Build-A-Bear - What a Concept

As most of you have known, Laurel posted on Facebook that Benji finally got his very own Build-A-Bear. To those who doesn't Facebook (like yours truly), yes, Benji has a Build-A-Bear after seeing his good friend strutting around with one. No, we didn't just say, "OK. Let's go get you one". Instead, we took the opportunity to challenge him to a money-saving initiative, teaching him to value saving money. It was hard for him in the beginning and we are very proud of him to come through with the challenge. We did not make him save every penny the bear would cost, we padded the difference, but we were still very proud of him to be able to save $15.50 towards it on a weekly net allowance of 90 cents (after 10 cents being set apart for God's Kingdom). Putting that into perspective, if he have not spent a dime since day one, it would have taken him 4 months to get to $15.50. Since he was learning the ropes of saving, he obviously took longer than 4 months. That's the quality I guess I'm the proudest of all - that Benji had set the goal and persevering towards it for over 4 months without losing that perseverance or just plain giving up. A friend once observed that, "he's very spirited". I couldn't agree more.

I guess I could say I should thank Build-A-Bear for providing an initiative for my son to save. However while I was there to witness Benji building his very own bear, I was thinking to myself, "Wow! What a simple but very, very profitable business model". This really is a million-dollar idea in my books. To those who don't know the Build-A-Bear concept, let me fill you in just a little. Fundamentally, Build-A-Bear is just a teddy bear shop with a twist - you get to see a teddy bear being filled with the "stuffing". The hook-line-sinker to this is the personalization part of it. They get the little ones to personalize EVERYTHING. You pick your very own bear; you pick a voice for it; you get to help stuff it up; you bring it to "life" by putting a heart shaped token into it; you "bathe" it; you pick the outfit of your choice; you can further accessorize it; finally you give it a name. Having kids of my own, I know kids love these kinds of stuff. Every kid in this world has an imaginary friend of some sort - the privileged ones typically have theirs in the form of their favorite stuffed animal. This is where Build-A-Bear capitalizes on - sure you can get a plain naked bear for as little as $10. But what kid would want a naked bear - look at that Razorback football outfit! Oh look here, it's a firefighter (what Benji decided on) or a police bear. Hey, cheerleader bear if girls fancy that. It's almost halloween, how 'bout some halloween costumes for your bear? A car? They even have a car for the bear???!!! Wow! OK, I'm being a little sarcastic here, but you get my point. Every little accessorizing adds up and it's no longer that, "Oh, it's only $10". I'm not being bitter or negative about this at all, I'm really marveling at the genius of this business model. It absolutely works, and I wished it was MY million-dollar idea! They really put a lot of thought into how to make this very, very attractive to children. The personalization highlight of all this (in my opinion) is the part where the store employee helped Benji bring his bear to "life". With the heart token, she asked him to follow this little ritual with words (I don't remember all of it):
(put it on one eye): So he sees everything you see;
(rub it on the nose): So he smells like you;
(rub it on the forehead): So he is smart like you;
(rub it on the arm): So he is strong like you;
(rub it on the tummy): So he is never hungry;
(rub it on the feet): So he will go wherever you go;
(rub it on the heart and give it a kiss): So he knows he is loved.

Then she put the heart token into the bear (even at the anatomically correct location, mind you!) and stitch the bear up. There you go, the bear is now alive. Wow!

The marketing genius doesn't stop there - they also put a lot of thought into how to make the store "acceptable for consideration" to parents shopping for their children. They know there are two kinds of parents in this world: the ones that walk in and are very good about keeping to the budget, the ones that walk in and just let the children go for it, and all the ones in between (OK, more than two then, but that's good news for them). With that in mind, all accessorizing are optional and come in a range of prices to cater to every kinds of consumer. But you know and I know that Build-A-Bear definitely gets the better end of the deal. It just becomes a huge playground for them to try many things to see what sells and what doesn't. Of course, since the bear is accessorizable, that means there's a long term value to the bear. See, you don't have to buy the bear again to get that brand new, must have outfit. But it is these accessories that rake in the profit. They also market the fact that each bear has it's very own unique ID tied to the owner, so that if Mr. Kind returns the lost bear to the store, the store can contact Benji and return the bear to him. That's an insurance sell to the parents right there.

So there you have it. My take on it. No, I wasn't drifting off thinking all these while Benji moved eagerly from one station to another. I was there because I wanted to witness and affirm the fruit of his effort and wanted to see his joy of working to own things he wants. The final lesson (for completion's sake) we hoped Benji would learn was the feeling of handing over the hard-earned money to the store employee. We did not convert all his coins to bills - we wanted him to hand over that weighty little money bag on his own. And by golly, if Build-A-Bear is going to take my son's money, I'm gonna make them work for it too!