July 30, 2015

Mouse Around

Description: A cat toy
Main Pitch: "The amazing new toy that is a real game of cat and mouse"
Main Offer: $19.99 for one
Bonus: 2nd one (just pay a separate fee)
Marketer: Telebrands
Watch the spot

Yet another attempt to prove Cat's Meow wasn't an outlier. The Website is already down, so I'm going to guess the attempt failed. Incidentally, this product is very similar to two earlier projects that failed: Mouse Chaser (2010) and Cheese Tease (2014).

S7 Analysis: Pets is an interesting category. It's a segment of segment, but that doesn't seem to matter -- sometimes. Other times, it matters a lot. That is to say, the target can be as elusive as, well, a mouse. These projects also strain the needed criterion. How many times can we solve the problem of cat boredom or clawed drapes? More to the point, how long before that "problem" sounds contrived?