Ace Your Sales in the Toy Industry With This Marketing Blueprint - Pixelsutra

ACE YOUR SALES IN THE
TOY INDUSTRYWITH THIS MARKETING BLUEPRINT

The growing number of
children in online game rooms and interactive
websites provide ample opportunities for
advertising campaigns aimed at kids.
Combined with an ever-increasing number of
broadcasters aimed at children's audience,
the media space for toy ads has grown
quickly.
EMOTIONAL ASSOCIATION
Children tend to view advertising as objective
and usually don’t comprehend its overall nature,
according to to commonsensemedia.org,
an independent nonprofit organization dedicated
to helping kids thrive in a world of media and
technology. Advertisers take advantage by
creating emotional attachments to their toys.
Associations with iconic Walt Disney characters
as well as movie stars and cartoons can create
strong ties with the toys they represent. Tie-ins
with food and fun are also popular. “Cereal box
prizes” have always been a major buzz all
throughout our lives.This cereal was introduced
as simply "Pebbles" in 1969. The recipe was a
modified version of Post's Rice Krinkles cereal
which disappeared about the same time Pebbles
was created. While Rice Krinkles had a definite
puffed rice appearance, this new cereal had
smaller pieces that actually looked like little
rocks.
Source : Fruity Pebbles
3Ace your sales in the Toy Industry with this marketing blueprint

Watch this fun 60’s Cereal Box commercials imbibing the toy concept with food:
A happy coincidence happened when the
creators of the animated television series
The Flintstones sent out word that they
were seeking licensing partners. During the
first year of the show (1960), The
Flintstones was aimed at adult audiences
and Winston cigarettes was its biggest
sponsor. In an effort to increase its appeal
to children and advertisers pandering to
children, The Flintstones added two
children to it's animated cast, Pebble and
Bamm-Bamm. Their commercial also
created a huge round of excitement among
cereal and cartoon lovers. Come, let’s take
a look at it:
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Source : Flintstones
Ace your sales in the Toy Industry with this marketing blueprint 4
Old Cereal Commercials 60's Compilation Toy Promotions

One of the most popularly consumed
children’s chocolate is the Kinder Joy and
they also incorporated the idea of giving out
toys with each pack of Kinder Joy they buy,
giving them both what they love(chocolates)
and what they want(toys).
Source : Kinderjoy
There are a number of quick service
restaurants in the Magic Kingdom at Walt
Disney World who sell food that has been
portrayed specifically in Disney movies.
Hence, the association of merchandising
food and cartoon or toys goes long back.
Ratatouille, the movie created a lot of buzz
for the very appetising and appealing meal
they portrayed in the film! The dish itself
was named Ratatouille and is loved
worldwide!
Source : Ratatouille

GAME ON- MAKE USE OF GAME BANNER ADS
Children and adolescents have access to
technology that gives advertisers more
mediums through which they can target
their audiences. For example, the National
Retail Federation has reported that tablet
devices were among the Christmas gifts
most often requested by children.
Source : Fonpit
Games are the most popular downloads by
children using computers and mobile
devices, so game banner ads on game sites
have become increasingly popular with
advertisers. When Mazda launched three
new models of cars in 2015, one of the
products for which they undertook a great
digital campaign was the Mazda2. It is a
supermini car that is quite fun to drive. A
number of statistics indicated that the game
was a major success. It received an
interaction rate of more than 3%. The normal
rate for the automotive industry is 0.5%. In
addition, there were over 78% user replays
for this game. It a good game banner ad
example that utilises both fun and real world
rewards. Banner ad
Source : Digitalland

Incorporating products within the games is
another strategy proving useful to
marketers. Disney Theme Park conducts
merchandise events all throughout the year.
One of the most popular ones are Epcot
International Food and Wine Festival
conducted in the Disney World Resort,
celebrating global cuisine, music and more!
Their array of merchandise products for
2017 are – “Taste Your Way Around the
World”, “Chef Figment”, “Brews
Collection”, and “Remy Collection”. The
“Taste Your Way Around the World” logo will
appear on a variety of items including
familiar favorites such as a coffee mug,
apparel items, hats, an appetizer food plate
with a place to hold a beverage, and more.
The “Brews Collection” logo will appear on
apparel items, among other items. The
“Chef Figment” logo can be found on
apparel items, headwear, mugs, and a
cooking apron. Finally, the “Remy
Collection” logo appears on apparel, mugs,
and more!
Source : Parks and Resorts

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE SMART MERCHANDISE
Ads also appear in places where organic
traffic can’t escape them. One strategy
advertisers employ, is to buy time slots on
radio shows being piped into school
buses. School districts enjoy the extra
money they get from the advertising and
advertisers get a captive audience.
Fisher Price introduced the Woodseys
from a storybook that came along with
the game, giving children the experience
of reading a tantalizing tale first, and then
letting them live it by playing the game in
real life!
Source : Flickr
Fisher Price also introduced the Kitchen set.
Remember how all of us have indulged into
cooking at our play time? Their tagline was
also cocooned with nostalgia: “Because
children cook up more things with
imagination”. Let’s take a look at it.
Source : Flickr

ATTENTION-GETTERS
A number of tried-and-true marketing
techniques continue to persuade children and
adults to want certain items. Repetition on TV
and online can be a useful strategy.
Productions including music, sound effects
and action continue to draw attention.
Animation remains popular and serves as a
useful advertising vehicle online and on TV.
Ads made to look like news reports are also
effective across platforms.
We’re going to peruse 4 best selling toys for
kids, and what their product marketing
strategies can tell us about creating a product
that is perfect for your customers. The four
toys are Zhu Zhu Pets, Crayola’s Crayon
Town Toys, Disney’s Netpal Computer, and
Princess and the Frog Tiana Toys, because
each one of them illustrates a valuable
marketing lesson, all innovated in an effective
way.
BUILD A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CUSTOMER
AND THE PRODUCT
Zhu Zhu Pets are interactive stuffed animals
– hamsters, to be exact. There are quite a
number of these hamsters to choose from,
each with their own name, mannerisms, and
unique personality. They’re made to respond
to children just as real hamsters would. Meet
the Zhu Zhu toys’ ‘Zhu-niverse’
Source : Zhuzhupets
8

Watch this video to learn more about the
uniqueness and interactiveness of the Zhu Zhu
hamsters
What’s the secret behind the success of
this product? The answer is in the
relationship. When children play with this
thing, it isn’t one-directional; the toy
hamster plays back. Each hamster has its
own name and personality, so the child can
connect with the individual hamster that it is
playing with – it’s the same secret that
drove the success of toys like Pokemon
and Tamagotchi virtual pets over the past
decade. Let’s take a look at the immense
buzz it created among children:
The lesson for you is to create a brand and
customer experience that your customer
feels personally connected with. They
shouldn’t feel that they are nameless and
faceless.
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ZhuZhu Pets Chunk, Pipsqueak, Mr. Squiggles & Num Nums from Spin Master

USE AN OLD AND POPULAR PRODUCT IN A NEW WAY
Source : Crayola
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Virtual Pet - A Portable Pocket Companion

Disney’s Netpal Computer is a
collaboration of Disney and ASUS, who
have created what they call “the perfect first
laptop computer for kids”. Children get all
the fun of browsing the internet, and the
parents get lots of control to make sure that
the browsing happens safely and securely
(parents can even control who their kids
can correspond with). The design is pure
Disney – colorful, and full of familiar
cartoon characters.
The secret behind this success is that
Disney found a giant customer base who
was using a traditional product, without that
product really being tailored for them. Tons
of kids use laptops, however, laptop
companies aren’t making the laptops for
kids. Disney is giving kids a product that
they already want and are using, except
that now it’s especially for them. Let’s take
a look at this remarkably appealing video of
Disney Netbook.
Crayon Town is a line of toys from Crayola
and Wild Planet. Each set has its own
theme (like “My House”, “Construction Set”,
and others). Kids use the crayons to color
the different parts of the set, and then use
the actual crayons as part of the scene.
The sets have parts that allow the crayons
to come alive as either characters or parts
of the environment (like trees). The secret
behind the success of this product is that it
lets kids use something that they like
(crayons) to do something that they like
doing (drawing) and then do something else
that they like (playing) – in a way that all of
them fits together.
The product marketing strategy lesson for
your business is to create offerings that
give your customers things that they like,
fitted together in a way that is synergistic,
with the whole being more than the sum of
its parts. The other lesson here is, for you
to prosper, make it possible for the
customer to shape their own experience
with your product or service.
TAILOR A PRODUCT TO NON-TRADITIONAL
CUSTOMERS
Source : Disney Netpal Computer

your business is to find people who are
using your product or service (or a product
or service like yours), but who aren’t the
traditional target market – which means that
they’re probably being neglected by your
marketing, and the marketing of your
competitors. You too can custom-tailor a
product especially for them and win them all.
GIVE YOUR CUSTOMERS
WHAT THEY ALREADY WANT
Princess and the Frog Tiana Toys are action
figures of the character Tiana from the movie
Princess and the Frog.
Girls can use these toys to play out their
favorite scenes from the movie, and there
are toys, sets and even books and
soundtracks to go with it. The secret here is
that Disney didn’t create a toy based on
what they thought kids might like – instead
they created a toy based on what they
already knew kids do like. We can even say
that they took it a step further, because
they’re the ones who created the initial
demand, by screening the movie.
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Disney Netbook Music

your business is that instead of trying to
figure out what your customers might want,
you should see what they already do want,
by looking at what they are consuming out in
the marketplace right now. If a product of
yours isn’t hitting home, then look at the
alternatives that are doing better, and explore
what sort of need those alternatives might be
filling, that yours might not be.
This post has been all about looking at
what’s working out in the marketplace, and
then trying to figure what the underlying
lesson is. This is one of the best ways to
learn – rather than trying to reinvent the
wheel, it’s usually more productive to try and
reverse engineer the success of all the
perfectly good
wheels that are already out there!
The digital world dominates a significant
portion of the modern consumer’s life cycle–
an estimated 81 percent of shoppers say
they do online research before buying a
product.
To effectively reach these online
customers, brands need to understand how
to leverage social media marketing. The
various social media platforms serve an
important role as the water cooler of the
internet. Brands that understand how to
appropriately use these channels will find
valuable opportunities to engage with
consumers personally, building relationships
and establishing a firm foundation to move
the prospect towards conversion.
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Disney Netbook Music

The same principles apply to those within
the toy industry. Some brands in this field
struggle to see the value of social media
marketing, but this digital channel can
produce tremendous results for toy
companies. The challenge is understanding
how to use it correctly.
BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
FOR TOY COMPANIES
Many toy companies will want to place a
heavy emphasis on the power of visual
marketing. Visual social platforms, such as
Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram can
show the toys in action and make it easy for
users to share photos or videos of
themselves or their children engaging with
the toys.
The dominant social media platforms,
including Facebook and Twitter should also
be included. Facebook remains the largest
social platform by far, reaching 1.86 billion
monthly users. Facebook encourages a
variety of different types of content and
makes it easy to build communities around
brands and products.
Here’s the link to the most played Facebook game: https://www.facebook.com/LEGO/

Twitter can also be used to promote images,
as well as address customer service
problems or questions.To develop the
optimal strategy for a particular toy
company, brands also need to know where
their audience is. The demographics of
Pinterest, for example, swing heavily
towards millennial women. It might be a
good option for reaching the mothers of
young children. Instagram and Snapchat
have younger users, and might be optimal
platforms for reaching middle school and
high school aged children.
Regardless of the platform, using images
increases engagement. Create content that
entices users with high-quality graphics and
demonstrate commitment to the customer
with fast response times.
UTILIZING YOUTUBE VIDEO BLOGGERS
Turning to YouTube video bloggers can
serve as an important factor in influencer
marketing. Customers naturally trust what
other consumers say more than what
brands say about themselves. Most of
these review videos are authentic and
garner huge traffic. Influencers work within
different industries and position themselves
as reputable, knowledgeable sources in
t h o s e c o m m u n i t i e s . Wo r k i n g w i t h
influencers on YouTube can quickly get the
message in front of a wide audience and
lay a strong foundation of trust. Take a look
at channel Baby Gizmo’s review of Disney
Princess Ultimate Dream Castle:

Videos also provide other benefits, as well.
Prospective customers can see the toy in
action, how it works, and its appeal for the
targeted demographic, enticing them to learn
more. Take a look at the review of LOL
Surprise Dolls series 1 & 2 by Shannon’s
Doll Channel in Youtube.
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LOL Surprise Dolls Series 1 & 2 Review Cries Color Change & More Opening | ShannonsDollChannel
Disney Princess Ultimate Dream Castle Review

TOY BRANDS THAT HAVE SEEN SUCCESS WITH
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
When used correctly, social media marketing
can be powerful for brands, helping them
reach their prospective customers, build
relationships, and encourage conversions.
Several toy brands have seen tremendous
success with these strategies.
Lego, for example, has built a strong social
media presence across multiple platforms.
On Facebook, they have more than 10
million likes on their page.
They also have over 200k followers on
Twitter and 1.8 million on Instagram. Across
their social media platforms, they regularly
post visual, engaging content. They also
actively participate in the community by
answering questions, addressing customer
service needs, and providing a positive
consumer experience. Take a look at how
they use Youtube to put up their game
trailers and game commercials and the
huge interactiveness among people.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=uo2GDFgc5Bk)
Lego also notes details, such as the times
when their customers are more active, to
increase their engagement on the platforms.
Lego Toy Story Commercial 2

Similarly, Step2Toys has seen tremendous
success through social media. They have
built their strategy around the moms who
actually buy the children’s products. They
keep adding appealing videos of all their
new products on Facebook. Take a look at
their toy promoting video:
Source : Facebook
They understand that customers value the
opinions of other consumers as well as
convenience and actively engage consumers
on online review sites and e-commerce
pages. Their efforts to combine the different
elements of social presence into one
seamless experience is apparent and
increases their success rate. The better
brands understand their audience and how
to use social media marketing to their
advantage, the stronger their results will be.
Brands can also trust the experienced
marketers at Ballantine to maximize their
Return On Investment(ROI) from any
marketing campaign they want to employ.
Source : Facebook

REALIGNMENT OF TOY TRENDS
Global sales growth for all traditional toys
and games was 5% in 2012. Shock-horror
death of Barbie aside, toymakers are
experiencing a reorientation—one that
starts with demography and ends with
technology. One aspect of this realignment
is that women are having fewer children at
a later age when they have more money:
between 2005 and 2010 the average age of
a first-time mother in Britain, Germany,
Switzerland and Japan rose by almost half
a year. Spending per toy and per child is
consequently on the up, even though unit
sales are down—a significant shift, but not
yet a profit-boosting one.
It looks like market leaders are responding to
this trend of online games. Standalone toys
lack scale and versatility. Franchises that
span multiple platforms—from cartoons to
video games to films to physical toys—are a
better bet. The future, as Adrienne Appell of
America’s Toy Industry Association says, is
in “transmedia storytelling”. Hasbro’s
strategy implies that a multi-platform model
is now a prerequisite for success.
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Mattel "Monster High"

Toymakers can try to boost growth in other
ways. One option is to reach out to new
demographics. Big kids are often neglected.
In Japan over 20-year-olds made up 23% of
total sales in 2011.. There is untapped
potential here. Three years ago, David
Beckham revealed that he had built the ‘Taj
Mahal’ out of Lego; sales of that kit spiked
by 633% in just one day. He told the Sunday
Times Magazine:"They also love Lego. So
do I. The last big thing I made was Tower
bridge. It was amazing. I think Lego
sometimes helps to calm me down.”
A gender switch could offer opportunities
too. In the past quarter Hasbro’s sales of
boys’ toys fell 35%, while those of girls saw
a 43% rise. Innovation by firms like Lego—
w h i c h r u l e s t h r e e - q u a r t e r s o f t h e
construction segment despite nearly going
bust a decade ago—has been rewarded. Its
new Friends range, aimed at girls, was a
huge hit in 2012.
Such strategies, though, are footnotes to the
main challenge. Manufacturers must become
cleverer at creating high-value, multimedia
properties. Toy brands will prosper as
entertainment brands. Fostering links with
mobile platforms is the first step;
commanding attention with compelling
content and characters is the next. For the
collectors of the future, it will not so much be
the toys themselves but the stories they tell
that captivate.

This was an analysis about various modern marketing techniques for your Toy
Industry. If you would like to have a detailed discussion, please get in touch with us
at hello@pixelsutra.com. We would be glad to assist you.
www.pixelsutra.com
P I X E L S U T R A

Ace Your Sales in the Toy Industry With This Marketing Blueprint - Pixelsutra

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Ace Your Sales in the Toy Industry With This Marketing Blueprint - Pixelsutra