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German to English translations [PRO] Marketing - Advertising / Public Relations / in-store product placement
German term or phrase:Quengelware
Quengelware is apparently the official term used for products (candy, toys, other little items) displayed in the checkout lane at a grocery store which are supposed to prompt us to make an impulse purchase. The idea is that children will start whining to get them. I've done a pretty extensive online search and haven't been able to find a good, catchy equivalent in English - just work-arounds and the (not too common) term "in-aisle merchandising".
Explanation: Marketers harness pester power
Little kids don't get much pocket money, so what's the point marketing to them? They don't buy the products.
Here's the trick. If you market to little kids, then they will learn to recognise the product and nag their mums to buy the food. It's called Pester Power.
Only a few food companies admit that they use Pester Power, even though a lot of them do it. This advert was published by a meat product company, which says it makes meat products in wacky shapes so that little kids will pester their mums to buy them. The advert says, "Over the years, we have continuously innovated [invented new products], successfully harnessing pester power." http://www.chewonthis.org.uk/marketing/impulse_home.htm
Pester power
A form of marketing in which young children are targeted with advertising that encourages them to pester their parents or guardians into buying specific foods, drinks or other products. It is often used to promote foods and drinks containing high levels of fat, sugar or salt. http://www.chewonthis.org.uk/glossary.htm#pester
I ended up going with this - it's just too perfect to discard! Thanks for the extremely interesting discussion and thanks to Alison for mentioning pester power which then led up to pester products! 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
@Jennifer: As others have pointed out, there seems to be no common term in English which expresses exactly the same idea, but "pester products" does get it across quite nicely, I think, and would cetainly be understood. On that note, despite there being a bona fide Wikipedia entry for "Quengelware", even as a native speaker I had actually never heard this term before, either. Maybe it's just my lack of children, though.
Looking at the responses below I see the point about the behaviour of children being omitted in impulse buys, but I don't think there is a term in English that covers this. Certainly from my years of retailing as a student the normal term would be "impulse buys". We were always being instructed by sales reps to "put your impulse buys close to the till" where they catch people's eyes.
Given the sentence, I would go for impulse buys rather than impulse goods. I think everybody can identify with impulse buys. Or, if the rest of your text permits - impulse buys with pester power (@Alison - I love the idea of pester power :))
The sentence isn't very helpful which is why I didn't include it in the question:
Was ist "Quengelware" und wie sieht ein typischer Tagesablauf im Supermarkt aus?
This is part of a book description. Right now "impulse goods" might fit best.
@Sarah, some of the stores here in Germany still have them, some don't. I know they're still quite common in the US, though.
Pester power
A form of marketing in which young children are targeted with advertising that encourages them to pester their parents or guardians into buying specific foods, drinks or other products. It is often used to promote foods and drinks containing high levels of fat, sugar or salt. http://www.chewonthis.org.uk/glossary.htm#pester
@ Jennifer. Given campaigns to move chocolate and sweets away from checkouts, a broad term is probably useful. My local Sainsburys only has leaflets and magazines these days, not much worthy of a whine from kids there!
Pester Power
If you've seen children demanding sweets beside supermarket check-outs ... you'll know something about pester power. This is the process whereby goods are carefully targeted at children so that they, in turn, will nag adults to buy them. The adults don't need to be particularly impressed by the items - eventually they'll give in just to keep the children quiet.
When you're a small business you're unlikely to be able to publicise anything highly enough to make children see it as a must-have item. However you may still find pester power useful, especially with smaller, lower cost items. Accessories kept near your tills can sell well on this basis, and offering small free toys with larger purchases - toys kept where children can see them - can increase you chances of making a sale. http://www.startafashionbusiness.co.uk/marketing-children-pa...
Not sure if this is of much help as the term may be too general, and not what you are looking for. Waiting at the checkout counter in the company of a whinging child though usually leads to excellent impulse buying. ;-) http://www.proz.com/kudoz/german_to_english/retail/2665822-m...
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Answers
16 mins confidence:
impulse buys
Explanation: Or "impulse buy items". You could add at the point of sale too but this seems to be used extensively to refer to chocolate, chewing gum and magazines, etc at the checkout.
Example sentence(s):
Checkout displays are the ultimate medium for creating impulse purchases.
Sarah Appleby United Kingdom Local time: 13:08 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English
Notes to answerer
Asker: You might be right - I saw that but initially considered it much too broad. I make my impulse buys all over the store - not just at the register! Actually, I rarely buy anything by the register. Looking at the google hits it generates, a good percentage seem to refer to checkout lanes. Of course it doesn't sound as catchy as Quengelware (which is a brilliant construction, if you ask me!) but we can't always expect that, can we? I actually looked up whineware in the hopes that it might fit, but that's something entirely different!
The translation workplace 
