Super Zoo

Chapter 434 Commemorative Doll

The refreshment stand was located right in the center of the zoo, just a few minutes' walk away. Curious tourists didn't even bother to look at other sights or animals along the way as they made a beeline for the stand, which they reached before long.

A long wooden table, four or five meters in length, was already set up at the entrance of the refreshment stand, piled with rows of sliced watermelon. The lady running the stand was standing by the table, just taking out a vibrantly green watermelon from the ice bucket, getting ready to cut it as she saw the tourists approaching and greeted them cheerily, "Help yourselves, one piece per person, no taking extra!"

June's heat was intense, and the tourists had just stood under the scorching sun, cheering and shouting for the fight between the two bears, sweating profusely. Now, seeing the juicy watermelon, many of them forgot all about their excitement, stepped forward briskly, picked up a big slice from the table, and squatted on the ground to hungrily munch away.

"Don't eat the seeds along with the watermelon, spit them out!" a mother glared at her son, scaring him by saying, "If you eat watermelon without spitting out the seeds, a watermelon tree will grow in your stomach!"

The child, with his mouth dripping with juice, had only the rind left of the watermelon slice in his hand as he had swallowed all the seeds. After belching contentedly, he pointed toward a row of objects hanging in the refreshment stand, "Mommy, I want that one!"

Following the direction he was pointing, inside the refreshment stand, there hung a line of oddly shaped clothes that looked strangely familiar...

Seeing these clothes, the tourists finally understood what the zoo's little surprise was: the garments and accessories hanging in the refreshment stand were identical to those worn by the animals during the fight, perfect for cosplay.

In addition to the cosplay outfits, the counter also had a new line of fluffy toys, representing the costumed Black Magical Beast and Magical Beast Yingying, in various poses.

While not abundant in quantity, a closer inspection revealed exquisite craftsmanship—they even included tiny details like fingernails and teeth, making them look very lifelike.

If one paid close attention, they would notice that every toy and each cosplay garment bore a small logo of 'Taoyuan Amusement'.

Some children saw them and, putting down the half-eaten watermelon, started clamoring for them...

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Suming had long been considering selling zoo toys. On one hand, it could provide the zoo staff with an additional source of income. But most importantly, this was part of the zoo's brand promotion, a component of the zoo's merchandise. In the future, every animal in the zoo would have a customized toy.

This martial arts tournament was an excellent opportunity to promote the toys, and even without future tournaments, the zoo would still need to push its marketing in various ways.

"All right then, I'll go back and return all those unsold little toys in the snack bar, clear out some space to put the plush toys in," said the big sister as she geared up for big business.

But there was still a slight regret: "Director, shouldn't we raise the prices a bit? They're too cheap. I see those plush toys are better quality than the ones that sell for several hundred in the stores, and we only sell them for a few tens of yuan..."

"No, let's keep selling them at this price."

Suming had his reasons for this; selling plush toys at the zoo was never about making money.

Famous characters from movies and TV, like Batman and Magical Beast, have legions of devoted fans. They develop merchandise like toys and cosplay outfits to cash in, transforming their influence into tangible income, which is why the prices are high.

In contrast, the zoo's goal was quite the opposite. With the current fame of the zoo not enough to add value to merchandise, pricing them too high would drive away purchasers. The main aim for the zoo was to have their animal plush toys enter thousands of households to advertise for the zoo in return.

Having a zoo plush toy at home, while its real counterpart resided in the zoo, was like placing a non-stop 24-hour parent-child advertisement in every household. Seeing the plush toy would immediately remind one of the zoo...

Suming's talk of consumer psychology was mostly lost on the big sister; it seemed profound but incomprehensible. Only the last sentence, about the effect being even better than placing an ad on the prime-time national news, was clear to her...

"Brilliant! Director, you really are brilliant!"

"Alright, big sister, wrap it up, I've got to go," Suming said with a smile, as he had a whole lot of work to do that evening.