The New Toy Industry

August 13, 2009

I have spent this week writing about the changes taking place in the toy industry. It appears that there is still credibility in the notion of creative destruction and that for a new toy industry to be born some of what was old had to be destroyed.

All of us in Toy Nation have struggled through a steady erosion in retailing and a lack of creativity in many product sectors. Now we are beginning to see what the new landscape looks like and, from where I am sitting, it is looking potentially more diverse.

I think we should anticipate that:

Barnes & Noble’s decision to take the adult game and puzzle end user seriously and offer them a department all of their own will be just the beginning of opening up this underserved market sector. If successful it could mean that the pie gets much bigger as we move beyond our industry’s single minded focus on children.

Spencer’s Gifts decision to put toy departments in the malls will be successful and prove that the problem with KB was its business model and not a lack of consumer interest. Again, a viable presence in the malls will create an expanded universe for toy manufactures to sell their wares.

Sears long overdue decision to get back into the toy business will prove that toy departments, by drawing families, will build sales for the entire store. Success there will supply another major outlet and in part make up for Sears sister company Kmart’s hobbling as a toy retailer.

Barbie will get some competition. Departments that are dominated by one brand shrink the consumer’s interest and spending and, as a result, ultimately hurt the entire toy department including the dominating player. Competition breeds creativity and we all need more of that.

I suspect that as we move forward we are going to see more chains getting into the toy business, more specialty stores sprouting up and more manufacturers disrupting the status quo.

Hold on tight. It’s started.

Posted by Richard Gottlieb on August 13, 2009 | Comments (2)

August 31, 2009

In response to: The New Toy Industry
Joseph J Capriccioso commented:

The recalls of lead paint from china a few years ago is what almost destroyed the toy industry.When week after week a new recall came,the toy industry lost the trust and faith of its customer base and parents everywhere.Customers turned to video games.Another factor was THE Corporate Ego.Ego's destroy companies.If you feel you are untouchable and your heads in the clouds you will never see walmart or target coming up behind you and knock you down off your horse.You also need to have buyers for your company that actually attends toy shows,reads toy magazine,and does research to have product knowledge.If i would open up my own toy company i would want to meet the kb toys buyers so i would know to never hire them for my company.Who orders cases of King Kong figures to promote 2 years after the movie and dvd is out?Why in a fantastic four box are there only 2 of the 4 members?Why did they flood the store with the 1st movie fantastic four figures when the 2nd Fantastic four movie Rise of the Silver Surfer was out.It's all about the Buyer! Also a toy manufacturer can be at fault.When SuperMan Returns figures came out who was Super man supposed to fight?Himself?The company couln't have just added villains from the comic and mad figures out of them.That is why for years and years batman figures didn't sell,because 1 villain per case and tons of different color batmen.Kids got fed up people.And it's not just the boy aspect either.Why did Barbie go from putting out like over 100 different dolls a year to like 20?Ken vanished too lol.The playsets became few and far between.From many barbie cars there were 2 lol.And then came the bratz and they took off.The toy stores need to have exclusives again too.Maybe jim cameron's avatar can start up stuff again.The toy industry can be reborn as long as the toy stores and manufacturers have a heart and put 100 percent into making a comeback.

August 13, 2009

In response to: The New Toy Industry
Mark Salzwedel commented:

Thanks for the encouraging insights! Innovation does seem to be of growing importance. My anecdotes: A potential sales manager passed along sales reps' suggestions about using licensed products to break into mass market, but the manager agreed that it was an overused and dying strategy. Reviews of our games keep stressing how unique they are. People come to the NYC Board Game Meetup by the dozens, and new members are surprised that it is so rare that a game older than 5 years gets played. And we finally got some venture capital and will be issuing stock soon, because they see board games as a growing marketplace with some of the best profit margins for manufacturing businesses.