The Emerging Children's Market
Staff -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 1/1/2001
In the midst of the sticker craze that possessed the gift industry in the early 1980s, Gifts & Dec writer Douglas Neiss devoted some thought to the nature and buying power of the juvenile market. As he noted in this article from 1984, the children of the '80s were affluent, savvy customers with a taste for collecting.just like their parents.
Stickers and licensed character merchandise are just the most striking manifestations of an emerging children's market in stationery products. The demand has taken manufacturers by surprise, if not by storm. A pioneering sticker company, for example, has had its hands full managing an annual growth rate of 80 percent. Companies in general have been too busy keeping up with the demand to analyze or measure the market.
The market represents a grass roots phenomenon. The demand started with the kids themselves; it was not foisted on them by manufacturers. Certainly, there can be a lot of hype associated with licensed properties, but no amount of hype can guarantee success. There have been some heavily promoted flops.
The case is clearer-cut with stickers. Here, a whole new flourishing category was created unintentionally. These onetime humble teaching aids, when introduced to the consumer market, quickly became "the collecting hobby of this generation." The number of firms offering stickers continues to grow. There are now perhaps 50 competing for their share of a market pegged at between $250 and $500 million at retail. "It still remains a phenomenon to us," admits one of the pioneers. (Editor's note: Whenever stickers are submitted to the magazine to be photographed, they have to be rationed out afterward to the eager children of colleagues and to the author's own two sons, ages seven and 12.)
One resource claims that it was character merchandise that first made the industry aware of the children's market and that it was the inability of some companies to get licenses that spurred them on to develop the "trendy items," such as stickers, that we associate with this market. Trendy items may now be outstripping character merchandise because their appeal is broader (it includes boys, for example).
The emergence of the children's market is not due to population growth. This age group has actually declined 4.7 percent as a percentage of the total U.S. population from 1980 to 1982, according to Census Bureau figures. And it is projected to grow only 0.5 percent a year for the rest of the century. Rather than a product of numbers, the children's market can be viewed as a phenomenon of affluence. These are the children of the post-World-War-II Baby Boom babies. Their parents married later and postponed starting families until, in many cases, both adults were embarked on careers. And they are having fewer children. These two-income, smaller families are in a position to spend more on their children.and they do.
The Victorian view that children are simply little adults certainly applies to what's been happening in the children's market. One desk accessory resource hazards the guess that what we're seeing in stationery is a spinoff from the success of designer clothes for kids. "Once you've spent $40 on a pair of Calvin Klein jeans for kids, designer-related stationery products for youngsters don't seem that expensive." They seem, in fact, like a "logical choice," particularly if one is decorating a child's room and trying for a coordinated look. Marimekko patterns for children are popular on sheets and comforters, so why not on desk accessories or party goods? Department stores are opening children's accessory departments, this resource points out, and really "going after that business."
"Children today are much more fashion-conscious and sophisticated." This is a statement one hears over and over. Not only designer patterns but also designer logos are finding favor on children's stationery products. It may be that the big collectibles revival among kids owes more to the adult collectibles market than to earlier forms of childhood collecting. Stickers are often compared to the baseball cards of previous generations, but perhaps a more valid comparison would be to such grown-up collectibles as plates and figurines.
Nor is it only stickers that kids are collecting these days, but novelty pens, pencils, erasers, and shoelaces as well. Various receptacles have been introduced for sticker collections, and now one company is doing well with a box for traded stationery.
Kids today are also more visually oriented and sophisticated than ever before, because of the tremendous number of images they're exposed to, especially through television, the movies, and video games. Stickers, for example, are often referred to as "mini graphics." In addition to having a socializing influence through trading, they also appeal to children's creativity because they have so many uses.
Whether because children today are more sophisticated or adults more nostalgic for their childhoods, there is considerable overlapping between markets. Think of the most popular motifs of recent years: teddy bears, rainbows, hearts, unicorns, balloons. Think of the most popular colors, whether pastels or primaries.
Today's children are also the heirs of the consumer movement. "They comparison-shop, they're aware of brand names and price structures, and they communicate with each other and with us," says one resource about youthful consumers. Perhaps their very (over)exposure to advertising makes them skeptical of its claims.
The future? Will the number of companies now vying in the sticker market bring about a glut and a drop in popularity? Not necessarily. Says one sticker supplier: "The more quality stickers on the market, the merrier. They can only help to solidify the category." With the consumer savvy of their older siblings trickling down to the four-to-six-year-old set, the future looks bright, indeed!
Gifts & Decorative Accessories, February 1984
