Toy & Game Industry - Healthcheck Survey Results April 2024
Would you or your team benefit from a training course offering a basic level overview of all the key elements of the Toy & Game biz?
We will soon be launching our TOY & GAME BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS TRAINING COURSE. Sign up to the waiting list for advanced ticket sales & more info here: https://steve-reece.aweb.page/p/f7499bff-42aa-436a-9ff0-ef581613a681
I put out a survey last week asking 10 questions about the health & performance of the Toy & Game industry right now. Here’s the results:
TOPLINE RESULTS OF SURVEY – THINGS ARE TOUGH, BUT HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL – 7 KEY FINDINGS
Not all of us are data hounds, so for those of you who don’t delight in analysing Metrics, here’s a quick topline of the results:
1. Most companies who responded are NOT doing terribly, despite tough market conditions. In fact the spread of answers to how the business is doing right now was about what we would normally expect in average conditions with some companies doing well and some doing badly.
2. 2024 is largely panning out on a par with 2023 i.e. the feeling is that things are not getting worse overall.
3. 50% of responses indicate that doing business is harder now than pre-pandemic, which is no real surprise bearing in mind the impact of high inflation on consumer spending in most major Toy markets.
4. 58% of respondents are optimistic about the future of the Toy & Game business, with 29% being neutral. That’s fairly positive feedback bearing in mind we’re running this survey during a tough stretch of trading conditions.
5. When asked if they would support their kids working in the Toy & Game business for their whole careers nearly three quarters of respondents replied they would or would maybe support their kids to work in this industry. That looks like a fairly glowing endorsement for the perceived future prospects for our industry.
6. When asked about major challenges, the responses varied based on the different types of business people worked in, but here’s a few of them:
o Changes in Technology
o Lack of talent within retail
o Uncertainty of an election year & the impact on retail/consumer confidence
o Price increments
o Lack of innovation
o Supply chain disruption
7. When asked about major opportunities, the responses varied based on the different types of businesses people worked in, but here’s a few of them:
o Changes in Technology
o Creating unique & exclusive products
o Branded Toys performing better than Chinese imports
CONCLUSION – HOW HEALTHY IS THE TOY & GAME BUSINESS IN 2024?
Well there are indications that 2024 is quite a tough year, but not necessarily tougher than 2023. We can also see that there are clear indications that doing business is tougher now versus pre-pandemic. The bottom line here is this – things ain’t easy for many in the Toy & Games industry right now, but there is still hope and things are probably not worse than they have been over the past year or two. Moreover, confidence in the future prospects of our business remains strong.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY - CAVEATS
I’m going to be annoying now and deploy that typical navel gazing manner that researchers use when analysing their own methodologies. There are some fairly obvious caveats to the findings of this survey.
I won’t bore you with statistical sampling theory, but these results are almost certainly not statistically representative of the industry as a whole for two reasons a). Small sample size, we had 25 people respond, we would need 100+ to be able to robustly argue we had any chance of being truly representative. b). Self-selecting respondents – clearly this was an optional exercise, therefore you could argue only people with enough time or who like to share their thoughts i.e. are highly opinionated, would respond - both of these factors could affect the results. Nevertheless hopefully you can still find some value in these findings as limited as this survey was.
TOY & GAME BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS TRAINING WITH STEVE REECE
Several of our clients have asked us to put together a training day program covering the fundamentals of the Toy & Game business. We are currently working on rolling this training day out to a broader audience.
If you want to sign up to the waiting list, to receive more information and to get advanced ticket sale information for you or your team, please click here to sign up: https://steve-reece.aweb.page/p/f7499bff-42aa-436a-9ff0-ef581613a681
The curriculum is being designed to offer an overview of how the toy & Game business works overall, and by working through key fundamental areas of the Toy business including:
Product concept and ideation
Manufacturing & shipping
Inventory management and forecasting
Distribution markets, models, methods and channels
Selling internationally, managing export sales
How to sell Toys & Games to retail buyers
How to get your products placed in retail
Toy & Game industry Trade shows
Toy & Game marketing
How brand licensing works
Consumer insights in the Toy & Game business
A non-legal look at Legal - IP/brand protection
Biggest mistakes to avoid in the Toy & Game business
Information sources on the global Toy & Game industry
And more...
WHO'S IT FOR?
This is a fundamentals training course, so by definition it is pitched at giving a basic understanding of key elements of the Toy & Games business. This course will be of help for people with c. 3 years or less experience in the business, for people who have primarily worked in one discipline and now need an idea of how the rest of the Toy business works, and for those who are in start-up or pre-start up mode.
The course will include ample opportunity to ask specific questions to aid your understanding and learning. This is not designed to be passive learning, the more questions you ask the more you will get from the training.
WHO IS THE COURSE MODERATOR?
Steve Reece will present all elements of this course. Steve has 25 years experience working across the Toy & Games business and has a long-term commitment to helping the learning and development of people in the Toy & Game business. He has worked for and with major Toy & Game companies as well as hundreds of smaller companies and start-ups. He first ran training courses for our industry back in 2011.
WHERE & WHEN WILL THE COURSE BE HELD?
We are just gauging demand by meeting format/locations. We are considering online live training, face to face in conference suites and also potentially delivering the training in client's offices where the numbers of participants merit.
WHAT DO YOU DO NEXT IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS TOY & GAME BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS TRAINING WITH STEVE REECE?
Sign up to the waiting list for advanced ticket sales & more info here:
