A Case Study of Jellycat’s Marketing Success and Pathways to Global

Expansion

Tianyi Xu

ESCP Business School, Paris, 75011, France

Keywords: Marketing Strategy, Brand Analysis, Plush Toys, Jellycat.

Abstract: Jellycat, a British toy brand, has gained a lot of loyal fans. This case study focuses on the brand's marketing

strategies, including segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and analyses its approach to product

classification, pricing strategy, retail strategy, distribution in the current market throughout the world, and

promotional efforts. Based on this analysis, recommendations are made to further enhance brand reputation,

including ways like improving engagement through events such as pop-up stores, and diversify social media

marketing strategies to strengthen customer loyalty and expand market reach. The research reveals that

Jellycat's success is attributed to its balance of exclusivity and accessibility, but still have space for

improvement such as organizing more specific events, involving advertising campaigns, promoting diverse

social media engagement, and organising live-streaming online. This study highlights the significance of

knowing how innovative marketing methods can drive both brand loyalty and market expansion in the

competitive toy market.

1 INTRODUCTION

The plush toy market has an extremely long history,

has evolved significantly over recent years. Modern

customers seek toys that not only provide comfort and

amusement, but also improve emotional well-being,

encourage creativity, and express personal identity,

opening up new avenues for innovation in product

design and marketing methods. Thus, in order to

create innovative yet simple soft toy, the plush toy

brand Jellycat was established in the UK in 1999,

with a history of 26 years, has now becoming one of

the most popular toy brands in the world, in 2023,

Jellycat had a gross profit of almost 130 million

British pounds (Kasia, 2025), leading the current toy

market. This was an increase of around 40 million

compared to the previous year. On average, you can

find Jellycat toys ranging from £10 to £30, or more,

depending on the complexity and size. Jellycat soft

toys prices can vary based on the toy, size and

collection (LovedBefore. London, 2024). The

founder of Jellycat aims to create plush toys not only

soft, but also with good quality and distinctive design,

which fits a wide range of ages of different customers:

babies aged from 0 to 3, can get quality-safe comfort

toys; plush toys with the unique design can

accompany kids throughout their childhood; limited

edition items can easily reach adult collectors'

thoughts.

In today's fast changing digital world, digital

marketing has emerged as an essential tool for

organizations looking to increase awareness, engage

customers, and foster long-term loyalty. Jellycat

serves as an excellent example of these principles in

action. Existing research has long shown the value of

market segmentation and environmental study in the

toy sector. For example, Kotler and Keller (2016)

have offered fundamental insights into how strategic

segmentation and positioning may propel brand

success in competitive marketplaces, "Identifying and

uniquely satisfying the right market segments are key

to marketing success." This case study aims to

explore the brand's marketing strategies, including

segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP),

analysis of its approach to product classification,

pricing model, retail strategy (physical stores VS

online selling), distribution in the current market (in

the UK, in Europe, in Asia), and promotional efforts

(pop-up stores in different cities, limited edition toys).

By examining Jellycat’s business model through the

points mentioned above, this study seeks to find out

the reason why Jellycat can achieve the huge number

base of customers and such a great profit in the toy

market, as Guerola-Navarro et al. (2021) argue that

284

Xu, T.

A Case Study of Jellycat’s Marketing Success and Pathways to Global Expansion.

DOI: 10.5220/0013990200004916

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Public Relations and Media Communication (PRMC 2025), pages 284-288

ISBN: 978-989-758-778-8

Customer Relationship Management is essential for

establishing effective channels and methods for

customer-centric information management, a

principle that Jellycat aims to achieve through

personalized marketing initiatives and consistent

consumer engagement across multiple channels.

Additionally, John and Ebenezer (2023) said,

"Developing effective digital marketing strategies is

essential for brands looking to connect with and

engage modern audiences in the digital age.", which

is a practice that can evident Jellycat's active social

media presence and live-streaming initiatives, thus

recommendations are made to improve engagement

through specific events, and diversify social media

marketing strategies to strengthen customer loyalty

and expand market reach.

2 CASE OVERVIEW & STP

ANALYSIS

2.1 Introduction to the Brand

Jellycat----this famous British toy brand was

established by William Gatacre Thomas Gatacre and

has passed its 26 birthday this year. In the early days

of the brand, Jellycat focused on creating plush toys

that has different touch and pinch compared to the

normal toys. Over the years, Jellycat achieved its

initial goal and has grown rapidly, it has become a

high-end, high quality toy brand. What is more,

Jellycat expanded its product line so that except for

basic plush toys, it now also provides books (story

books, soft books), blankets, bags and charms.

Moreover, Jellycat has made its product offerings

diversifying, introducing different collections and

limited-edition items for customers in different age

bases. Today, it operates worldwide, with strong

brand recognition across continents especially

Europe, North America, and Asia.

2.2 Segmentation in Toy's Market

According to Kotler et al. (2016), Tactical targeting

identifies the most cost-effective ways to accomplish

this by linking the customer need that the offering

wants to fulfill with observable customer

characteristics. These observable factors—the

customer profile—involve demographic, geographic,

behavioral, and psychographic descriptors. This

framework is crucial for understanding competitive

industries such as the toy market. Jellycat segments

its market mainly based on demographics,

psychographics and geographics factor, its primary

customers are kids, parents or adults choosing gifts

for babies or kids, and adult collectors who are keen

on collecting high-end and limited-edition plush toys.

Besides, in recent days Jellycat also offered limited-

edition toys in specific regions, for example

Amuseable Macarons in Paris, Amuseable Bagels in

New York, shown that Jellycat was not only

segmented by geographic, but also by interest and

cultural factor.

2.3 Brand Targeting

Jellycat targets audiences that attach importance to

products which have exclusive design and high-

quality. Its plush toys not only attract children from

age 0 to 6 with its cute smiley-face, wide choice from

different species of animals and soft touch; but also a

perfect choice for gift buyers who pay attention to

quality and unique designs. Besides that, in recent

days Jellycat also targets huge amount of adult

collectors who get crazy for limited-edition Jellycat

and pop-up events, usually aged from 20 to 40, mixed

gender but slightly to female, who have strong

interest in art, design, and trends, have good level of

consumption, require for of their daily life quality and

they appreciate exclusivity and storytelling behind

each product.

2.4 Brand Positioning

Jellycat positions in the current toy market as a high-

end, good quality and specifically-designed toy

product. This impression is delivered mainly by

creating several collections with a wide scope of

categories (vegetables, animals), build iconic brand

products----"Bashful Bunny" and releasing limited-

edition plush toys. Although it stands for luxurious

plush toys, it does not make audiences feel

unapproachable or unaffordable to get the product.

Furthermore, the position of a brand is formed by a

complex set of consumer perceptions, images, and

emotions associated with the brand's products and

how they compare with competing products (Miriam,

et al., 2022). There is no doubt that Jellycat stands out

from other plush toy manufacturers due to its clear

and precise brand positioning.

3 ANALYSIS OF MARKETING

3.1 Product Classification

A variety of products in different collections are

provided by Jellycat, and in each collection, toys are

A Case Study of Jellycat’s Marketing Success and Pathways to Global Expansion

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classified in different shape, size, and color. General

products including Animals like "Bashful Bunny",

"Bartholomew Bear", Amuseables mainly Objects,

Foods, Plants and Sports, Bag&Charms,

Baby&Books for example blankets for babies and

soft books; besides that, Jellycat also offers seasonal

products, limited-edition toys which sells in specific

pop-up stores, personalized toys and gift boxes.

3.2 Brand's Pricing Strategy

As the brand image stands for exclusive luxurious

plush toys, with high-quality, good and safe

materials, customers can hardly say no to the iconic

smiley face of Jellycats. Jellycat uses a premium

pricing strategy. The average price of a small-sized

Jellycat plush toys is around 15 to 45 pounds, still

affordable for most parent-buyers or gift-buyers,

while at the same time since specific customers like

adult-collectors have niche wants for Jellycat, they

usually spent from 100 pounds up to 250 pounds for

either bigger toys or limited-edition toys. This

approach is supported by research from Jobber and

Ellis-Chadwick (2019), who argue that differentiated

pricing can effectively capture diverse market

segments. For other types of products, customers can

spend only around 15 pounds to get a soft book or

story book; if customers want to get a personalized-

product, the price is usually 20%-40% higher than the

normal ones, for example to buy a personalized bunny

toy, customers only need to spend an extra 5 pounds

and they can receive their own bunny with a name on

the ear!

What is more, compared to other high-end toy

brands in the market, the price of Jellycat is still

competitive, due to its unique design (smiley face,

large number of collections) and safe materials for

babies. More and more people are now easily to

recognize a Jellycat toy in the toyshop.

3.3 Physical Stores (Retail) vs Online

Selling

First of all, offline retail outlets are the largest way

how jellycat sells its toys. Jellycat distributes its

products through boutique gift shops, high-end

department stores, and its official online store. The

biggest advantage of this selling method, is that

customers can touch and feel these toys in reality, not

just surfing online, imaging how it may feel if they

get the exact toy, which makes it hard for customers

to resist its charm, in order to increase its sales.

Second, in line with Simon (2016), it is crucial

now, more so than ever, that digital marketing is an

integral part of all marketing activities. Jellycat's

online selling has expanded in recent years. Jellycat

official website is no doubt the first choice customers

will choose, the delivery time and shipping fees are

all reasonable and acceptable, Jellycat provides

customers with choices of standard delivery and

Express DHL: in UK it usually takes 3 to 4 days to

get the parcel, while at the same time only in the UK

they provide also Next-day delivery service, and the

price of shipping is from 5 to 9 pounds, with free

shipping for over 50 pounds, which is quite easy to

reach the barrier of free shipping; in other countries,

it takes 6 days for Express DHL at a price of 17 to 30

pounds depending on the shipping distance, and 8 to

14 days for standard delivery at a price of 7 to 12

pounds. What's more, customers can also enjoy

services like "Add a free gift message" and "Add a

gift box for 6 pounds" while they check out through

the official website.

Besides that, some physical chain toy shops also

offer online shopping for Jellycat, and the price is

usually the same as official price. There are 2

advantages for this method of shopping: firstly

sometimes if some of the toys were sold out in the

official website, it is possible to find the same product

in retail stores' websites before they go to the exact

physical store, which especially enables adult

collectors to collect exact toys they are looking for a

long time. Secondly, during specific time period, like

Black Friday, these websites usually offer customers

with discount, which means customers can get the

same product with a lower price as the official

Jellycat website does not offer customers with any

discount.

3.4 Specific Selling Strategies

In order to increase its sales, Jellycat created its

official accounts in several main social medias,

including Instagram, Facebook, X, Pinterest,

Youtube, and Linkedin. Among those social media

platforms, Jellycat gets the best reach and feedback

on instagram, total followers reached 1.6 million.

Jellycat gained this huge amount of followers on

instagram by posting new product teasers and

announcing the return of its classic products in mini-

scenes with their products. As Fangfang, et al (2020)

posed "While for proactive objectives, firms use

social media to increase brand awareness, generate

online traffic, and stimulate sales, in the case of

reactive objectives, the emphasis is onmonitoring and

analyzing customer activities.", it was a wise choice

for Jellycat to start doing digital marketing and it is

necessary continue in the future.

In recent years, Jellycat did its selling also

through specific marketing strategies, like Pop-up

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stores and limited-edition products. These pop-up

stores are typically established in high-traffic urban

areas (up till now, Jellycat organised pop-up stores in

Paris, London, Shanghai and New York) and are

designed to create a sense of urgency and excitement

among consumers, especially adult plush toy

collectors. This strategy allows adult collectors to feel

that their desire to collect is satisfied through the

purchase of limited products. This new marketing

strategy has lead Jellycat to great success and

highlights Jellycat's brand in public's eyes.

4 SUGGESTIONS

4.1 Increase Specified Events

As until now, Jellycat has only organized pop-up

stores for 4 countries: Jellycat Café in Shanghai,

China; Jellycat Pâtisserie in Paris, France; Jellycat

Fish & Chips in London, UK; Jellycat Dinner in New

York, America; with restrict limited-edition toys

which can only be bought in the exact pop-up store

for a short period of time. This strategy, has already

shown great impact on the brand, so that Jellycat

should organise more pop-up stores in different

regions of the world, in order to achieve higher

worldwide brand awareness.

4.2 Diversifying Social Media

Marketing Strategies

As what was mentioned in 3.4 Specific selling

strategies, only Instagram achieved a high number of

followers, which underscores its effectiveness as a

primary channel for Jellycat’s engagement, while on

the other hand Jellycat still needs to work hard on all

other social media platforms. Jagdish (2021)

highlight that social media and ecommerce have

provided access to foreign products and services

which has resulted in more diversity of consumption

within each nation—Jellycat should maintain strong

presence on social platforms. Since each social media

has its own function, suggestions are made in the

following paragraph: channel on Youtube mainly

uploads long-content videos of the brand, but not

enough amount. Jellycat should increase the

frequence of filming this kind of videos; for

Facebook, create official community to let fans join

in and discuss their own Jellycat stories, to increase

interaction with fans; Pinterest could serve as a proper

channel for showcasing product inspiration and

lifestyle content.

4.3 Organise Live-Streaming

Another method is to use live-streaming to engage

consumers in differenciated formats. In the wake of

increased digital engagement, it may be a good way

for Jellycat to organise live-streaming on Tiktok, like

virtual tours of Jellycat's manufacturing process or

Q&A sessions with brand designers, so that Jellycat

can offer consumers unique insights into the brand’s

creative journey. Furthermore, live content should be

different among countries and regions, rely on each

ones' digital marketing development situations: for

example in China, where live-streaming is extremely

popular and can boost sales significantly, Jellycat

could simply try to open a live streaming channel to

sell its product directly; while on the other hand in

countries where live streaming sales is not yet very

popular, organise expert live-streamings like invite

designers to discuss about how the inspiration came

out.

4.4 Involve Advertising Campaigns

Finally, another suggestion is made: Jellycat should

also involve targeted advertising campaigns that

focus on specific segments of the market. As these

advertising campaigns have data-driven insights,

Jellycat can now tailor ads based on demographics,

psychographics and consumer purchasing power, in

order to ensure that the brand’s messaging is both

precise and impactful. In this approach, Jellycat can

combine influencer partnerships, interactive content,

and data analytics, to significantly enhance its online

footprint and drive sustained engagement across

various digital platforms.

5 CONCLUSION

To sum up, this paper discussed about digital

marketing strategy of Jellycat, Jellycat's success is no

doubtly inevitable, it is brand image, high-end

luxurious plush toys, with iconic cute smiley face,

safe and soft materials, unique design. They all built

the current "Jellycat", defeat the other high-end plush

toy brands in the market.

The detailed analysis of Jellycat’s marketing

strategy shows that its strength lies in its overall

approach: detailed product classification, not only

provide consumers with the most classic plush toy

products, but also provide related products such as

story books, baby blankets and so on; large customer

base, for customers of all ages to develop products in

line with customers' wishes; clear segmentation in the

A Case Study of Jellycat’s Marketing Success and Pathways to Global Expansion

287

current toy market; positioning as a high-end, good

quality and specifically-designed toy product.

The recommendations are provided in order to

further develop the potential for growth by increasing

pop-up stores all over the world, organising targeted

events (live-streaming, virtual events), expanding

social media marketing initiatives, and find related ad

campaigns and partnerships.

Ultimately, Jellycat's success will depend on its

capacity to innovate and remain customer awareness.

The brand is in a strong position to develop enduring

brand loyalty and stronger ties with its audience by

emphasizing experiential marketing and digital

diversity. Jellycat's marketing approach, which is

characterized by its flexibility and innovative quality,

provides an engaging example of how to successfully

negotiate the difficulties of a changing industry.

Sustained innovation and a dedication to

comprehending consumer behavior will be essential

going forward to preserve its competitive advantage

and guarantee ongoing market expansion.

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