viewpoint
materials and experiences, but boys and girls will often play with them, ‘gender neutral’ or not, differently and quite predictably. You only have to observe a young child playing with a box of buttons, or around a tree in the garden. Will boys lob the buttons around at each other and girls sort them, make patterns with them or even assign personalities to them and play school? Will the tree become a den, a climbing frame, a fort, a woodland cottage, pirate ship or magical kingdom? And does it matter which – not one bit. Whether role-play accurately mimics adult behaviours and reinforces traditional gender activities is also debatable. Play is fantasy, whether it be a boy or girl, and playing with a toy kitchen usually involves having a cake shop or providing a tea party – you rarely find a child imitating cleaning the oven or descaling the kettle. Play tools will often be employed to play-build castles or mend racing cars, not for putting up shelves or re-grouting tiles. So is sorting product in this way such a problem?
Nobody is suggesting that any child cannot play with a toy simply because it is merchandised in a particular section of a store or website, or because it comes in certain packaging. Opponents worry that our infants are being socially conditioned
with gender-specific reinforcement of ‘traditional’ male/female values, but are the motives of those designing in store signage and planograms, toy catalogues, packaging and advertising campaigns really that sinister? Maybe consumers, both children and adults, should be credited with a little more common sense. There don’t seem to be issues with stereotypical
dress conventions or clothes being retailed along gender divisions. It’s a way of sorting and organising the product along practical lines, which enables the consumer to locate what they want to buy quickly and easily. Parents don’t seem to feel that their children are being constrained in their choice of outfit by social conditioning here. Rather they accept that it is a useful and sensible way to buy their clothes and know full well that if a girl wants an oversized sweatshirt from the men’s department, or if the girls’ jogging trousers are cheaper yet fit their son perfectly well, they can buy them. They know where to look. To strive for complete gender uniformity seems to me like some sort of sci-fi nightmare. The organisation of toys at retail into categories which include ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ is neither discriminating nor degrading, and there is no harm in acknowledging different gender roles as
long as they are given equal respect and value. The fact that a toy may have been deemed most appropriate for one sex in a marketing capacity is not a law passed in parliament, punishable by a prison sentence if broken. But I expect most of the ladies reading this
article played with fashion dolls and had quite a few pink and purple items in their toy collection, among other things of course. Did they all turn into surgically-enhanced bimbos of limited intellectual potential as feminist campaigners would fear, or successful businesswomen? Perhaps we gentlemen who owned toy weapons and soldiers are frustrated warlords just biding our time in our various toy industry roles before the uprising… Personally, I do not believe that the marketing and retailing of toys necessarily shapes gender preferences to the degree that some opponents presume. Such categorisation of product is for the sake of helpful point of sale organisation and effective visual impact of merchandise. The consequences of wider sociological influences are another matter, but let’s not place undue accusations on the toy trade.
Dan
Salem Prism Digital
Solutions
Bring back a love for POEMs
What have poems got to do with toys and media I hear you ask? Well quite a lot if you take the acronym which stands for Paid, Owned and Earned Media. In today’s multi-connected world, where the balance between emotional and rational advertising content can create marked differences in the rate of sale, an understanding of the balance between the advertising that you pay for and the media that you already have is more important than ever. If we break down each element, the questions that may come to mind will hopefully provide
the opportunities, in terms of creating the right balance. Paid media is simply media which is bought and paid for by your media agency, and covers everything from advertising to sponsorship and promotions, both on and offline. Putting these together will deliver different benefits depending on the target audience and media platform. Owned media consists of what you already
have: the products and their packaging, the placement and support in-store, your website, your social media pages, CRM activity, etc. These assets make a direct connection with the end user, therefore the way in which they are perceived (whatever the paid for media suggests) needs detailed consideration. This might include thoughts relating to consistent branding, and having an emotionally focused message that supports the rational benefits of the product. Or indeed any number of other factors that are important when the child/gift giver picks up the product and takes it to the till. Earned media is that which is much harder to control directly, but can have a huge role from a sales point of view when it comes to a mother’s purchasing decisions for their children’s toys. It’s what comes from news coverage, product
reviews (genuine ones) and word of mouth. So what does this all mean? It means that you need to consider all the elements of your brand/ product as one, without thinking of them all as different activities such as trade marketing, digital, advertising, etc. Think about how you prioritise them and then how that informs your budgeting. Each element should have a strategic role, as when your paid media is not live, the owned and earned media elements are very much on and should be working as hard as they can. One area in the toy industry where there is little consistency and a host of opportunities for development is with branded websites: are they for trade or consumer? Are they information based or retail focused? Is the user a child or a gift giver? These are just some considerations which will inform and develop your ‘owned’ media, alongside your social media strategy, if relevant. Next month, a new opportunity that delivers
owned media a focus and a further opportunity for word of mouth. In the meantime, to learn more about POEMs and how this might be able to help you, feel free to get in touch at dan@
prismproduction.co.uk.
The Viewpoint section of Toy World was set up to bring together informative and engaging writers from the toy industry. We have a core of regular writers, including Ali Mafi, Richard Gottlieb, David Ripley and Dan Salem, and
occasional guest writers. Toy World is always on the lookout for toy industry members with something to say, so if you there’s a hot topic you want to discuss or bring to light, or you would like to provide feedback on what you’ve read, contact the editor at
tom@toyworldmag.co.uk.
64 Toyworld
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96