Target Market
It is apparent that the founders of HandsOnToys are seeking to create products that not only offer entertainment and occupancy for the users, but also foster creative thinking and imagination. This logic plays out even further from the product as seen by the target market that the Toobers&Zots are being aimed at, “We focus on adults as the target, not the children. We think the adults should have a role in what products their kids play with. The buyer of our product is a 25 to 40 year old woman with small children.” Evidently the thought here is that parents who can choose what products to buy for their children are being targeted to appeal to their desire to offer their children a fun, colorful toy that encourages creativity. Furthermore, this sort of thinking on the consumers part is augmented even further based on the locations the product is sold at. Retail outlets that maintain the sort of environment of educational learning that the customers are seeking, and offer the consumer advice on what to buy. These include retail stores such as the Learning Smith, Learning Express, Imaginarium, J.L. Hammet & Co., Zany Brainy, World of Science and museum stores. These stores represent the profile of educational oriented stores that the Toobers&Zots market positioning is geared towards. In total, in 1995 Toobers&Zots have grown to be sold in 5,000 retail stores across the United States and in Canada. This up from a couple of hundred in 1994.
Promotion
Public relations is the only media advertising the company does. “We don’t advertise on Saturday morning.” Thankfully their product has generated enough appeal and success that this vehicle has worked to positively promote it because of all the variable in the marketing mix that a company handles, public relations is one that is the least controllable. Despite the efforts that a company may put in to show their product in a good light, one mistake by the company or misinterpretation by a reporter can spell negative press about a product that gets distributed to many potential customers.
Their benefit from this PR has been tremendously high considering that the two years they have been in business Toober&Zots have included in over 90 newspapers across the country, and profiled or mentioned in over 20 regional and national television broadcasts.
The other main channel of promotion that HandsOnToys relies on is word of mouth. Based on the products appeal to parents and children alike, the founders have seen a large degree of talking and endorsements happening that increase consumer awareness of the product and generate more interest. “At the core you touch the product and you like it, parents like it, kids like it, people just like it. People say ‘you’ve gotta buy this’ and people go buy it. Word of mouth and experiential response have given it the potential it has.”
Success
The founders of HandsOnToys are very pleased with the sales volumes they have had to date with Toobers&Zots. From August to December of 1994 the product sold 18,000 units grossing $250,000 in sales, and as mentioned before 1995 revenues show a more than ten fold increase. 1995 also included the introduction and sales of product line extensions consisting of smaller kits with fewer pieces at a lesser price. Toober&Zots also extended its intriguing nomenclature of products with the introduction of Oobles, large solid geometric shapes of the same coloring and soft foam style that have holes to fit the Toobers into for more constructive creativity. “We want to capitalize on the success of the product and get line extensions out as fast as we can get them on the market.” This said from an eager Mr. Farrar in support of the company’s strategy of focusing on the Toobers&Zots product. Promotion efforts have increased to date as seen by the company’s attendance of Toy Fair in February of 1995 which was described by the company as being very successful for them, and the winning of many toy industry product competitions during 1995 as well.
When asked about the reasons for the product’s success Mr. Farrar made it clear that the basic concept and nature of the product is what makes it so appealing, “It’s a helluva lot of fun!” Thoroughness and detail appear to be traits that can also be attributed to the company’s success. “We have done a lot of thinking on how to make it a complete package. The bag and the color combinations are bright and full, and the packaging is different from what you’d expect to find in the toy industry. It’s different that what people have seen before, and it’s on a scale that people are used to having in a toy.” Referring back to the entrepreneurial nature of the Specialty Toy market Mr. Farrar commented, “Lot’s of people are in it who have no clue as to what they are doing. They don’t have any marketing or business savvy. They fail for those reasons.”
Mr. Farrar also attributes the company’s success to their small size and its need to get results without the mire of bureaucracy to slow things down. “We’re a small company, we move quickly, we don’t get bottled up in making decisions. We differentiated the tasks that we each had, we allow other people to make decisions, and when the decisions are complex we talk about them. But we just make them and go and don’t think twice about it.” That is the very intriguing nature of the entrepreneurial company which is its ability to be flexible and very reactive to situations that larger companies would have a more difficult time reacting to. This trait has been successful for HandsOnToys, and it is an environment they hope to maintain. “At our core we are fun people, we’re trying to make money, and trying to have an environment which people like to work and which they have space.”
It is this awareness of what their company’s capabilities are, what needs to get accomplished to get the product to market, and vision of where they are headed that offers HandsOnToys a very promising future with their first big success, the Toobers&Zots. “Everyday we plan not only for what’s good for today, but what’s good for tomorrow and where our vision is.”- ###