Furu Anime Panikku

I’ve taken up Personal Selling as an elective module, and we viewed a brief video clip regarding consumerism today. Despite the points being expressed in simple layman terms, I felt that it was something worth thinking about. As such, I’ve decided to come up with a writeup on consumerism of a group that we all know of. Otakus and anime fans.

I intend to cover on the merchandise aspect, since that’s the thing that drains the most *ka-ching* out of our poor wallets.

In order for the various companies to come up with cash milking merchandise, there’s a need to first understand the otakus behaviour. They have to realise the main source of influence as to why Otakus purchase anime merchandise. There are supposedly 5 main levels of needs that are involved in consumerism. Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem and Self-actualisation.

Physiological needs include basic necessities such as food and water. Things that are needed to keep you alive and kicking. I don’t see how this applies to the anime merchandise, since it’s impossible for them to be needs, at least in my case. Sure, I’ll feel the emotional strain if I’m unable to purchase that certain limited edition figurine that I’ve longed for or the first press DVDs of an anime I’m obsessed with. Thus, I’m unable to see how it’s required to keep me alive. On the other hand, I could be dead wrong. For some other otaku consumers, that certain uber rare figurine with only a limited 100 in the world could mean life or death to them. You’ll never know.

Safety needs don’t apply here either. Buying of figurines, wallscrolls, dvds, artbooks and other miscellaneous merchandises won’t keep me safe from any physical harm. In fact, wallscrolls and posters hanging over the wall near your bed could prove to be quite a danger. I’ve had a couple of times where my own merchandise decided to ambush me in my sleep, dropping flat on my head. The posters don’t hurt at all, unless you’re that unlucky to get papercuts. The wallscrolls are the ones that hurt, especially if there’s a direct hit on your head by the 2 hard ends of the wallscroll. The other aspect of safety would be economic security. I don’t see how buying merchandise can help me stabilise or improve my finances. Maybe investing in the limited edition stuff now to sell it at triple the price a few years later would contribute to this aspect though, but not many otaku consumers are able to pull it off.

Social needs are the desires for love, affection and a sense of belonging. The former 2 desires might only apply in certain cases. For example, an otaku presumes he is able to have 2D love when he is able to hug a dakimakura of his favourite eroge character, and thus lusts intensely for one. As for sense of belonging, take a look at the upcoming Hatsune Miku figurine. Everyone is rushing to get her once she’s released, everyone except me. I’m pretty sure some people who are planning to purchase her are just following the crowd, just buying what’s popular with give a thought about who the character is. It’s probably the same for the Shuraki figurines too. Figurine companies sure are experienced in churning out stuff that people will just buy without thinking because they follow the crowd blindly to fit in.

Everyone’s obsessed with Miku figurines

Besides the 3 desires mentioned, there’s more to the social needs that otaku consumers seek.

The moe factor falls under this need category too. In order to sustain the moe feeling one gets, some might purchase a tons of merchandise of favourite characters. That way, the hawt 2D babes will be all around him 24/7, fueling his emotions of moe and preventing it from dropping below what is deemed to be a critical level. Also, purchasing of character merchandise might be thought of as showing your love or support for the character, although what you are only supporting are the companies owning the licensing of the anime. Self-satisfaction is another desire related to this point. Otakus feel good after they’ve spent big bucks on their beloved characters, even if it means to go starving for weeks. Finally, with love, there are also sexual needs. Not being able to get any 3D girls, otakus can have their sexual needs satisfied by humping dakimakuras with their favourite 2D girls covers on, imagining that they are actually doing it with the 2D girl for real.

Esteem needs are the desires of wanting to stand out from the masses and be recognised. In the otaku community, band wagoning is widespread and one otaku has somewhat the same stuff that the next otaku has. This is probably the reason why otakus are willing to fork out big bucks and go through all the trouble to rare event limited release merchandise. The more out of production and expensive stuff you have, the greater bragging rights your possess. In short, your e-penis is larger. Apparently, there are some super rich otakus who find the trade-off of cash for a larger e-fapping power to be a reasonable deal. I find this stupid, especially if one purchases expensive pieces of plastic because of the price, not because of the character or sculpt.

Self-actualisation needs are the desires to grow and know one’s abilities. This definitely doesn’t apply here, since buying of all these anime merchandise is not of assistance in one’s growth and improvement of skills. The only purchases that might improve one’s skills would be Gunpla which might result in a development of nimble fingers.

There’s a Haruhi in all of us, commanding our subconscious minds to make purchases

And there you have it. We’re done with the needs of otaku consumers. To round up what I’ve be going on and on about in the past few paragraphs, the only main needs that are satisfied are that of social and esteem. Unlike other forms of consumerism, the otaku form has much lesser criteria to fulfill as compared to mainstream consumerism. Also, life’s much easier for companies producing anime merchandise, since a lot of these criterias are fulfilled by the consumers themselves without the company having to do much.

Take figurine companies for example. The only main thing that they have to ensure is the choice of popular characters and a sculpt that would sell. There’s not much promotion needed for figurines, because the consumers themselves have already decided whether or not they would make the purchase the moment the figurine preorder opens. There’s definitely no need for any salesmen to promote the figurine, nor is there the need to explain the pros and cons of the figurine, together with how it works.

Companies can also play on the otaku addiction to sets. The Haruhi Maxfactory series is the best example. People start purchasing all the figurines in the set, even though they only intended on purchasing only their favourite characters from the series. Thankfully, I haven’t fallen for that and only own Ryoko and Yuki. Or it’s more like I don’t have the cash to collect the whole set. Mikuru will never be on my buy list though.

Basically, in otaku consumerism, otakus themselves are mostly generating their desires and wants openly, while all the companies have to do is to compile and produce what is wanted, unlike other fields of consumerism where it is the company which has to make the consumers think that they desire and have to get the company’s products. Much less complicated for the people on the earning end, isn’t it?

And this is exactly why the otaku buck is easy to earn.