Inspired by Irina’s post on anime perfumes.

Merch is weird.

in honor of the reveal that hypmic rice is in fact real, here is a hypnosis mic merch alignment chart pic.twitter.com/iywSghRf4a

— . (@zetsubouzhainu) April 15, 2022

(Note the “couches” are actually tissue box covers that oddly happen to look like couches, but otherwise this is legit.)

So why do franchises do weird things like have collabs with companies you really wouldn’t expect? Or produce merch you don’t expect?

The most obvious reason would be brand recognition. Slapping a known name on to something will make a certain niche, which is proven to have money and the will to use said money on specific merchandise, want to spend money on it. In this way, a series can become a lifestyle through material goods, not just a thing to passively consume.

Sure, you have fan activity to also contribute to a lifestyle around a certain franchise, but the creators – and the marketers – don’t have the ability to produce fan content. All they can do is “feed you” the only way they know how – main series content and then auxiliary content (spinoffs, maybe several manga or an anime plus a game or two, depending on your source material in the case of anime/manga franchises, and merchandise).

For another reason, it keeps people guessing. Anime merch in particular is notorious for silly collaborations like Evangelion razors, but then once you’ve seen a bunch of weird collaborations, you don’t see the next weird thing coming. (I mean…what can Hypnosis Mic team up with now? They’ve got Pioneer earphones already…and those at least make sense…)

For a different reason…well, if you have a consumer fanbase who has needs and wants like any other, then what can you do, as a marketer? You can fulfil ordinary needs. Everyone needs to eat, sleep and so on…yes, even NEETs who stay up to watch their favourite anime live. That’s why things like collaboration cafes exist – you can produce merch for the fans that is branded, while producing a memorable experience. The higher-ups get money, fans get cool stuff and maybe pics for social media to remember your time with, or alternatively just the happiness from a unique time out. It’s a win-win situation!

Then there’s also the fact strange and unique merch comes out so darn often. Typically – and this is particularly true of anime collaboration cafes, events and releases – there will be some limited merch you might not be able to get anywhere else, while stocks last. It’s a way of encouraging FOMO (<-that’s “fear of missing out” for you older readers) in you, the consumer who’s already part of the way to being indoctrinated into the Lifestyle of the Franchise. In some cases, anime fans are inclined to “collect ’em all” with the money at their disposal or alternatively/simultaneously, the marketing team encourages you to collect all of something (say, purchase an entire DVD set to get a special slipcase). Since it’s niche merch, it tends to be difficult to snap up in large quantities anyway, which makes things like character shrines all the more impressive.

Sidenote: From a marketing perspective, the “niche” bit also means it’s easy to price up – because it’s rare, even if what you have turns out to be no better than a non-branded item.

Speaking of marketing, I think I get why Hypnosis Mic bath tablets (<- the cause of the bathtub in the tweet) and a campaign with a bath tablet company exist. Think of this from an AdWords perspective – you have an audience typically considered to be cishet women, probably of working age so they can afford their merch and maybe occasionally spend on the gacha game. They probably like similar types of music and probably have a CD player at home (so they can play their Hypnosis Mic CDs)…but when you really want to throw them a curveball from the marketing side of things, what can you do?

Attack from a different angle and use the “everyone has personal needs and wants” argument from earlier. Some of them probably have baths at home and like to indulge in a good soak every so often, so this would give them a good excuse to do so. Again, it’s a win-win situation.

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Basically, if you think like a marketer, suddenly weird merch…and the way it’s marketed…makes sense.

So the question this time: how far do you go for your fandom? Do you just draw the line at securing limited merch any way you know how? Or is international shipping too much for you to start curating?

(If you want to know my answer to this…well, considering I dropped almost $100 in regional currency, including shipping, for the new Hypnosis Mic album Cross a Line without even knowing what the cover art looks like…as a way to kick my buyer’s remorse all the content could be doubled up on Spotify, I kept telling myself that this is what having a job is for. The one who crossed a line in the end…was me, haha… *sweatdrops*)

Sidenote 2: Note a brand new album with 1 disc goes for $20 here – this has 3 discs. The rest is shipping and such.