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Toy Nation’s demographic challenge: What can be done?
June 11, 2008
In my last two blogs, I wrote about the major shifts taking place in the U.S. youth population. A declining and uneven birth rate combined with an explosive population growth among the nation’s minority population means that we are facing the future sooner than we thought.
The question is how does Toy Nation, not just cope with, but take advantage of these shifts? Here are a few ideas:
- We can study how marketing is handled in Europe. With the growth of the European Community, they have had to figure out how to market to dramatically different cultures. We can learn a great deal from how they managed the process.
- We can look for where our future currently exists. How about studying how merchants prosper in the border areas along the Mexican U.S. border?
- While we’re at it, why not take a hard look at what licenses, what products and what types of marketing currently excel in South and Central America and then see how that might fit into our plans for the next five to ten years.
- We can continue what Wal-Mart has begun and celebrate Hispanic children’s holidays. Three Kings Day and Children’s Day are big gift giving events in many South and Central American countries. They can be in the U.S. as well. How about store decorations, displays and features that reflect that reality?
- Finally, in a declining birth rate we need to expand our toy buying population. That means that teens, tweens and adults become a whole lot more important. How do we bring them in to the toy department?
Toy Nation will have some exciting challenges to overcome over the next few years. Not only will we overcome them but we will be much stronger for it. See you in the future!
Posted by Richard Gottlieb on June 11, 2008 | Comments (0)
