Innovate or Die

I saw recently that Hasbro and Mattel, the leading children's toy manufacturers, are terrified that kids are more interest in high-tech toys than the good old action figures of the past.

I can almost hear people start to grumble, these damn kids today.  The toys we played with aren't good enough for them now!  They need computers and games and to be entertained.  When we were young, we could entertain ourselves!

While there might be a grain of truth there, the real question is would the older generation be any different if they were young today?  Of course not.

But the real issue isn't the kids.  The real issue is whether Hasbro and Mattel will be able to innovate and adapt.

I mean Lego's, as traditional of a toy as ever, are more popular than ever.  So why are the other toy makers struggling?

I think they're struggling to adapt to a new generation of child.  As I said before, Lego's have already done it by marketing Lego sets that figure prominently into the biggest of franchises (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Batman, Star Wars, Sponge Bob, Cars . . .).  Not only that but even their original products, such as Ninjago and Mindstorm, are just as popular.  One reason is they have developed a TV show around the Ninjago line and implemented technology and robotics in the Mindstorm line.

Even the classic children's toy line, Fisher-Price, is ahead of the game.

This Christmas Kristie bought the kids a new line of toy called Imaginext.

It is a Dungeons and Dragons type of play set.  We got the kids a castle with knights, an ogre, a dragon, a catapult, and a battering ram.

What we didn't realize until we unwrapped everything was how they all functioned together.  Somehow, whether it's with a micro chip or something else, but the castle can tell what type of thing is attacking it.

If you shoot it with the boulders from the catapult, the castle recognizes it and voices a command unique to the catapult.  If it's under attack from the dragon, it issues a unique command for the dragon.  The same is true for the battering ram.

Not only that but after everything was unwrapped, we noticed a DVD that came with the castle.

The kids watched that on the way to EGF.  At first, I thought it would be just one episode of the Imaginext dungeons and dragons figures.  But no.  They had an episode for each unique line of Imaginenext products (I didn't know this, but there are also Imaginext pilots, pirates, space invaders, and super heroes).  What a brilliant idea.  Now, every kid who watches that will want to branch out to the other collections (and maybe that's not so great news for the parents who have to buy it all, but what an innovative marketing strategy).

Plus, there were a few episodes that even had different characters from different collections collaborating together.  Again, a brilliant marketing move.  Never did I see my He-Man figures playing with GI Joes and working with Star Wars figures (I realize they were made from different companies, but you get my point). I played with them that way, but it felt wrong.  Never was I empowered to do that . . . and to buy even more toys because of it.

That's what Mattel and Hasbro have to start doing.  Innovate or die.