The Marketing of Children’s Toys

The Marketing of Children’s Toys
Author: Rebecca C. Hains
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-04-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030628817

This book offers rich critical perspectives on the marketing of a variety of toys, brands, and product categories. Topics include marketing undertaken by specific children’s toy brands such as American Girl, Barbie, Disney, GoldieBlox, Fisher-Price, and LEGO, and marketing trends characterizing broader toy categories such as on-trend grotesque toys; toy firearms; minimalist toys; toyetics; toys meant to offer diverse representation; STEM toys; and unboxing videos. Toy marketing warrants a sustained scholarly critique because of toys’ cultural significance and their roles in children’s lives, as well as the industry’s economic importance. Discourses surrounding toys—including who certain toys are meant for and what various toys and brands can signify about their owners’ identities—have implications for our understandings of adults’ expectations of children and of broader societal norms into which children are being socialized.

Opportunities within the traditional toy sector of the UK Toys and Games Industry - A German Perspective

Opportunities within the traditional toy sector of the UK Toys and Games Industry - A German Perspective
Author: Johannes Weber
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2007-03-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3638607992

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Offline Marketing and Online Marketing, grade: 1,0, University of Hull, language: English, abstract: Being a relatively dynamic and one of the biggest of its sort within the European Union, the Toys and Games Industry in the United Kingdom is attractive for many foreign toy manufacturers. Especially the market sector of the traditional toys, which will be defined later, seems to be very auspicious from a general point of view. To what extent this general view corresponds with the reality will be examined on the basis of German toy manufactures and needs to be analysed critically. Hence, the research objective of this work is to figure out what opportunities but also what sorts of threats toy manufacturers from Germany could be faced with when entering the British market. This, however, needs several questions to be answered. Terms like market value, market growth rates but also other factors like the influence of the toy firms’ environment and consumers’ attitude towards the industry must be explained which will be done through a secondary data-based overview of the industry in chapter two. Having introduced to several considered research approaches, the choice of the used methodology, its application and special research highlights in chapter three, the analysis’s findings will be illustrated in the fourth part of this study. These results will be consumer-based in order to get a better overview about the market itself and to being able to give more efficient recommendations to German toy companies considering breaking into the UK market. The final answer of the research objective mentioned above and further recommendations will be content of chapter five. The last chapter of the essay then tries to draw a conclusion and will clarify whether the targeted research objective has been achieved and outline weaknesses within the used methodology and their potential avoidance in future research projects.

World Toy Industry

World Toy Industry
Author: Karsten Grummitt
Publisher:
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1992
Genre: Market surveys
ISBN: 9781872025308

Toys, Games, and Media

Toys, Games, and Media
Author: Jeffrey Goldstein
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2004-09-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135614555

This book is a state-of-the-art look at where toys have come from and where they are likely to go in the years ahead. The focus is on the interplay between traditional toys and play, and toys and play that are mediated by or combined with digital technology. As well as covering the technical aspects of computer mediated play activities, the authors consider how technologically enhanced toys are currently used in traditional play and how they are woven into childrens' lives. The authors contrast their findings about technologically enhanced toys with knowledge of traditional toys and play. They link their studies of toys to goals in education and to entertainment and information transfer. This book will appeal to students, researchers, teachers, child care workers and more broadly the entertainment industry. It is appropriate for courses that deal with the specialized subject of toys and games, media studies, education and teacher training, and child development.

Out of the Garden

Out of the Garden
Author: Stephen Kline
Publisher: Verso
Total Pages: 430
Release: 1993
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781859840597

This timely and innovative book provides a detailed history of marketing to children, revealing the strategies that shape the design of toys and have a powerful impact on the way children play. Stephen Kline looks at the history and development of children's play culture and toys from the teddy bear and Lego to the Barbie doll, Care Bears and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He profiles the rise of children's mass media - books, comics, film and television - and that of the specially stores such as Toys 'R' Us, revealing how the opportunity to reach large audiences of children through television was a pivotal point in developing new approaches to advertising. Contemporary youngsters, he shows, are catapulted into a fantastic and chaotic time-space continuum of action toys thanks to the merchandisers' interest in animated television. Kline looks at the imagery and appeal of the toy commercials and at how they provide a host of stereotyped figures around which children can organize their imaginative experience. He shows how the deregulation of advertising in the United States in the 1980s has led directly to the development of the new marketing strategies which use television series to saturate the market with promotional "character toys". Finally, in a powerful re-examination of the debates about the cultural effects of television, Out of the Garden asks whether we should allow our children's play culture to be primarily defined and created by marketing strategies, pointing to the unintended consequences of a situation in which images of real children have all but been eliminated from narratives about the young.

The Business of Toys and Games

The Business of Toys and Games
Author: Aspatore Books
Publisher: Aspatore Books
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781596226272

The Business of Toys and Games is an authoritative, insider's perspective on the ins and outs of the children's toy industry and the strategic thinking behind running a toy company. Featuring senior management from the nation's leading toy and game manufacturers, this book provides a broad, yet comprehensive overview of the current shape and future state of this fast-paced industry. As they raise critical points around the unique aspects of creating merchandise for a young audience, these authorities offer practical and adaptable strategies for succeeding on the shelves and with their customers. From conducting market research and developing new products to creating a company vision and building a winning team, these leaders articulate the finer points of an industry where work and play intersect. The different niches represented enable readers to get inside some of the great strategic minds of today, as experts explore in detail what it takes to stay ahead of trends and compete on a global scale.