There’s room to grow
NEW YORK — It’s a child’s dream — bedroom decor just like a Bratz doll’s. A bed in the shape of a Hot Wheels car. Or a chair shaped like a Tonka truck.
As toy sales stagnate, manufacturers are no longer putting all their efforts into games, puzzles and dolls. They’re targeting the market for children’s decor, from bed boards and lounge chairs to sheets and wallpaper, hoping to showcase their brands in places beyond stores’ toy departments.
For girls, products include bedroom furnishing based on the popular Bratz: purple bed canopies, bed boards, lamps, trinket boxes, inflatable lip-shaped lounge chairs, and bedsheets, all featuring images of the fashion dolls. For Tonka lovers, there are yellow plush chairs in the shape of dump trucks and tables and chairs that feature truck motifs. More Tonka-themed items are expected later this year, including hampers, lamps and wallpaper borders.
“You’ve got to be in different categories,” said New York-based independent toy consultant Chris Bryne. “Toys is crowded and competitive.”
“And the furniture market is hot right now,” he said.
By lending a hand in decorating a child’s room, toy makers including Mattel Inc., Hasbro Inc., Spin Master Ltd., MGA Entertainment Inc. and Toy Quest Inc. are trying to create a business that allows them to sell not only to new customers such as Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., but to be in different aisles of toy stores or mass merchants. And decor is a year-round business, not one concentrated at the holidays, like toys.
“We see our company becoming the P&G (Procter & Gamble Co.) for kids,” said Anton Rabie, president and co-chief executive of Spin Master Ltd., which changed its name from the more limited Spin Master Toys three years ago and now generates 20 percent of its sales in non-toy items. “Why is it that we should be making just dolls and airplanes? Why can’t we broaden out?”
In fact, Spin Master, considered a pioneer in the home decor trend, said that this past holiday season, its foam sofas that convert into beds were just as popular as its hottest holiday toys.
The Toronto-based company, which began testing home decor for spring 2003 under the name Marshmallow, will be releasing a full assortment this year, including pillows, canopies and foot rests that feature characters such as Dora the Explorer and Spider-Man. The products will be featured at the American International Toy Fair, an industry product expo that officially begins Feb. 20.
Sales of traditional toys are expected to fall 5 percent in 2004, from 2003, when it recorded a 2.9 percent drop to $20.7 billion, its first annual decline, according to the NPD Group Inc. a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market research company. And toy makers remain cautious about 2005 as they face more price pressure from discounters and greater competition from products such as digital music players.