Yobikomi-kun
A sales-promotion audio device placed on the sales floor of supermarkets and similar stores, which plays a recorded sales pitch and background music on repeat. It has been sold since 2000 by Gunma Denki of Midori, Gunma Prefecture. It is widely known for its background music, rendered as "popo-popopopo," and many people have heard it in a supermarket or drugstore. It is a long-selling product, with more than 70,000 units sold in total as of 2024.
Development
On sales floors before this, it was common to play a recording on cassette tape on repeat. Stores complained that the tape would stretch, and that re-recording took effort and the tapes cost money, and the first model went on sale in 2000 as a device to solve this.
How it works
It can play a pre-recorded sales pitch and background music at the same time. It has a sensor that detects approaching customers, and the background music can be changed by swapping a memory card holding royalty-free tunes.
The melody
The familiar background music was composed by someone connected with a commercial-jingle production company in Gunma Prefecture. There are two standard melodies, the bossa nova-style "No. 2" and the faster "No. 4," and the one known as "popo-popopopo" is No. 4. As of 2022, No. 4 is registered as a sound trademark.
Spread
Cumulative sales grew from about 40,000 units around 2018 to 50,000 as of January 2022 and more than 70,000 as of April 2024. On the internet it became a topic of conversation along with the onomatopoeic rendering of its melody, and was also distributed as a ringtone. In December 2021 a 53 mm tall toy version (Mini) went on sale, and in February 2023 a DX version holding both melodies followed. A doll-shaped timer was also scheduled for release in 2024.
To verify
- The composer's name
- The registration date and number of the sound trademark
- Whether the doll-shaped timer was released as scheduled
- The official company name of the maker of the toy version
References
- Mentioned in
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