Toys Still Tops With Kids—Barely

Think kids are growing older, younger? That may be the case. A recent survey conducted by kids marketing firm Funosophy asked more than 800 kids, boys and girls ages 6 to 11, to share the coolest brands they were buying heading into the end of the year. Older-skewing clothing brands were right behind popular toy brands at the top of the list.

The 800-plus boys and girls responding to this survey volunteered a total of 1,039 brands. Toys took top honors, with more than 24 percent of nominations specifying a particular toy brand. Clothing brands were a very close second, followed by entertainment-based brands like Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and Pokémon* and shoe brands like Nike, Heelys and Sketchers.

Specific brands nominated by boys and girls were fairly different, as expected. However, Nintendo, iPod, and Heelys (a shoe brand with toyetic functionality) were mentioned frequently enough by both boys and girls to have made both lists.

Nike, the only clothing brand on the boys' list, received the most mentions, but the remainder of the boys' list is comprised of mostly gaming and electronics brands. That said, the entertainment-based Pokémon brand received the fifth most mentions from boys. Toy brands Lego and Transfomers also made the tail end of the list.

Toy brands fall much higher on the girls' list—Webkinz, Bratz and Barbie were all mentioned frequently enough to have made girls' top five. Two entertainment-based brands, High School Musical and Hannah Montana, round out the middle of the girls' list. Interestingly, three clothing brands also made girls' top 10—Abercrombie & Fitch, Limited Too and Aeropostale.

Toy brands are still considered “cool” among kids 6 to 11, but brands in other categories are taking up a good bit of mind share. Clothing brands are on girls' minds and gaming brands are tops with boys.

*Brands were sorted based on their category of origin, even if they have since expanded into other categories.