Meet the Wiggles, one of the world’s most successful, most popular, and most revenue-generating, rock groups.  

Never heard of them, you say? Of course not. You have to be 5 years old to be a fan.

The Wiggles are a children’s musical group formed in Sydney, Australia in 1991. The original members were Anthony Field, Murray Cook, Greg Page, Jeff Fatt and Phillip Wilcher. Field and Page were students of pre-school education at Macquarie University. They identified a powerful niche: music for 5-year-olds. They use their background in theories of child development to tailor their videos, music, live shows and TV programs specifically for words five-year-olds know, songs they can sing, and dances they can dance. 

The Wiggles are “the world’s biggest preschool band” and were named Business Review Weekly’s top-earning Australian entertainers for four years in a row and earned AU$45 million in 2007 (about the same in US $).  

The group proves a key principle of innovation: Identify a need, learn your customers’ preferences well and deeply, and meet the need in creative and enjoyable ways. The Wiggles are niche players, but have shown their niche is substantial — there are a whole lot of five-year-olds in the world. While others seek the money in the 15-year-old and up group, they have done ‘down market’ — literally — with great results. 

Here are the lyrics to one of The Wiggles’ great all-time hits. Note that the song is fun, easy to sing, educational (teaches healthy eating) and suited to their clients.

Repetitious? Hey — we’re talking five-year-olds! Anything good is worth repeating ten million times….

Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy, Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy, Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy
Yummy Yummy, Yummy Yummy, Fruit Salad!

Let’s make some fruit salad today (Uh huh uh)
It’s fun to do it the healthy way (Uh huh uh)
Take all the fruit that you want to eat
It’s gonna be a fruit salad treat!

Peel your bananas, The second step
Toss in some some grapes, The third step
Chop up some apples, Chop up some melons
And put them on your plate

Now we’ve made it, It’s time to eat it (Uh huh uh)
It tastes so good that you just can’t beat it (Uh huh uh)
Give everyone a plate and a spoon
We’ll all be ating it very soon!

The first step, Eat up the banana
The second step, Eat up some grapes
The third step, Eat up some apples
Eat the melons, Now there’s nothing on your plate

Now we’ve had our fruit salad today (Uh huh uh)
It’s time to put the scraps away (Uh huh uh)
Wash the bowls and wash the spoon
Let’s do it all again real soon!

Fruit salad, Yummy yummy, Fruit salad,Yummy yummy
Fruit salad, Yummy yummy, Yummy yummy yummy yummy
Fruit salad!

The Wiggles

The Wiggles