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Heavily branded children’s toys aren’t new. In 1994, Mattel released a Barbie McDonald’s Restaurant Set, complete “with talking drive-thru” and miniature menu boards. Around the same time, ride-on toy cars for children became popular, and BMW, Jeep and Mercedes-Benz wasted no time slapping their logos on plastic bonnets. Daniel Cook, a professor of childhood studies at Rutgers University and author of The Commodification of Childhood, says: “Consumerism has been a part of children’s lives for as long as there has been modern consumption,” roughly since the mid-1800s. He references Victorian artist Kate Greenaway’s picture books of the 1880s, which had a tie-in line of clothing for girls produced by Liberty of London. He also points to Campbell’s Soup’s range of dolls, first sold in 1909. Alongside this new brand strategy, Mini is diversifying its approach to customer engagement by embracing the emerging ‘sharing economy’. At the Clubman launch in Berlin, the company announced that from now on it will automatically offer new customers the option to enter their car into BMW Group’s car sharing service DriveNow. Get ready to dash! Race around the market using one of the real Mini Brands collectable movers, gathering all the Mini Brands you can. Take out the game components and read through the easy-to-follow instructions and you’re on your way through the market in the Mini Market Dash Game! Recommended for 2-4 players Collect Action Cards throughout the game. Some cards help you, while others effect your playing partners.
In the rush to embrace digital change, Mini is also keen to avoid losing touch with its rich British heritage. The original Mini, created in 1959 by car designer Sir Alec Issigonis for the British Motor Corporation, was a no-frills small car dedicated to making optimum use of space. The first version to go on sale even did so without in-car heating on standard models; customers had to request the installation of a heating unit if they wanted one. The option enables Mini owners to make money from their vehicles when they are not using them by authorising registered DriveNow users to access and drive their cars. People can locate cars in their vicinity via the mobile DriveNow app and Mini owners can use the platform and respond to requests on their connected car dashboards. Items that are not available in store will take 3-5 working days (excluding weekends and bank holidays) to be delivered to your nominated store. The original in the premium segment of small cars has reached its 60th birthday – but it is even younger than ever. It was sixty years ago, to be precise on 26 August 1959, that British Motor Corporation proudly revealed the result of their development activities in creating a new, revolutionary compact car.In addition to the new toy releases, Mini Brands is launching Mini Fashion Series 2, which features miniature versions of popular clothing and accessories. This series allows collectors to add a fashionable touch to their Mini Brands collections and provides even more opportunities for creativity and self-expression. The decision to bring Mini’s different models to the fore is intended to broaden its appeal and bolster its current growth trajectory. At present, the flagship Mini model, the Hatch, accounts for 69% of all Mini sales in the UK, while the all-terrain Countryman accounts for about 15%. By giving each of its five models their own platform, Mini hopes to achieve greater diversity in its sales mix and encourage consumers to reconsider the brand. Lots of space inside with minimum dimensions outside, seats for four passengers, impeccable driving characteristics, superior fuel economy, and a very affordable price – precisely this was the brief the creator of the Mini, automotive engineer and designer Alec Issigonis, received from BMC’s Top Management. Toy industry experts Silver and Zahn both expect the Mini Brands popularity to continue through this year and beyond.
There are two bottles of Dove body wash in my home, and they are nearly identical. They have the same distinctive curved shape and flip lid, the same label, the same Unilever trademark. They differ in just one crucial way. One is 22cm tall and is designed to be used in my bath. The other measures 5.5cm – about the size of my little finger – and is a children’s toy. We have more digitalisation, so all of a sudden people can get more information about everything and are keen to know what’s behind the brand and the shiny surface,” says Marc Lengning, head of brand management at Mini. The toy took off as the world suddenly found itself nostalgic for grocery shopping, as the pandemic shifted a lot of supermarket trips to online. We know the brand’s on fire, but we don’t want to just saturate the market,” she said. “We need to make sure we manage that very fine line around scarcity,” by placing special editions like the Gold Rush in select retailers for very limited time periods, she said. With our five ‘superheroes’ we want to make it very clear that each of those cars has its own character,” explains Lengning. “The Clubman is the most extreme example in terms of moving in a direction away from the past, but you should still expect a lotof fun from the different models as each character emerges.” Car-sharing service
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The key is constantly refreshing it,” Silver said. “Keeping it fresh to keep the consumer interested.” Since the German manufacturer relaunched the quintessentially British car brand in 2001, sales have gone from strength to strength, rising 12-fold to reach more than 302,000 units last year. Yet Peter Schwarzenbauer, the BMW board director with responsibility for the car brand, declares that despite this success, Mini will have to embark on a new direction if it is to continue to thrive. The new brand identity will debut in advertising for the Clubman when the model goes on sale in October. A preview of print and outdoor ads shown at the launch event reveals a more sparse, sombre presentation in comparison to recent Mini campaigns, such as ‘Not Normal’ in 2013. The Clubman is simply photographed against a hardwood floor in an old industrial building as light streams in from a glass roof, with minimal copy underneath.
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