Great White Hope

Snowden the snowman faces a busy holiday season: After taping a TV special, it’s off to the nation’s capital for the national tree-lighting ceremony, then out to the coast for the Hollywood Christmas Parade. In between, he’ll be making guest appearances on a handful of TV shows, including “Chicago Hope” and “Suddenly Susan.”

And who is Snowden? He’s a plush toy created by and sold exclusively at Dayton-Hudson Corp.’s Target Stores, in what’s shaping up as the biggest gimmick of the shopping season.

Besides selling stuffed Snowden toys at $15 a pop, Target has slapped Snowden’s image on hundreds of items--from baby bibs and wristwatches to sweatshirts and cookie jars--creating Snowden boutiques in each of its 800 stores.

Target is hoping its stuffed snowman will lure shoppers to the discount store--and keep them out of rivals Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kmart Corp.

Snowden isn’t the only cuddly holiday mascot out there. Since the mid-1980s, department stores have rewarded shoppers who spent big in their stores with deals on discounted Santas and Jingle Bears. This shopping season, J.C. Penney Co. is touting a fluffy holiday bear, and Wal-Mart has Snowflake Teddy.

While the others are merely toys, Snowden is a full-fledged media event.

*

Once Target created Snowden earlier this year, it looked for every opportunity to get the character in front of consumers. In mid-summer, Target hauled its snowman into New York City to dance with the Rockettes as part of a Christmas-in-July celebration. Twenty other costumed Snowdens stood on street corners around midtown Manhattan, handing out 10,000 bottles of Snowden water--that’s what happens to snowmen in summer.

“Every sponsorship [Target] had, we tried to tie in Snowden,” said Debbie Estes, an events marketing manager for Target and Snowden’s chief handler.

Last year Target sponsored singer LeAnn Rimes’ appearance at the White House for the national tree-lighting ceremony; this year, Target is sending a chorus line of eight dancing Snowdens.

“CNN covers it, and it’s a great photo op,” said Estes.

That gives Snowden an edge over Snowflake Teddy and Kmart’s no-name holiday bear.

“One of our key missions is differentiation,” said Target marketing chief John Pellegrene. “We make an extreme attempt at being first. . . . We’re always trying to do something unique.”

Pellegrene is probably particularly anxious to boost holiday numbers this year. Target’s sales were flat last holiday season. Wal-Mart’s sales, by contrast, rose 6.8% over 1995, while Kmart posted a 12% sales gain--though its profit was squeezed by price cuts.

Target’s goal is to generate sales without having to slash prices. And Snowden is an important part of its game plan.

“Exclusive, proprietary merchandise is the name of the game for retailers now,” said Marty Brochstein, executive editor of the trade publication Licensing Letter. “If you don’t have things like that, it becomes a price game.”

Of course, Target could have struck an exclusive deal to use an established character--such as Warner Bros.’ Frosty the Snowman. But such a move would have reduced Target’s potential profit, since Target would have to pay a fee to license a character.

*

While the outlook for Snowden is uncertain, licensed characters aren’t a sure bet. While Lucasfilm Limited’s “Star Wars” and Walt Disney Co.’s “Lion King” have been blockbusters, products based on two other Disney films, “Hercules” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” have been big disappointments.

Snowden has another potential advantage: He’ll provide a consistent brand image for Target throughout the holidays, as Mickey Mouse does for Disney year-round.

In Snowden, Target saw an opportunity to reach a wide range of consumers, from small children who can play with the pointy-nosed toy to adults who might want to decorate with ceramic Snowdens. Thus, Snowden boutiques are strategically placed in the women’s departments.

“Most mothers buy the gifts in families,” said Pellegrene.

Taking a page from fast-food marketers in recent years, Target is offering four free Snowden finger puppets at checkout counters. There will be a new one each week--so the kids will pester Mom to go back each week leading up to Christmas. Snowden got PepsiCo Inc.’s Frito-Lay to sponsor the ad for the finger puppets in Target’s recent Sunday circular.

The crowning jewel of the Snowden campaign will be the CBS television special, airing from 8 to 9 p.m. Friday--one of the most important shopping days of the year. Target hired Olympic champion skaters Scott Hamilton and Ekaterina Gordeeva to co-star with the snowman in “Snowden On Ice.”

*

The floors inside two hangars at the Santa Monica airport were flooded and frozen for the special, a well-executed but bland tale in which a little girl and her ice-skating mother try to make friends in a new town. The costumed Snowden comes to life only in the last few minutes, to clumsily negotiate the ice with the little girl in a fantasy sequence. Commercials were shot simultaneously.

Target bought the hour of time from CBS Television Network, and in turn got the right to sell the commercial time during the program to third parties such as Coca-Cola Co. and Visa.

Target “invested very, very heavily in this special. The budget for this is far in excess of what we’d normally spend on a two-hour show,” said Gary Smith, co-founder of Los Angeles-based Smith-Hemion Productions. Target will not disclose how much the show cost, but the production and air time combined ran well into the tens of millions of dollars.

Terry Botwick, CBS vice president of specials, said the show’s high quality was attractive to the network. Beyond that, Target is spending heavily to promote the show. It purchased full-page ads in this week’s TV Guide and People and arranged to have radio DJs in top markets plugging the program. Target is also pitching the show with in-store signs, decorated shopping bags and newspaper ads.

“They put together a wonderful package and a good producing team,” said Botwick. “We also like the idea that the people at Target are great marketers. . . . Target has made an enormous commitment to the Snowden character in their stores, and their marketing will drive people to watch this show.”

Whether Snowden ends up under Christmas trees or in discount bins will be determined by consumers over the next five weeks.

“Can Snowden become another Mickey Mouse? I don’t think so,” said Licensing Letter’s Brochstein. “But it’s theoretically something that will make people feel warm and fuzzy about Target, and want to go there.”