Girls’ Raves In Spain

The toy and game market for girls shows the changes that have affected the traditional toy sector in Spain over the last few years. The two main factors in the girl’s segment are the unstoppable rise of electronics and computers in the design of products, and strong competition among licenses, some of which cover all ranges. Both factors are vital to understanding the growing diversification of toys for girls, since manufacturers are now seeking to extend their range of product offerings beyond the traditional girl-oriented categories.

Spain continues to be a country of dolls. The category is still the one that distributors report gives the greatest percentage of sales. Following the doll category (without a great distance between them) are arts & crafts; toy cars and furniture; household role-play toys; and computer, electronic, and video games and hardware.

Dolls and accessories, the girls’ category par excellence, stands firm against the other product segments thanks to the diversity of lines and prices within the reach of all budgets. At the head of the sub-categories, with the best sales expectations for the Christmas season, are fashion dolls and simple baby dolls.

Another of the growing categories is large-scale, assembled ride-on vehicles, thanks partly to licenses that are driving sales. Because of their size and ease of movement, tricycles, baby walkers and bicycles are becoming a more popular option.

Stable product segments include toys that imitate home life and its surroundings. The exchange of roles in the nuclear family can be observed in this category, which results in products that are more gender neutral. In the first of these categories, kitchen and supermarket toys have been growing for some time. Electrical appliances such as washing machines, irons and refrigerators experience slight variations from year to year, while kitchen utensils and play food remain steady sellers. Other articles expected to perform well for Christmas and Epiphany are prams and pushchairs for dolls.

Of all the product categories, musical toys are the least favored, with the boost received from television programs like Operación Triunfo having passed. Musical instruments lost importance in the market some time ago in favor of portable electronics.

Data supplied by The NPD Group on the toy market in Spain for 2006 indicate two of the three super-categories most popular with girls witnessed a positive sales trend. These categories were art & crafts, one of the fastest growing product segments overall in the past year (14 percent), and dolls (3.7 percent), which came in as the girls’ market’s second best super-category measured by overall growth.

Art products have been gaining market share in recent years, and during last year they enjoyed an excellent back-to-school season. In 2006, however, dolls once again fell behind the infant/preschool segment, and its share stayed at 15.6 percent of the market.

By segment, playset dolls and baby dolls showed significant growth, exemplified by Nenuco, a classic that has been revived with excellent results. On the other hand, the market share for fashion dolls fell by 5.8 percent.

The plush super-category also experienced a dropoff, 5.2 percent, after the success experienced the year before by toys based on TV series Los Lunnis.

Among the overall toy market in Spain, NPD’s ranking of the best-selling products of 2006 showed there were only three aimed at girls: Pixel Chix House, from Mattel, in third position; Jaggets Snow Party, from Famosa, in fifth place; and Furreal Friends Kitten, from Tiger Electronics, down in ninth place.