NPD Column
Girls or boys? And does it really matter?
NPD’s Rory Partis digs through the data to shine some statistical light on the toy gender debate.
More recently we have seen quite a bit of media attention being given to this issue. Shops being asked to change their gender-driven displays and some other notable headlines. Now regardless of this author’s views on the subject, it is an interesting topic, and here at NPD we have a lot of data on the subject to try and explore. So let’s take a look. Casting our gaze over the top properties so far in 2013, it would appear that the more traditional girls properties are faring slightly better. There are five properties in the top ten showing a year-on- year growth, and, of these, three are very much girls focused; Barbie, Monster High and Peppa Pig. Monster High is in fact the top-performing property in the top 10 showing a +71% value growth YTD August 2013 vs 2012. Of the more traditional boys properties, Star Wars is at number two in the total market, but is in decline this year. Teenage Mutant Turtles has been the top new property so far this year, and is very much a boys license, appearing just inside the top 20 properties. The number one license in the UK is an interesting one, as Moshi Monsters could certainly be thought of as a property that appeals to both boys and girls, perhaps the reason for its success. Another interesting one is Lego Friends as this girls-focussed Lego line has done very well since launch, and is currently 12th on the property list with impressive growth this year tracking at +20% YTD August 2013. I don’t think it can be disputed that Lego Friends has certainly been very successful at getting girls into Building Sets and it has done this by being much more like a traditional girls toy. Looking at consumer panel data, we can certainly see the influence that it had on building sets because in 2011 the percentage of the category bought for girls was around 17%. In 2012, the year of Lego Friends’ launch, this figure went up to 26%; over a quarter of the category was now being bought for girls. As mentioned earlier, there are a few ‘givens’
T
in toys when it comes to boys and girls, and this is certainly borne out in the data. The split for total toys is pretty steady with 46% being bought
78 Toyworld
raditionally, toys have always been viewed as either being for girls or boys. There are a few ‘givens’ when we think about toys; action figures are for boys, and dolls are for girls, being the most obvious ones.
Supercategory Share by Gender Value share % - 12 me June 2013
Boys 12 15 24 10 46 8 71 88 6 85 74 4 52 2 25 12 0 TOTAL ACTION FIGSRow 1
ARTS & CRAFTS
BUILDING SETS
Row 2DOLLS GAMES/PUZZ INFANT/PS Row 3
YOUTH ELECS
OUTDOOR Row 4 PLUSH VEHICLES 52 55 50 33 60
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
90 41 45 38 50 65 Girls 9
The NPD Group, Inc. | Proprietary and Confidential
Source: NPD Consumer Panel
1
“The split for total toys is pretty steady with 46% being bought for girls and 52% being bought for boys.”
for girls and 52% being bought for boys. (The rest is made up for toys bought for more than one person, in case you’re wondering.) However nearly 90% of dolls are purchased for girls and around 85% of action figures are for boys, so its certainly sticking to form there. Plush is, again, more girls focused, and outdoor and building sets have a large share purchased for boys. But if we look at the year-on-year trend we can see that the top performing category for boys is dolls. The influence of Moshi, which sits in dolls, has certainly helped drive this category with boys. We’ve already discussed the growth of building sets with girls but interestingly we have also seen some growth for girls with action figures. Again, looking within this it appears that the Toy Story license has helped here, another one that
appeals to both boys and girls. Outdoor is also a category that is doing very well with girls, and why shouldn’t it? We’ve seen an extension of a classic boys brand within Outdoor, Nerf, being given a girls makeover with Nerf Rebelle. So it would appear that the data supports the idea that there are clear gender lines in toys. Not really a huge surprise, and I have to say that doing a quick online search really does make you realise there are some very strong feeling out there with regards to this issue. However, we have seen that there can be blurred lines amongst the categories in terms of girls and boys, and this is surely a good thing. So, going back to the title, does it really matter? I think it clearly matters to the kids playing with the toys, and surely that’s the most important thing?
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