OBSERVATIONS 0F A TOY INDUSTRY SURVIVOR JON SALISBURY Are you targeting the BRIC territories? That’s where the major growth will be, claims our columnist
DEADLINES BEING so far ahead of the publication date of the hefty tome that is a Toy Fair preview issue means that I am actually penning these words in the first week of last December. In other words, I have absolutely no idea how the toy industry fared at Christmas although, having been in this industry for 27 years, I am able to extrapolate from the evidence of another busy year in the life of toys to form my own opinions.
First, though, I’d like to share
unhindered and we traded regular emails.
“I’m actually in the office,” Sean told me on the evening of the storm. “I’m getting work done here with no phone ringing and nobody around me. Tomorrow, Mattel are hosting an Analyst Day in Times Square. They’re still going forward with it, despite no subway service, no commuter trains, no airports and epic winds. "Mattel management were
there with a presentation and webcast, but the hotel had no
By 2020 over 80 per cent of the world’s
middle class households will be located in emerging nations such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
my reaction to another significant issue that was grabbing headlines in November 2012 – just as the US election was reaching its conclusion.
Please bear with me, as there is
a toy aspect to this tale. Hurricane Sandy was as big as the whole of Europe and its point of arrival in the US was New York City, that country’s city most associated with toy matters. Many readers will have vivid memories of time spent in the Big Apple and will have been eager for news about how friends and colleagues were coping. I simply had to know if my old business partner and great friend, the toy analyst Sean McGowan and his family were safe. Thankfully, unlike during the September 11th crisis, communication links were
internet, so they cancelled it but still held a Q&A. They had planned to introduce a new franchise. A boys property, internally developed and expected to be marketed primarily via the web, as was Monster High.”
The latest round
of biblical weather in the US got me thinking about the need for alternative export markets when your usual business distribution channels are struggling. In this instance, the real storm is the worrying fact that the toy industry in developed markets is
Jon Salisburyhas written about the toy business since 1985, editing magazines and running toy media events in New York and London. He can be contacted atjon@wotkidzwant.comor @JonSalisbury
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having a tough time. In the US, for example, the amount spent on traditional toys and games per capita has declined by 30 per cent since 1998. And in Europe the situation is not much different with industry growth slowing to about three per cent per year over the past three years. So, the toy industry, never a business to shy away from challenge, is expanding its reach in emerging markets, buoyed by the ascendance of the middle class in newly industrialised nations, in particular Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the so- called BRIC nations. It is difficult to
comprehend that, by 2020, over 80 per cent of the world's middle-class households will be located in emerging
nations and per capita spending on toys in those territories is expected to explode. Are you in the BRIC business