Global Toy News

Crayola Expands Its Brand Relationship With Cosmetic Lines

"Crayola, however,  is working to maintain a relationship with women as they mature by smartly repackaging the colors of their childhood into a hip line of cosmetics for adults."

...

One of the areas in which, I think, the toy industry falls short is in maintaining its relationship with females between the ages of 8 and 28. Generally, girls walk away from their toys, still loving them, at the age of 8. When they return, at about the age of 28, they are adult women who feel little of the strong affection that grown men have for their toys of childhood.

Transfomers and Star Wars Dads love to share their passion with their kids. Barbie Moms, for example, not so much. Somewhere, in the intervening years, their love has turned to anything from a simple lack of interest to open hostility where they don't want their daughters to play with Barbie. This happens, at least in part, because toy brands like Barbie fail to maintain a relationship with girls and women as they grow up. Doing so, however,  would require rethinking of the brand as more than a toy but as a lifestyle line that, though always Barbie, becomes progressively more mature in how it drives its story lines and products as girls grow into becoming tweens, teens and adults. Something like a softer version of "Sex and the City" meets Barbie.

What the #*@#!!! Is the Toys R Us Brand Worth Now?

"What exactly is the value of the Toys R Us brand now that it has gone through a bankruptcy and will now be vulnerable to adult themed websites with sounds-like names?"

...

I, like many of you, was at first amused that Toys R Us was selling off the off-color domain names it had acquired and hoarded. The company had purchased the domains in order to make sure that no one was able to use variations on the Toys R Us brand in order to sell things like sex toys. After all, that dancing giraffe and reversed R are symbols which communicate that Toys R Us is all about kids.

There is therefore, when you think about it, something disturbing about the company now putting up for auction domain names like: Kinkytoysrus.com , Sex toysrus.com and Adulttoysrus.com.  Also for sale are hater domain names like Toysrussucks.com and Ihatetoysrus.com. 

So, what does the selling off of these adult themed names say about the value of the Toys R Us brand itself? I fully understand that companies running adult themed websites will pay a great deal of money to acquire the rights to names like Kinkytoysrus.com. On the other hand, would you want to purchase a child oriented brand if you knew that there were going to be websites out there that would be able to distort its meaning?

Why didn't they bundle the rights to the sounds-like names as part of the sale of the actual Toys R Us brand? If they had done that they could have charged more and the purchaser would have been able to decide whether to retain them or sell them?Did Fairfax Financial Holdings, know that Toys R Us owned these domain names or that they intended to auction them off to the highest bidder? Would they have paid $300,000,000 if they did?

A Mattel Hasbro Combination; A Challenging Puzzle

Hasbro and Mattel are reportedly in discussions regarding a merger of the two companies (see: "A Hasbro Mattel Merger; Who will feel the Impact?"). The investment community seems to like it, as is reflected in the rise in both company's share prices since the news broke late last week.

We do know that a combined company would be an giant weighing in with revenues of $11 billion dollars dwarfing every other toy company with the exception of Lego which has revenues that are about 40% of that number. But how easy would it be to put the companies together? Here are some thoughts.

Lots of Brands

Its challenging enough to handle the addition of one new brand, what do you do if you are the Vice President of Sales and you suddenly find that your portfolio of brands has more than doubled? How do you prioritize when you have Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher Price, Playskool, Transformers, My Little Pony, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Disney Princesses, Furby, American Girl, Cars, WWE, DC, Marvel, Star Wars, Rose Art, Mega Brands, Littlest Pet Shoppe, Mr. Potato Head, Nerf, Play-Doh, Nerf, Sesame Street, Spiderman, Bey Blade and many, many more?

No matter how good you are, the ball gets dropped somewhere. If the acquisition goes through, don't be surprised if we see the new combined company selling off or licensing some of its smaller brands. Smaller companies may ultimately benefit by adding some some of these brands to their portfolios.

Where to Put the Headquarters

Where will the headquarters be located? Let's face it, It is much harder to get further apart culturally and geographically than Pawtucket, Rhode Island and Los Angeles, California. Even though Hasbro is situated in old school Pawtucket, it has managed to be more of a player in the movies and digital gaming than Mattel. So, location is not necessarily destiny but it may tell us something about how the combined management sees the future of play.

Old Allegiances and New Realities

There is not a lot of cross-pollination between "Greater Hasbro" and "Greater Mattel". By greater, I mean the ecosystem of IP, service and manufacturing providers that surround each company. Those who do business with one company do not necessarily do business with the other. Some of this results from geographical proximity and some from professional history. It will be a challenge for companies doing business with only Hasbro or only Mattel to adapt and maybe even survive a new reality.

A Clash of Cultures

Let's not forget that though both companies are publicly held, the Hassenfeld family, unlike the Handlers, is still very much a presence at Hasbro. That makes Hasbro more of a family company while Mattel is more corporate. I am sure the combined management will be up to the challenge of merging two such cultures but a challenge it will be.

Nike Goes Local; Is It a Good Idea?

 

“The future of sport will be decided by the company that obsesses the needs of the evolving consumer.”

Mark Parker, Nike’s chief executive

Nike has announced plans that it intends to focus its efforts on twelve cities: New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Milan, Mexico City, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Barcelona, Berlin and Beijing. Here is how Nike explains it in a press release:

NIKE, Inc. today introduced the Consumer Direct Offense, a new company alignment that allows Nike to better serve the consumer personally.. by accelerating innovation and product creation, moving even closer to the consumer through Key Cities, and deepening one-to-one connections.

According to New York Times writer, Micah Maidenberg, in his article "Nike, a Global Brand, Will Try Going Local": the companies anticipates that, as a result, 80% of its growth will come from these 12 cities.The company's belief is that by focusing on these major urban areas, and by using both physical and digital retailing and engagement, it can get a better sense of what consumers will want and react more quickly in a constantly changing fashion landscape. The expectation is that, as a result, shoe and athletic styles will become localized. The shoes you find in Beijing may be different than the ones available in Berlin or New York. 

Forbes Best Brands of 2017; Lego is #1

I have to say that I was a bit surprised when I saw that the toy industry's own Lego sat atop the list of Forbes Magazine's Best Brands in 2017. Yes, Lego, sitting there above Google, Nike and even Disney.

• Lego
• Google
• Nike
• Ferrari
• Visa
• Disney
• NBC
• PWC
• Johnson & Jonson
• McKinsey & Co.

Its an interesting list. Two of the companies cited are toys and play (Lego and Disney), one is Internet based (Google), one is sport related (Nike), one is a credit card company (Visa), one is a car company (Ferrari), one is a television network (NBC), professional services (PWC aka PricewaterhouseCoopers), one is a medical device and pharmaceutical company (Johnson & Johnson) and one is in global management consulting (McKinsey & Co.).