Aspiration Nation

From television shows to Toys “R” Us' Totally Me! boutiques, properties and products designed to appeal to tweens have been steady sources of sales in the past decade. And this year's no exception. The tween market continues to grow into a distinct market niche, offering girls a steady stream of new fashion products, more feminine versions of high-tech goods, and social expression activities that help support the aspirations of an age group that considers itself too old for “kid's stuff” but has parents that are not yet ready to see their daughters become full-blown teenagers just yet.

In the world of consumer products, tweens' impact remains powerful. According to Dublin, Ireland-based independent market research and data provider Research and Markets, America's population of tween-age kids—children approximately 9 though 12 years old, give or take a year—was expected to be in possession of more than $42 billion by the end of 2008, following five years of incremental but steady growth.

Apparel retailer Tween Brands, parent of Limited Too and Justice, is just one of several retailers that continues to benefit from tween market sales. It followed up record holiday 2007 sales with a first quarter of 2008 during which sales again reached a new height, $251.7 million, up 13 percent from the prior year's quarter with gains attributed to the strength of robust growth for its Justice chain, where same-store sales soared 22 percent.

While solid as Justice's figures may be, nowhere has tween buying power been more powerfully felt than in the coffers of the marketing machine known as The Walt Disney Co.

At this year's Licensing Show, Disney Consumer Products said its leading tween TV franchises—High School Musical and Hannah Montana—were expected to result in fiscal year 2008 retail sales of related merchandise worth nearly $2.7 billion, far surpassing the company's $400 million in tween merchandise revenue during 2007. And that should only grow, helped by new Disney Channel series attracting the same audience, like June's Camp Rock movie and several other Jonas Brothers-related programs currently or soon to join the network's lineup. Sure to add fuel to Disney's fire are the planned October theatrical release of High School Musical 3: Senior Year and the May 2009 premiere of Hannah Montana: The Movie.

One of the companies making the most of the tween market—and of Disney's properties this year—is High IntenCity, the Fair Lawn, N.J.-based marketer of jewelry and accessories products especially for tween girls. The company has for the last 15 years focused almost exclusively on the 8- to 12-year-old tween girl demographic.

Keys elements of High IntenCity's success, says marketing associate Jacquelyn Doran-Blauvelt, are “making product lines that offer both older and younger styles, variety and something to fit the needs of tweens as they grow.”

It's a market that “remains strong,” Doran-Blauvelt tells Playthings, although she notes that it has changed in the course of the last few years.

“The tweens of today continue to love D.I.Y. (do it yourself) and customization, as well as variety,” says Doran-Blauvelt. “[But] at the moment, tweens have a love for licensed properties such as High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Hello Kitty and Mr. Men Little Miss.” That's happened, Doran-Blauvelt says, because “for a few years, tweens were missing tween idols. But the market has changed as [tweens have become] a bit more character focused. They love to emulate their favorite stars.”

In hopes of tapping into the next hot tween properties, High IntenCity will launch product featuring Nickelodeon's iCarly and Disney's Wizards of Waverly Place in 2009. It is also making a greater play for sales to tween boys, creating Major, a new jewelry line of “cool stuff” for boys in response to requests from High IntenCity's specialty retail accounts to fill a niche within the boy market.

Other companies have found success when packaging toys that pundits typically consider too young for tweens with technology, like Ganz's Webkinz and a host of me-too, Internet-enabled products from other toymakers, or several doll lines that manage to attract tweens through self-esteem boosting back-stories. And the continuing presence of pink versions of popular consumer electronics continues to show that aged-down instant messaging devices and the like can still sell, particularly to safety conscious parents wary of unsupervised Internet time.

For 2008, several primary players in the tween toy category are releasing new products. Here are some of the year's more notable introductions.