia also executed a clever marketing plan. During the summer, the company hosted hamster-demonstration events at Major League Baseball games, of all places. The Zhu Zhus attended ball games in Atlanta, Arizona, Philadelphia, Texas, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Cepia also actively courted the mommy bloggers, sponsoring some 250 "hamster parties" at the homes of bloggers across the country. Cepia shipped product to the moms...
...Over the past few weeks, Toys "R" Us has been quietly testing the "R" Market in select stores across the country. Sales "are running ahead of where we expected," says Storch. However, customers at the Toys "R" Us in Phillipsburg, a town that sits on the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border, were for the most part unimpressed. Over the course of two hours on a Friday afternoon, only a handful of customers even wandered over to the "R" Market, which had been open for about two weeks. Granted, the store wasn't exactly packed in the toy aisles either...