The "Kidults" trend is generating massive profits

Idea #1 - Candle Pouring Kits

If you ever want to see what products work well just look at how many MLMs (multi-level marketing schemes) there are for the product (don’t join MLMs btw). 

Candle pouring is:

#1 Fun - there is a process and simple directions to follow

#2 Smells great - who doesn’t like that?

#3 Involves simple materials for you to create kits with

Sound similar? These are the same reasons adults love LEGOs.

#candlemaking on TikTok has 679k posts.

And they’re honestly pretty cool. I’d make one.

Google Trends is showing steady (but cyclical) growth as well.

Idea #2 - K’nex for adults

Remember these things as kids?

I swear all the kids who used to play with these became geniuses when they grew up 😂

It was more than just legos - they connected like gears. You could build a car out of K’nex. Exhibit A:

I don’t even want to know how long this took.

Interestingly enough this company ended up selling for $21 million. Not too shabby.

There is a similar opportunity here for adults looking to build things with more complexity than legos - aka the K’nex 2.0.

As they say “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” A lot of times what works is creating the same business 5 years later. Or in this case 32 years later.

The product on Amazon still has ~480 sales a month, or $14,400/mo.

And the K’nex User Group still gets around 45k visits a month, per Similarweb 👀

Clearly, there is still massive interest in these toys to this day.. People on Reddit are even asking where they can buy more parts.

Create something similar and market it purely towards adults.

Idea #3 - Tamagotchi babies for millennials

We’ve all seen the stat. Millennials are having a record low number of babies compared to previous generations.

Many are opting for pets instead.

In one study, 70% of respondents viewed their cat/dog as their child and another found 70% of millennials would rather own a pet than a child. 

This checks out when you see there are almost double the amount of pets than kids in American households today.

Furthermore, the massive trend “Plant Parenting” is taking hold.

~66% of American households own at least one plant and on average pay for plant maintenance (like watering, feeding, and trimming) costs between $100-$600 a month.

All this means one thing. Millennials clearly want to take care of something, but not a human baby. Could a fake one work?

Here’s what I’m thinking.. 

Remember those Tamagotchi pets from the late 90s and early 2000s?

These things:

The Japanese company, Bandai, sold 82 million units of them and it only took one year to sell 10 million. With each unit selling for 15 to 20 dollars that’s roughly ~$150 - $200 million in year one!

Something similar to Tamagotchis could be a product the “kidults” sector might actually buy.

In order for your Tamagotchi pet to stay alive you had to feed it, clean it, give it medicine, and play games with it. Fun fact: the longest living Tamagotchi was 145 Tama years old (45 days)!

I’m thinking something similar but bring it to the new age. Instead of a pet, it’s a child. You have to do everything you would normally do to keep it alive (besides waking up in the middle of the night.. I don’t think people will like that feature). 

Burp it, change its diapers after it goes to the bathroom, feed it baby food until it’s big enough to transition, take it outside, etc. all by clicking buttons.

Maybe even have a competition between friends to see which baby grows the oldest/fastest like Tamagotchi did.

And there are many other examples of big companies now appealing to this “kidults” market.

1. Build-a-Bear created a “Build-a-Bear After Dark” for adults and it crushes.

2.  McDonald’s came out with an adult Happy Meal and had the news going crazy.

Looks like at the end of the day, we all just really wanna be kids and have fun!

So which business would I start and how?

I’d go with the easiest and most viral - candle making kits.

Why? 

#1 This appeals to everyone. 7 out of 10 households use candles. 

#2 It can go viral on TikTok and you can create ads to sell directly through TikTok shop.

Here’s how I’d do it:

#1 Make the kits

Candles are somewhat simple. In order to make one you need:

• Wax - popular options are paraffin wax, soy wax, or beeswax

• Wick

• Candle jar - Alibaba has cheap ones at $1.07/unit 

• Melting Pot - here’s one on Alibaba for $1.30/unit

• Scented oils - here are the most popular scents by state!

• Dyes - blues, reds, and yellows alway looks nice

Most of these materials can be found on Alibaba for wholesale prices and they’re negotiable!

#2 Send free samples to candle making tiktokers

Remember the hashtag #candlemaking that had 679k posts? DM these folks on TikTok and see if they’d be interested in receiving a free kit and post it to their TikTok. Most will say yes for free. Some may request money depending on their follower count.

That’s the 1st marketing strategy - creators.

The 2nd should be ads. Once you have creators making you content, use those videos as your paid ads on TikTok. This is how all the big companies do it. Testimonials are extremely trustworthy and less expensive than creating another ad from scratch.

And that’s all I had! If you have any questions or want to learn more about these trends let me know by responding to this email. Happy hustling! 💪