Innovation uncorked

Playthings recently conducted an exclusive interview through an interpreter with Edoardo Tusacciu, president of PlastWood, the Italian company that manufactures Supermags. Comprised of rods and magnets, Supermags and PlastWood's predecessor magnetic construction sets, created a new play pattern in the construction category. Although his roots are in cork manufacturing, Tusacciu turned the Calangianus, Sardinia family's cork business into a creative playground.

PLAYTHINGS: What was your inspiration for entering the toy market, changing the direction of you family's business?

Edoardo Tusacciu: I didn't like the [cork] business; it is monotonous and it can't be any different; it doesn't ever change. But as a child, I would make toys from the cork. My family was poor and couldn't afford to buy us toys; I would take the cork and make carts and other things out of the material. So, I was already making toys at an early age. The cork actually did help me to become creative.

PLAYTHINGS: How did you convince your family to switch gears and manufacture the magnetic toy product you envisioned?

ET: It definitely was not easy! The cork factory was old and established and the local economy depended on producing cork. The whole town was worried about changing to a new type of production. “Why do you want to change everything?” people asked me. “It can be bad for our economy,” they said. Really, I think they thought I was crazy! It was like I was playing in the lottery. But I promised everyone in the factory that they would not lose their jobs. I promised never to close the factory.

PLAYTHINGS: In 1999, when you began manufacturing the magnetic rods and balls, it was a rather unusual product. How did you get the market to accept the concept?

ET: Well, people really couldn't understand the product, so I knew I needed a marketing plan and to advertise. I entered into a partnership to prepare a $200,000 TV campaign. I mortgaged my house to the ad agency and money came from the cork factory. Some help did come from our vendors, though, through credit and agreements for longer payment terms, which was very helpful. We came to Toy Fair in February 2000 and had a small booth—Sharper Image was one of our first customers. At the time, we had one machine manufacturing 6,000 rods per day. Today we manufacture 1.5 million rods per day. But in two months following Toy Fair, the first “copies” of our product appeared on the market; we were being knocked-off.

PLAYTHINGS: How do you cope with the many knock-offs of Supermags that are now on the market?

ET: We feel some pride at being copied; we know we have a good product. But we are making our product better and better and that quality cannot be copied; we are 10 steps beyond the copies. Right now we are excited about something new we are launching. We are making it easier for people to begin creating with Supermags. The thought occurred to me that there are those who cannot easily visualize something to build. Some people need more help, more encouragement. So for them, we will have Supermags construction kits with instructions for building a toy. Our mission is to give the consumer the possibilities of building something—a car, a helicopter—and be successful. We expect that the customer will then want to buy additional boxes, which can be mixed and matched.

It will be possible to combine many boxes and to create more toys. It will not be possible to imitate our new product because we have developed a new type of rod.

PLAYTHINGS: What are the challenges of marketing in the United States?

ET: It is a difficult market. The biggest concern consumers have is to get the best price. But this is the most important and biggest market in the world. It's a leader. If a product works here, it will work anywhere. So far our focus has been on the specialty market, but we want to go into the mass. It is important to us, of course, to choose a way so that specialty will not be hurt. In 2005, we want to be in all shops in the United States.