Does it pay for bigger toy manufacturers to nurture smaller ones? – Just ask Coca Cola

June 11, 2009

Are you familiar with the Coca Cola company’s efforts in finding and nurturing new brands? Aware that they are too big to be truly entrepreneurial, Coke looks for companies that it can help grow and someday acquire.

Called the “Venturing and Emerging Brands” (VEB) division, this unit is charged with, as Coke puts it “identifying high-potential growth brands in the North American beverage space for investment or ownership by The Coca-Cola Company and exploring potential synergistic relationships with these investments. With direct access to the global resources and industry expertise of The Coca-Cola Company and its system, VEB is uniquely positioned to develop emerging beverage brands of The Coca-Cola Company to their full potential.”

Wouldn’t it be great if our major and mid-sized toy companies started doing the same thing? It would be a good bet on the future for them. After all, it would give them access to brands, products and categories that they might have missed out on.

Access to capital and expertise is always a challenge and particularly so in these tough jtimes. It would be interesting to see what would happen if toy companies went into the nurturning business.

Posted by Richard Gottlieb on June 11, 2009 | Comments (5)

July 2, 2009

In response to: Does it pay for bigger toy manufacturers to nurture smaller ones? – Just ask Coca Cola
asweeney commented:

YES....this happens in all industries why not the toy industry? I found this great small company that makes these neat puppets called Puppetteller at www.puppetteller.com. I bought some for my kids and everyone is asking about where I got them and wonder why they can't get them in the big stores... If large toy companies worked with the small ones it would give the consumer a much wider selection of toys to choose from in the larger retail stores.

June 14, 2009

In response to: Does it pay for bigger toy manufacturers to nurture smaller ones? – Just ask Coca Cola
Mark Salzwedel commented:

I think the medium-level toy companies have been much more open to this. I've gotten and heard of much more cooperation with Rio Grande Games, Mayfair Games, Z-man Games, and a few others. If anyone knows about Hasbro and Mattel doing this, let us know. All I hear from various people is unverified stories about Hasbro blackmailing retail chains into dropping their competitors' products.

June 12, 2009

In response to: Does it pay for bigger toy manufacturers to nurture smaller ones? – Just ask Coca Cola
Nate Scheidler commented:

I think the industry on a whole needs to work together to bring traditional toys and games back to the forefront. Some problems inherent in the industry right now occur in other business sectors as well. Developing new technologies and experimental marketing runs the risk that your development efforts, incurred at great cost, will be copied by a competitor for a fraction of the price. A lot of this can be resolved through the use of industry organizations, if they are able to function for the good of the whole body instead of the interests of a few.

June 11, 2009

In response to: Does it pay for bigger toy manufacturers to nurture smaller ones? – Just ask Coca Cola
Cliff Annicelli commented:

I'm wondering what that nurturing would look like...The only example I can think of is USAopoly's relationship with Hasbro for branded Monopoly games. Any thoughts, Richard?

June 11, 2009

In response to: Does it pay for bigger toy manufacturers to nurture smaller ones? – Just ask Coca Cola
Design Edge commented:

May the power of suggestion be on your side.