Asia Times: Kitty kitsch turns Singaporeans into Pavlov's dogs



	February 12, 2000	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Kitty kitsch turns Singaporeans into Pavlov's dogs
By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE - What began as a "cute" marketing promotion by the American fast food giant McDonald's has exposed a raw consumerist nerve in Singapore, touching off a lively media debate about citizens' gullibility over marketing gimmickry.

In this case, McDonald's marketing strategy did not work the way it had planned. Its 40-day promotion for Hello Kitty dolls was supposedly meant to be a new millennium ''thank you'' to its loyal customers in this tiny Southeast Asian republic well known for its consumerism. But its early runaway success soon backfired.

Since the promotion started on New Year's Day, there have been reports of fist fights, traffic jams, broken glass and people fainting from sheer fatigue in queues that start forming by early evening on Wednesdays for the Thursday morning release of a new set of dolls.

On January 27, even before the outlets opened for business in the morning, more than 250,000 people waited outside to get their hands on "Hello Kitty Romantic Couple" dolls dressed in Western wedding garb. Chaos has erupted every Thursday for the past three weeks since the fast food chain introduced a new pair of the Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel dolls different wedding costumes. McDonald's has had to engage more than 130 security personnel to control the crowds.

The marketing success - customers who buy certain meal packages get a doll of their choice - has turned sour and led to soul-searching by residents of this affluent city state.

''What is it about these cheap-looking, characterless toys that has made otherwise sensible adults take time out to join endless queues for the privilege of buying them?'' asks Bob Ng, associate editor of the Straits Times newspaper. He argues that one reason is greed and the other is to have something which everyone else has, regardless of whether it is worth having. ''Truly, there is no accounting for the idiosyncrasies of the gullible,'' he concludes.

Similar views have been expressed in the media by social critics who question the marketing strategies of McDonald's in light of the fact that many people throw away their hamburgers after getting their hands on a Kitty couple.

''It is shocking to observe the mass hysteria over a toy,'' complained Ramesh Kudva in a letter to the Straits Times. ''On one hand, it [McDonald's] appears as a concerned corporate citizen. But the cold-blooded hand of commercial opportunism is evident.''

Put on the defensive, McDonald's marketing director Fanny Lai has told the media that the company had no idea that the situation would escalate and get out of hand. ''The overwhelming response is unprecedented in McDonald's history worldwide,'' she says.

Singapore has been a dream market for McDonald's. It began operations here in 1979 and now has 113 outlets across the tiny island of 4 million people. But, sensing that its corporate image was taking a beating, McDonald's decided to suspend its Hello Kitty promotion last week. It announced that order forms for the new set of dolls will be available at all outlets in the coming two weeks. All orders will be honored by July this year.

McDonald's may have saved Singaporeans another day of Thursday morning chaos in this smoothly functioning metropolis. But many questions about marketing gimmickry and Singaporean social values remained unanswered.

The Hello Kitty craze has also drawn attention to McDonald's business strategy here. The Federation of Merchants' Association, while complaining about the disruption caused to small businesses around the fast food chain's outlets on Thursdays, has raised questions regarding what it calls a possible breach of Singapore's trading laws.

The association's president, Tang Chong Meng, called a press conference last week and asked McDonald's to stop selling soft toys and stick to selling hamburgers. He argued that McDonald's was in the burger business, not the toy business. Tang's deputy, Soo Yap Chai, added that bakeries which wanted to sell fruit were threatened by the Environment Ministry with fines. He pointed out that McDonald's newspaper advertisements promoted the toys and not the food.

''The toys are sold at cost price and they are seen as a way of giving back to our customers for all the support and patronage they have given to McDonald's,'' argues Lai.

Not many are willing to swallow that line anymore. Social critic Irene Ng argues that while technology and wily marketing cannot be dismissed, Singaporean society's prospects for social progress are at stake. Its people do not know how to defend themselves against mindless consumerism, she maintains. Relatively rich and unerringly brand-conscious, Singaporeans are a captive market where the latest gimmicks are consumed eagerly and upgraded constantly.

''It makes me sick to see Singaporeans queue like Pavlovian dogs, tongues hanging out, for hour and hours, for a silly soft toy without a mouth,'' she says.

Psychiatrist Dr Tan Chue Tin argues that the Hello Kitty promotion has shown how good the McDonald's marketing people are in understanding human behavior in the Singapore context. ''It is the compulsive-acquisition syndrome. The queue becomes more than just a queue,'' he argues. ''McDonald's makes it the only way to achieve the status of owning a Kitty collection. Its platform is one where even if people have the money, they cannot buy.''

For some, however, there is not only status at stake. Some people have queued for long hours with the intention of making a fast buck in the collectibles open market. Their time may have been wasted, however. The highest price reportedly offered for a Hello Kitty pair in the open market so far has been between S$50 to 60 (US$29-35). Recent news that McDonald's plans to flood the Taiwan market with 4.8 million of the same dolls have further dampened the hopes of these speculators.

Indeed, Associate Professor Leong Siew Meng of the National University of Singapore's business administration faculty likens the Hello Kitty craze to short-term speculation in initial public offerings of prime stocks. ''The whole thing is a fad itself, so people have to sell it off fast, before the fad dies.''

Toy-collectible dealers here say that currently there are more sellers than buyers for the ketchup-stained monsters.

(Inter Press Service)

back to the top

©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.