Description: An inflatable car seat
Main Pitch: "Weighs less than 2 lbs," "small enough to fit in a handbag or suitcase"
Main Offer: 3 pay of $19.95
Bonus: Free travel tote and cover
Marketer: National Express
Website: www.GoBoosterSeat.com
Prediction: Bomb
I often talk about "segmenting a segment." This product goes beyond committing that violation. Call it "segmenting a segmented segment." Its primary target seems to be parents (a minority segment of DRTV buyers) of toddlers (getting smaller) who travel enough with their kids to need a temporary booster seat solution (we're down to a few dozen people now). You can always tell a marketer is stretching when they make naked pleas such as, "Your child may be too old for a car seat, but she still needs a boost."
Making things worse, it seems these parents (or their children, apparently) must have good lung capacity and a lot of patience to use this product. Speaking as a father of two toddlers, this narrows the segment to near zero. I can just see it now: "I know we're already late to Disney World, kids, but hang on while daddy blows up this booster seat."
Oh, and did I mention this thing costs $60? I'm sure there was a rationale there somewhere, but I have no idea what it might have been.
