Chatting with the Industry Specialty Toys & Gifts spoke with specialty manufacturers and retailers to get their take on marketing, merchandising, and distribution strategies; industry trends; and how they keep their customers happy. Who is your target consumer, and how do How do you differentiate your store to at - Jonny Girson you engage them in your store? tract and keep customers? owner, The Learning Towles: Those who are thoughtful about the Girson: Our targeted consumer and customer Tree things they buy. They put effort into what they are possibly two different individuals. The Prairie Village, Kan. pick out, and seek unique and special items. consumer is anyone, though primarily chil - We engage them with knowledge (both about dren, who plays with toys. The customer is product and child development). We want to anyone who will buy a toy for “the consumer.” let them know the provenance of what we I would say our typical customer falls into two carry. The more info we have, the better they main categories: adults ages 25-49 buying for feel. their kids, nieces, nephews, and kids’ friends. The second, but growing, market is the grand - Holliday: Our target consumers are mothers parent: adults ages 50-75. We engage both and grandparents. We engage them in our store groups by having an incredible staff who re - Tim Holliday by following a sales process that is proven to late well with our customers. They’ve been owner, work. This process starts with a greeting; con - hired to develop a relationship with the cus - Children’s tinues on with dialogue about them, their fam - tomers. We educate our customers with World ily, and so on to help us get to know them and friendly staff and many open demos where we Sarasota, Fla. their needs; and then it goes to product infor - can explain the features and benefits of what mation and demos, which we are big believers we sell. in. We also do specific in-store play days and What do you see as the major trends affect - other events to draw people into the store, so ing your business in the year ahead? people do not feel like they have to come in just to buy something. We also have a U.S. Kimber: The major trend that we witnessed Post Office inside our store, which we oper - last year was the shift of business from spe - ate. We engage the customers from the post of - cialty retailers and mass merchants to online Tim Kimber fice while they are in line, by playing games shopping. We expect that this will continue into owner and with them, demoing product, and providing in - the coming year, as we have seen just the tip of president, formation about our store. The hope, of course, the iceberg when it comes to the potential of PlaSmart, Inc. is to convert these postal customers into toy online platforms. Customers enjoy shopping customers. And with free gift wrapping and in- online; it allows them to compare prices easily, store shipping, we make it about as convenient find their desired item quickly, and have their as it gets to take care of gift shopping, espe - purchases shipped right to their door. cially for those from out of the area. However, the novelty of toy stores re - SPECIALTY TOYS & G IFTS S6 MAY /J UNE 2012 Rena mains; they are places where children, parents, a bit more to get a high-quality, high-perfor - Nathanson and grandparents want to go to discover and mance yo-yo at a fair price. They realize that a CEO, enjoy toys. Online retailers offer convenience, $3 yo-yo is not a good deal at any price if you Bananagrams, but visiting a toy store is a fun thing to do, and are looking for a good play experience or to Inc. offers a unique experience that is difficult to increase your skills. If anything, the party recreate online. Retailers should not be daunted favor and low-priced yo-yos out there only by the emergence of online shops; rather, they perpetuate an old stereotype of the category. should exploit the trends exposed by the online When a retailer says “my customers won’t pay world, and use them to harness the qualities $10 for a yo-yo” and then only sells $3 pieces, and benefits that make them unique. they are limiting that customer, the category, and their own sales potential. Nathanson: I think a big trend this year will David be toys and games that offer a variety of ways Quercia: End consumers are going back to the Quercia to play, as well as different levels of play, al - basics of wooden toys to help educate and de - vice lowing children to grow along with products. velop their children’s minds at an affordable president, This is paramount to us and is reflected in all price. This is a trend that Hape is definitely Hape Int’l, Inc. our current and upcoming games. We also ex - benefitting from because we provide all of it pect and hope to see more of the “less is more” in every aspect. philosophy that we practice when it comes to To stay competitive in the industry, you packaging. have to be able to also provide something unique that sets your company apart. Hape’s Rywolt: Building distribution: we are attract - product and development team is based in Eu - ing new customers in a broad range of retail rope, America, and Asia. The combination categories, mostly stores looking to meet the gives us an edge by providing quality toys impulse needs of new or casual players. Even with different perspectives. Todd Rywolt better still, our existing customers are getting president, on board with our new “Yo to Pro” program, Towles: Stiffer competition from Internet flash Yomega Corp. carrying a deeper selection of Yomega items sites and big box stores. Devaluing of some core to meet the needs of the people coming to their brands due to price slashing via Amazon. stores. They are finding they can sell three or Growth of importance of “buy local” campaigns. four models to the same customer if they have yo-yos for increasing skill levels on hand. Girson: The Internet, the fact that it’s an elec - “Hot Pockets”: There are specific com - tion year, and the economy. munities around the U.S. that are jump-starting interest in active play and skill toys. Whole Holliday: I believe that old-fashioned, knowl - towns are nurturing fun alternatives to seden - edgeable service is something that more and tary play. Suburbs around Atlanta, New more people are looking for. The Internet will Claudia York/New Jersey, Michigan, and northern Cal - never go away, but there is a lot of rumbling Towles ifornia seem to have embraced yo-yos and about shopping local, supporting your neigh - owner, skill toys; it’s really been fun to watch. borhood businesses, shopping small, and so aMuse Toys Quality, not quantity: It sounds cliché, but on. Of course, we promote all of those things Baltimore, Md. we’re seeing that even in tougher economic too, as they are what we are all about. Big times, people want good value over just businesses, whether the big box or the big In - “cheap.” They are more than willing to spend ternet company, may get a lot of the news and MAY /J UNE 2012 S7 SPECIALTY TOYS & G IFTS Chatting with the Industry such, but at the end of the day, it’s the small We have in-store events and participate in or case products to a wide, but targeted, audience of businesses that really contribute to the bottom sponsor many school activities and events. We toy retailers. Trade shows are used as an oppor - line of the communities they serve. Our busi - have been a sponsor of our local PBS TV station tunity to present new items, receive instant feed - ness has been fortunate enough to have survived for more than 10 years—advice I received from back, and be able to present each item hands-on. a lot of different economic climates, as we have a fellow ASTRA retailer many years ago. We do - It is always invigorating to see positive reactions been around since 1964. God willing, we will nate toys and gift certificates to numerous local to both new releases and to our classic products. continue to change where we have to, but still organizations whose main purpose is to improve It has been our experience that email newsletters provide the type of service that we are known the lives and development of children. are also very effective marketing tools used to up - for, and be a part of our community for many date our entire customer base of new arrivals, years to come. specials, and other product-related news. What are you doing to drive consumers to your Nathanson: We have been very fortunate that store, not only during the holidays, but word of mouth has been, and continues to be, a throughout the year? very successful channel for us. One person plays Holliday: In addition to the free play days that one of our games with four or five others, and we do every other week, and our in-store post they all want the game after playing it. Addi - office, we are involved in a number of things that tionally, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and other give us visibility in the community. We have em - social media tools are a great way for us to en - ployees who are involved with Boy Scouts, gage with our customers and for our fans to en - which gives us good publicity.