Why Rainbow Loom Is A Success Among Tweens

One of the hot tween trends is the rubber band loom, called Rainbow Loom. A well conceived tool to weave colorful rubber band jewelry. It mainly attracts girls, but I’ve heard that some boys are getting into it as well.

Created in 2010, launched in 2011 from the personal website of its creator, Mr. Cheong Choon Ng, the Rainbow Loom was featured in Learning Express, a toy store chain, in 2012, and took off in the second semester of 2013. It is on track to sell 3.5 million units this year.

What makes it a hit? If you look closer, you will see that this wrist band loom has the same components as successful social media platforms.

• Kids can show off how cool they are to their peers: It is indeed a fun and great tool to display your creativity and personality. The jewelry creations are bright, colorful, and attention grabbing. A lot of different kinds of rubber bands and accessories are available and you can even be more creative by adding parts that are not in the Rainbow Loom line.
• It is easy to use and kids can produce a large and varied quantity in a rather short time.
• It is a badge of group belonging: A sign that they belong to the same group as their friends and trendy peers.
• It enhances kids’ self-esteem: Their peers express interest in what they’ve produced. The bracelet has become an object that is traded among kids, even sold. – Mostly during school time, which has led some schools to ban them because of the disruption they were causing –
• The phenomenon that has gone viral: If one tween sees another wearing or making the jewelry, she is very likely to want to do it as well.
• The loom is pretty cheap: It costs around $15, with 600-band packs of additional rubber bands selling for around $5. Others accessories are pretty inexpensive as well.
• Parents like it:  They see it as a non-digital toy that boosts their children’s creativity.

Another interesting fact: Except for media reports and videos on YouTube and Vimeo where the daughters of the creator explain how to use the Rainbow Loom, there has been no organized ad or social media campaign. The success of the Rainbow Loom is a peer to peer phenomenon.

Tweens are sharing their creations on YouTube. The most popular videos have hundreds of thousands of views. Videos and photos of Rainbow Loom bracelets are posted and shared on social networks popular among tweens: Instagram, Snapchat, and (yes, still) Facebook.

The challenge for Rainbow Loom is to be able to sustain this interest long enough to start making money. (The creator says that all income has been reinvested in the business.) This is a tough space where trends come in and out fast. Hard to survive beyond the product’s initial popularity.

Now Mr. Ng’s, your focus must be on how not to become another flash in the pan, but a brand that continues attracting tweens. As an expert in tweens and teens, I can say that this is a whole different game as is pointing out a New York Times article. Difficult. But I believe that the Rainbow Loom is a cool enough product that you have an opportunity to build a successful brand. To have a chance to succeed, you will need to surround yourself with experts that can help you get there.