Global Toy Sales: Getting Your Share of that $71.96 Billion in

N.P.D.’s announcement this week that global toy sales amounted to $71.96 billion is important for Toy Nation in a number of ways:

• It provides us with a sense of perspective. We now know where are market fits in the scheme of things.
• It forces us to think globally. It gives shape to what has seemed amorphous: global business.
• It challenges us to think if and how we want to secure some of that revenue. It is a bit like being given a treasure map. Do we want to buy the supplies and take the time to look for gold?
• It sends a positive business message in a very tough year. It says that we are a very robust industry and that, though some markets are experiencing a downturn, others are soaring.

This global number is impressively big but is based upon a huge number of markets (many of them small) with varying cultures, values and levels of wealth. Smart toy companies realize that penetrating the global toy market is like eating a large bunch of grapes.  It’s not possible to eat them all at once. One can, however, devour the entire bunch by slowly eating one grape at a time.