I visited Teddy Mountain in Preston, as I wanted to find a product/service for children which encouraged hands on learning with a lot of fun entwined. Teddy Mountain is the leader provider of highly interactive experience retail store and kiosk solutions in the “build-your-own Teddy Bear” businesses.
They have a worldclass assortment of premium products and global presence which provides customers with boundless opportunities for an interactive retail experience. Upon entering the shop I was greeted by a very friendly lady, the room was vibrant yellow with a ‘children’s landscape’ type decoration theme. The whole environment really screamed out ‘child friendly’.
It was interesting to see the assortment of flimsy teddy bears sat loud and proud in wooden boxes across the left hand side of the store. The lady instructed me to first of all select the bear/animal I would like to stuff, and then to choose whether I would like a sound to be placed inside him – in this instance I said no, and I just wanted to understand the standard procedure for creating the bear. Once I had chosen the bear I was taken over to the “fluffinator”. I sat on a toadstool and the shop assistant talked me through the “fluffing” procedure. First of all I chose a name for my bear, I decided it should be called ‘Herbert’, and therefore it was a little boy teddy bear.
The lady gave me exactly the same treatment as she did with any of her children customers. I was required to choose a heart to go inside of the teddy bear. This would later be hidden in with the fluff and therefore was for sentimental and novelty purposes more than anything.
The options for the heart were “love”, “friendship”, “hope and wishes” and “courage”. I chose love. Once I had selected the heart, I had to bring Herbert’s characteristics to life. This was a potentially very embarrassing situation, but with my friend on hand with the camera, I ensured that these moments were captured frame by frame.
In order to make Herbert intelligent I had to rub the heart on my head (brain), in order to make him cheeky, I had to rub the heart on my cheek, in order to make him kind I had to rub the heart on my heart, in order to make him strong I had to rub the cheek on my muscles – unfortunately I didn’t do this last step, and so was warned that Herbert was a very weak bear.
I was then taken over to a computer screen where I got to choose a message to incorporate into the gift certificate. This also contained a photograph of myself with Herbert, and was in itself an excellent form of promotion for the company as it contained a Teddy Mountain promise.
I took note of the packaging; Herbert was placed in a fabric drawstring bag which had the Teddy Mountain logo imprinted on it. This would be worn as a rucksack and paraded around the shopping centre after purchase for other children to see (and envy). I then purchased a gift box to place Herbert in, this was an additional £2, but was interactive with different holes and cut-out areas for the bear to peer through.
The reason this works so well as a service is the fact that it is just so very well suited to its target audience. They have thought through the whole process so well and, at £17 for the bear I would say it was well worth the money as I truly felt as if I had brought Herbert to life. I must now consider whether there is any way in which I could use the idea for this service or develop this service in any way.
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