Themes and the Evolution of Water Guns -by ZOCCOZ - The Influenece of Marketing on Retail

[ZOCCOZ]

Themes and the Evolution of Water Guns:
The Influenece of Marketing on Retail *Version 2*
-by ZOCCOZ

Looking at the Evolution at Water Guns in retail, one can see several patterns if not even re-occuring elements over time. It can be even argued that a certain period of time has a theme that influences retail and its manufacturing and distribution of toys.Water Guns in retail are absolutly dependant on the manufacturers. That is self-explanitory of course. What that also means is that Water Guns are very comercialised and require a selling point. This is where marketing comes in with slogans and comercials. Of course slogans and comercials need a common theme that will get stuck in the mind of the consumer to sell the merchandise. That "theme" or "Comercial Ideology" is what determines the evolution of water guns. And certain periods of retail history can be devided into themes and comercial ideology.

1900-1949 : Age of War toys
Determening an obvious theme/ideology in the water guns during that time period is probably the hardest of all time periods, since there is not much documentation and its a time of pre-consumerism. But looking at the models of the time it is reasonable to make a connection to the political atmosphere. For the ones who have completly skipped Highschool history, the 1900s -1940s had two World Wars. Looking at the daisy Squirt guns that are made out of metal, one can see a certain resemblance to the actual firearms used in war. It would not be unusual for Toy companies to indoctorinate males from early age to get used to the idea of fighting in a war or at least supporting and romanticising it. Even earlier like in the Victorian age, boy toys where military themed such as tin soldiers, wooden rifles and so on.

1950-1979 : Age of Sci-Fi
This is where modern comercialisation starts. The 50s was the birth of consumerism with the ideal of the peacefull atomic family(There where actualy people buying houses right next to a nuclear reactor...plus kids had school drills hiding under wooden tables in case of a nuclear attack). With consumerism came the new philosphy of buying cheap crap that you don't realy need in order to have a fullfilling life. With the invention of plastic, consumer goods where able to be manufactured and sold cheaply for the rising middle class. Since plastic toys where targeted at kids, they introduced the majority of water guns in form of space and ray guns. Due to advances in various scientific fields, Sci-Fi became very popular in Entertainment culture from 3D B-Movies to comic books, and alien invasion novels. Granted, besides Sci-Fi guns, there also where Cowboy, Espionage and Agent themes. But the Sci-fi/Futurism image was a concept that has been marketed dominantly in Squirt Pistols which lasted through the 60s till the late 70s.

1980-1988: Age of Replicas
Every culture needs its counter-culture to take eventualy its place. While replica toy guns, already existed before the 80s, the marketing machine has not focused on that subject yet. But since the early 80s, realism in toy guns was all that mattered, making toy themes the oposite to elaborate Sci-Fi space guns. Squirt pistols, Pump cannons, and Electric guns that are very often 1:1 scale are filled with realistic clips and come with realistic sounds. Why that trend started to apear in the 80s might be because of the birth of the "Action Franchise" in movies and other medias. If you see Stalone or Schwarzenegger holding a M16 in their hands, you want one to.

1989-2003: Age of Power
With the first Super Soaker, marketing focused on a new theme literaly trashtalking privious guns. The philosphy was simply put "Power". The soakers looked even goofier and less realistic than space guns, but that didn't matter. The power theme was something that unlike previous themes was caused by technology advancement and not socio-economics. One brand promoted power, so others had to keep up since only a fool in marketing would not join the new fad. "Wetter is better" was a popular slogan in the 90s. Only losers used soakers with small output suposetly. The climax of actual Power was 1996 with the CPS 2000, while it started to decrease from there on. In other words 7 years gradual rise with 7 years of gradual fall. While the power performance sliped, marketing was still giving the impression of power with the Monsters that looked like giant gattling guns. But after the release of the 2003 versions of Monsters, the theme of power ran its course.

2004-Contemporary: Age of Special Features
Why companies have switched to a new marketing concept can not be said for sure. Child safety laws, manufacturing costs, recession and decrease of the economy...all of the above? The fact is, special features seem to be the dominant theme in promotion since 2004. And with special features, I mean everything that is not directly connected to increasing the power and output of a previous water gun typ. In many ways special features that where combined with main blasters in the front spot light started with the introduction of the quickfill 1999 by SpeedLoader and SuperCharger, but it wasn't the dominant theme yet, or back then it took still a backseat to size and power. Before the quickfill, special features where more side items for collectors or add ons for squirt pistols. Also, special features such as battary use already existed in the 80s, but those elements where serving the theme of realism and werent just promoted by themselves. Not as the main Philosophy anyways.
But with 2004, power was no longer an issue and for the first time, special features where promoted for the sake of itself. The special features that where promoted were the soaker tags, the spongeball and squirt pistol attachment, soak-blade... . And that was just Super Soaker. Water Warriors promoted their soakers with flashy light pressure gauges. And it continued from there to riot nozzles, small backpacks, a soaker that is connected on a hose, pre-pressurized soakers... and this year interchangable little backpacks and an electrical soaker.
Another special feature symptom would be the over the top comic book like names of the soakers which are a total give away. Where in the previous age of power, soakers names where mainly identified by numbers to give an impression of continuing increase in muscle strength, special feature soakers have names similar to forum member's nicknames and aliases. "Tripple Agressor", "Flash Flood", "Piranah", "Devastator", "Blazer", "Overload"... . Detect any numbers or names that are measurable? Nope.Of course some special features are usefull, while some features are not. The bottom line is, that they are promoted as flashy features to catch your eye. And those are the marketing themes that sell the water guns at the moment to the main masses. And how long will this current theme last? Who knows.

Now looking at all those marketing themes, one has to understand that no "Spirit of an Age" stops and ends at a specific point. The dates given above are estimations of when a trend becomes dominant with its relation to surounding influences. In reality and actuality, trends overlap, making an exact pinpoint impossible. Also, trends do not have the same length or duration, with a more complex and agressive marketing world, priorities and fads can virtualy change in a week. No evolution has symetric breaks in between, nor do things always evolve for the better. Things simply change, and retail waterguns are no exeption.
So what would be the next big marketing angle that will influence and determine the guns in those toy shelves? Perhaps something will be re-occuring and re-interpreted that has been done in the past. Well, no one knows at this stage exept perhaps the marketing departments of water gun companies.

[edit]: Replaced "gimmick" with "special feature".



Edited By ZOCCOZ on 1146167961

[isoaker]

IMO, this article started off well, but ended sounding too pessimistic and biased. Many of the 'gimmicks' noted were around much longer and some may be necessary, in a sense, for some companies to get around patent infringements. Power-wise, soakers of similar sizes are still performining similarly. While I haven't had a chance to do range testing yet, the XP 70 and MI:Defender have virtually identical stats. Also, take the CPS 1000 vs the Blazer; the CPS1000 has about double the output versus the Blazer's largest nozzle, but basically equal range. The Blazer also has more flexibility thanks to its nozzle selector.

As for names versus numbers, having full names gives manufacturers the ability to create new designs without worrying how the new soaker will fit into the number scheme. Numberwise, would the Defender sound better being called the XP72.5 since it seems to fall somewhere between the XP70 and XP75? Additionally, the complaint about backpacks basically is a jab at all the earlier modders who were looking for ways to extend their soakers' capacity. Backpack additions to soakers is one of the earliest things people were doing to their stock soakers (along with painting and nozzle modding). Were modders just adding 'gimmicks' to their soakers back then, too?

What is lacking in the market currently are larger soakers. However, that is more due to cost of manufacturing versus acceptable retail pricing more than anything else. The current time isn't overloaded with any more 'gimmicks' than before (SS Pens, SS Racer, SS Wingthing, SS Rocket, SS Man, SS Skipper, SS Mr. Potatohead, SS Limbo, SS Batmobile, SS GIJoe, SS Twister, SS MDS, XP Pulsefire); it just feels less since many of us have had the taste of the larger soaker that present times are missing.

This article started well, but ended poorly, IMO.

That said, I'd still like your permission to repost it on iSoaker.com as an opinion/view on things. If you'd consider changing the article a bit, too, I'd be open to waiting. 'tis up to you.

[ZOCCOZ]

While I disagree, points well taken. Between you and me, I never read a thesis or article that is not bias in one way or another. :;): I am suprised that is seems pessimistic, since its the most optimistic piece I have written sofar. But that might not say much.
While you are correct that there have been gimmicks earlier, they where not the main selling point of a toy line which they are now. Main blasters have gimmicky elements, which they had not in the past regularly. In the 90s, they used to seperate the gimmicks from the main blasters, which they don't do anymore. At least from my standpoint. If people prefer I can change the name from "Age of gimmicks" to "Age of Special features" since gimmick might sound negative for some. Like I mentioned in the article, its not that every gimmick/special feature is useless, some are very usefull. I consider even a Quickfill to be a gimmick. it doesn't have to be an extreme like a Monster rocket or the Super Soaker Robot. But now Special features/gimmicks are the main selling point of a soaker and therefor marketing's main theme.
I also have to mention, that good gimmick sales are less obvious gimmick sales. While gimmicks where extreme in the 90s, now they intigrated them very well in many main blasters. Thats fairly good marketing I have to say.

Most mods exept internal or nozzledrilling would be special feature mods and add ons in the line of glueing a laser pointer on the soaker. I do have to stand by my view that the aquapack is a spacial feature/gimmick, since one could have simply done a resovior with the same size, but which would have been less flashy and attention grabbing.
XP 72.5 does sound prity good and less cheesy I have to say.

If you could posts it on isoaker.com, that would be great. But perhaps we should wait for more feedback if people want the current age to be renamed "Age of Special Features" instead of "Gimmicks". If at the end of the day no one else comments(mainly because most couldn't care about history in soaker marketing), I don't think there will be any changes.



Edited By ZOCCOZ on 1146089717

[isoaker]

According to Dictionary.com, a gimmick is:

n.

1.
1. A device employed to cheat, deceive, or trick, especially a mechanism for the secret and dishonest control of gambling apparatus.
2. An innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance; a gadget.
2.
1. An innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project: an advertising gimmick.
2. A significant feature that is obscured, misrepresented, or not readily evident; a catch.
3. A small object whose name does not come readily to mind.

To me, the term 'gimmick' holds negative connotation to it. Granted, one could easily spin things the other way by denoting things as 'features' as opposed to 'gimmicks'.

Thing is, if you strip out the larger CPS-class weaponry from 1996-2002, you basically have the selection available today, if not slightly less. Present times are primarily really just missing the bigger blasters of the past. Lack of larger blasters from my understanding is really due to the market just not being able to support more expensive soakers. $300+ CPS2000s auctions on eBay aside, the average consumer is only more recently considering buying blasters beyond the $20USD mark.

This is where I disagree about your article's view on the current 'theme'. If anything, the 'gimmicks' have also been around and nothing particularly new. I think many of the newer 'features' on some blasters is a definite step in the right direction. A backpack reservoir attachment on a smaller soaker is much more balanced than trying to strap a 3L reservoir on the backside of an XP70-sized soaker. You raise many valid points, but just feel the present-day paragraph has more negativity than the present deserves. Of course, that's my opinion.

I'm open to re-posting either as is or with any tweaks you'd wish to add.

[ZOCCOZ]

Taken from your list I have seen gimmicks as this: . An innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance; a gadget. That would include the good ones such as quickfill, and the sucky ones like a sponge ball.


I am not disagreeing with you that gimmicks didn't just came out now, but what I am stressing at is, that in contemporary times gimmicks or special features are pushed into the spotlight to sell the soaker. No longer the "wetter is better" philosphy of the 90s. My point is that the marketing simply adapted to the causes of the absense of large cannons focusing on gimmicks/special features. Like you mentioned, right now all that is missing are the large Cannons. Well, those where the models that promoted power in the 90s and without those, marketing has to focus on and promote special features.

Well, I actualy will now edit the second last paragraph by replacing "gimmick" with "special features". That should make it sound more posetive or at least neutral.

[Edit]: Done.

[Edit 2]: I think that the current version is ready now to be posted on isoaker.com.



Edited By ZOCCOZ on 1146101735

[Hannibal]

Much better. The last paragraph is more readable, and it's more easy to agree with your viewpoint. I still don't agree completely, but I do agree with a lot of your points. And interesting in the older history.

I, like iSoaker, am convinced that companies would make bigger, more poweful guns were there a demand for them, and people were willing to pay.

One thing I don't understand is this. Take the Overload. Couldn't a CPS 2500 have been produced instead of the Overload with the same amount of materials and effort? That doesn't make sense to me.



Edited By Hannibal on 1146113149

[Crashdummy]

And it would cost even less and take up less time too, because I doubt they lost or got rid of the old molds. I would buy a CPS 2500 if they were to make one, even if it had a max-d trigger and was painted hot pink. Both of those things can be fixed.

[ZOCCOZ]

One thing I don't understand is this. Take the Overload. Couldn't a CPS 2500 have been produced instead of the Overload with the same amount of materials and effort? That doesn't make sense to me.

My paragraph about the special features age would have an explaination for that. Basic straight forward soakers don't sell that well nowdays as special models. Why does BBT still stick with the useless electronic pressure meter? Because the main masses go for that kind of special feature. Otherwhise they would have ditched it already.

Size also has alot to do to with it. In a store isle they can fit 2-3 Overloads for every CPS2500.

[isoaker]

Why does BBT still stick with the useless electronic pressure meter?

I think it may have something to do with patents, but I'm not 100% sure. I'd have preferred the physical sliding pressure meter like on the WW Hornet.

As for the rewrite, I think it reads much better. I still don't fully agree with everything, but the things I don't are more a matter of opinion and open to debate. In the end, I guess I didn't like the term 'gimmick' being used to cover all the features. Little play figures on a soaker or whirling lights and sounds are gimmicks to me. However, fast fillers, multiple nozzle selectors, and swappable backpacks fall into the feature category, IMO.

One interesting thing to note; as ZOCCOZ noted, size does matter - particularly when it comes to retailers and what soakers can be sold. Larger soakers take up more space that could otherwise be used for other products. Retailers have a finite amount of space, thus an item must give a good profit margin for the space it uses for it to be considered. Note I'm talking about retailers, not manufacturers. The cost to a manufacturer to build a larger soaker may not raise the price much, but a retailer would not carry a larger soaker when it has other, smaller products that could fill the same space and sell more numbers of.

I'll post up this article later today.

[isoaker]

Article Reposted on iSoaker.com.

[ZOCCOZ]

Thanks, its apreciated.

I am wondering, if those large battery pack soakers will catch on and become mainstream, we might see another soaker time period coming focusing on electics... if anything that might be a fun fiction article.

[DX]

*Crosses fingers* Please stay fiction! :laugh: As you can tell, I'm not all that fond of the idea of lots of battery-powered soakers...I'd rather see another soaker time period with homemades playing a more influential role. Either that, or the companies rolling out the type of guns which I would actually go out and buy.

[isoaker]

Water Guns in retail are absolutly dependant on the manufacturers. That is self-explanitory of course.

After re-reading this article again, I now realize that besides the initial 'gimmick' gripe, my main disagreement is the quote above. It is true that water guns in retail need someone to manufacture them. However, what water guns end up being on the shelves is up to the retailer, not the manufacturer. Whether a manufacturer designs a soaker that's on par with the largest homemade water cannon, it would never see the stores if no retailer is willing to carry the product.

[wetmonkey442]

Interesting article. I'll admit that I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the direction that water guns are taking (or at least not sure enough to post an opinion), however the fact cannot be ignored that the power isn't here anymore. It's more than that however. Like iSoaker, I try to stay optimistic about such things. I love the look of the Defender, and all of the '06 line of guns can be modified to suit any need.

^If anything that's the one good thing about the '06 line. I can think of a dozen ways to modify the Defender so that it can be used as a heavy assault rifle, but no ways to modify a CPS 2000 so that it can be used at a child's 5th birthday party with agreeable results.

Just my opinion.

Soak On



Edited By wetmonkey442 on 1146411766

[m15399]

Just got around to reading the article.

And it continued from there to riot nozzles, small backpacks, a soaker that is connected on a hose, pre-pressurized soakers...

You make those sound like bad things. Riot blasts can work well for sidearms, backpacks never hurt (even the small ones), a soaker connected to a hose... err... ok so that was pointless, and pre-pressurized soakers work very well, actually! I wouldn't say that the ages were so clearly devided. They were making EES in 2003 (probably their lowest point) and in 1996 there were XP's that didn't nearly match up to the CPS 2000. Your article seeems to compare the most powerful of each year. I would say that the age of special features started in 2003, with the release of the MXL (bigger is better) and the EES's.

Anyways, nice article.

[ZOCCOZ]

Water Guns in retail are absolutly dependant on the manufacturers. That is self-explanitory of course.

After re-reading this article again, I now realize that besides the initial 'gimmick' gripe, my main disagreement is the quote above. It is true that water guns in retail need someone to manufacture them. However, what water guns end up being on the shelves is up to the retailer, not the manufacturer. Whether a manufacturer designs a soaker that's on par with the largest homemade water cannon, it would never see the stores if no retailer is willing to carry the product.

Oh, I think you are misinterpreting that sentense. It wasn't about retailers, but retail guns themselves. I wanted to exclude Homemades and modded soakers with that sentence, so everyone knows that this article is a retail water gun thread.

Just got around to reading the article.

Quote
And it continued from there to riot nozzles, small backpacks, a soaker that is connected on a hose, pre-pressurized soakers...

You make those sound like bad things. Riot blasts can work well for sidearms, backpacks never hurt (even the small ones), a soaker connected to a hose... err... ok so that was pointless, and pre-pressurized soakers work very well, actually! I wouldn't say that the ages were so clearly devided. They were making EES in 2003 (probably their lowest point) and in 1996 there were XP's that didn't nearly match up to the CPS 2000. Your article seeems to compare the most powerful of each year. I would say that the age of special features started in 2003, with the release of the MXL (bigger is better) and the EES's.

Its not realy meant to make every special feature look bad. Like I mentioned, some features are good and usefull, while some are not so much.
As for the deviding ages, as also mentioned in the article, there are no actual deviding lines and they flow all together. But the reason why I still choose for 2003 still to be a Power Age year is the fact that they still manufactured an completly different MXL and MX version for that year and promoted it proudly, and marketing is what this whole article is about afterall. Clearly its already a transitioning year with the EES and Secret Strike making an apearance, but I still see 2003 as the last power year.



Edited By ZOCCOZ on 1146427760

[isoaker]

Water Guns in retail are absolutly dependant on the manufacturers. That is self-explanitory of course.

After re-reading this article again, I now realize that besides the initial 'gimmick' gripe, my main disagreement is the quote above. It is true that water guns in retail need someone to manufacture them. However, what water guns end up being on the shelves is up to the retailer, not the manufacturer. Whether a manufacturer designs a soaker that's on par with the largest homemade water cannon, it would never see the stores if no retailer is willing to carry the product.

Oh, I think you are misinterpreting that sentense. It wasn't about retailers, but retail guns themselves. I wanted to exclude Homemades and modded soakers with that sentence, so everyone knows that this article is a retail water gun thread.

Actually, that's my point. That sentence isn't about retailers. The blasters seen in stores are the result of what retailers are willing to carry. Whether a water blaster performs well or not is only part of the equation of what blasters go from the manufacturer's design sheets to what ends up on the shelves at the store. People tend to blame the manufacturers when the retailers play a huge part in retail soaker availability.

[ZOCCOZ]

Oh I see what you mean now. Retail Water Guns are dependant from retailers aswell.
I agree with you that size is determined by retailers, as is probably pressure also by now. But I would say that even within the restrictions set by retailers, there is still enough space to move within those boundaries and general performance is still determined by manufacturers. My point is, while retailers are a big part of the equation, they only give out certain guidelines, while manufacturers still have enough options to pull through their concepts even with compromises. Spherical PCs are not very large, same with 2.5 litre resoviors and large nozzles. A very squished CPS 1500/Larger PC CPS1000 is very possible within restrictions of retail guidelines.



Edited By ZOCCOZ on 1146431200

[FinalFantasizer]

I really like what ZoCCoZ has said in the article. The shift away from power in recent years is due to the fact that there is no way to "demonstrate" the power of a weapon while it is still inside the package. The true marketing flaw of guns such as the 1200 and 1000 is the fact that although these guns are excellent on the inside, one cannot tell what they are truly capable of unless one is already familiar with them. That's where the gimmicks come in. When a 9 year old sees that the Arctic Shock shoots "freezing cold water" they immediately think "WHOA!!!! mommy, I want one!", because the freezing water feature is much more easily imagined in the mind of an inerperienced consumer than "shoots up to 40 feet with a 7X stream" That is why I believe that the age of gimmicks first started when the Monster line came out. Although the age of gimmicks is characterized by low power and output (a characteristic not applicable to the mosters, obviously), the whole idea behind making the mosters f***ing huge was to make it easy for consumers to imagine what they are capable of. Seeing a 1200 dosen't suggest that it is far more powerful than a gun of comparable size (such as the XP 310), but seeing the sheer size of a MOnster XL does suggest , even to the most inexperienced consumer, that that thing is a beast.



Edited By FinalFantasizer on 1147738101

[isoaker]

The shift away from power in recent years is due to the fact that there is no way to "demonstrate" the power of a weapon while it is still inside the package. The true marketing flaw of guns such as the 1200 and 1000 is the fact that although these guns are excellent on the inside, one cannot tell what they are truly capable of unless one is already familiar with them.

Where are you getting this reason from? Did you uncover some secret documents at Hasbro saying 'we can get away with less powered soakers since all consumers care about are looks and gimmicks'?

I long for the return of harder-hitting blasters, but there are many reasons why soakers these days have reduced power with none of the reasons being that manufacturers are intentionally limiting power solely for sake of limiting power.

Simply put, there is just no way to manufacture, ship, and sell a soaker like the CPS1000 for a similar price as it did back in 1998 since so many costs from materials to manufacturing to shipping costs have substantially increased. More expensive soakers in the past few years simply do not sell as many units, thus retailers will not carry them. If retailers are unwilling to carry an item, even if a manufacturer made a larger and/or more powerful soaker, you'd never see it in stores. Hopefully, things are changing for the better in terms of what can be sold to the general soaker-buyer market, but I'm personally sick of hearing blame being placed on some idea that the manufacturers are solely striving to reduce performance and rip off the public. If that were true, we'd never have CPS-class soakers, let alone XPs, since they'd likely still be milking the SS50 and SS100 in every possible style and colour combination they could.

For those not happy with the current crop, either build your own or try doing something more productive in terms of trying to get things improved. For those wanting to see improved stock soakers, first you need to understand why things really are the way they are.

'nuff said.