THE 2 KEY FACTORS IN LAUNCHING A SUCCESSFUL NEW BOARD GAME

Thousands of new board games are released each and every year. Needless to say, very few of them stick in the market. It’s just a plain matter of fact that in order to make space for the next round of new board games last year’s board games launches need to be shuffled off to the archives of Board Game Geek.

Some games stick though, and go onto achieve ‘evergreen’ status whereby they sell year after year and become ‘must play’ games for those who are really into board games, as well as ‘should try’ for those with more of a transient interest in playing games.

if we could easily understand why some games sell well and some don’t we could begin to increase our chances of launching a game that sticks in the market and to reaping the rewards of that on an ongoing basis. Just imagine how much more profitable and dependable an established classic game is in the market, with no particular need for huge marketing spend, no expensive product development process and easier sell in to retailers and to consumers.

There is a 2 step formula for exactly this, although as with most things this will be easier said than done:

STEP 1 TO LAUNCHING A SUCCESSFUL NEW BOARD GAME: 

Create a compelling concept and visual presentation of the concept.

This is so generalistic that it is almost no help at all, but it nevertheless applies across the board. Board games packaging is the primary marketing and retail sell through driver for board games. Past research projects we have conducted included walking along retail shelves with consumers to observe and assess how they pick out a game to buy, we have also conducted similar research into online shopping behaviour with regards to board games. There is no doubt from this research that the front of box is one of the primary marketing factors for persuading people to buy and try a new board game. Our experience suggests that board games should have a clear visual concept, combined with a compelling and instantly understandable topline gameplay i.e. you answer questions, or act like something or use a particular prop in a certain way. All of this should be kind of obvious from the front of the board games box. We would also suggest that simplicity is better than complexity in general terms, but it needs to be impactfully and attractively designed simplicity.

Getting this 1st step to launching a successful new board game right will often lead to people buying the game once they see it on shelf or online. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they will actually get round to playing the game though. For those of us in the board games business we tend to over think things, when everyday people think about their purchased decisions very little often in comparison! The second step then needs to help us go from selling lots of boxes to getting people to actually play the game.

STEP 2 TO LAUNCHING A SUCCESSFUL NEW BOARD GAME

Annoyingly Step 2 is also very generalistic! Presuming the general concept and look of the game packaging has allowed us to sell a significant quantity of games off the shelf, the major driver in whether the game stays in the market and keeps on selling is primarily down to the gameplay experience and how enjoyable, compelling and socially stimulating that is.

Over the years I have worked on and launched plenty of games which sold ok in the first instance because they had a good general concept and positioning which people could understand and where they could imagine themselves playing with their friends and families.

This though is the surface gloss! The reality of whether the game will keep on selling depends whether they could easily and enjoyably get into playing a game that they find compelling and worth recommending and/or playing with their friends and families.

Normally if a game sells well in the first instance but plays badly, online reviews are poor, people don’t recommend the game to their friends and family, and as a result sell through tends to fall off a cliff.

In the end, ongoing success then comes down to the substance and quality of the gameplay experience.

A recent example I would give of this effect is a recent gameplay evening we conducted for market research for a particular client in the board games business. One of the games we tested was Dobble, the modern day classic game from Asmodee. We started with a low energy atmosphere, and 30 seconds later everyone was yelling and all players were hooked and totally focused on the gameplay. We know for a fact from our follow up interviews that most of the research respondents went out and bought Dobble themselves. This really is the best illustration we can think of whereby the ongoing sales and success of a board game eventually comes down to the substance and quality of the gameplay.

So there you have the 2 key steps to launch successful new board games, clearly this is easier said than done, but for your next board game release could you improve on either Step 1 or Step 2 to increase your chances of launching an evergreen board game?

We operate a joint venture creating and developing board games for people who need good games made quickly, for more information on this service: www.GameCreationAccelerator.com  We also advise toy & games companies on how to grow their businesses by a combination of strategy development and hands on export sales efforts, for more information on these services: www.KidsBrandInsight.com/services

We continue to publish board games market analysis, board game insights and board games expert consultancy via this Blog (please feel free to sign up for our free email newsletter with all the latest articles and insights) and via our other channels.

HOW THE PANDEMIC WILL AFFECT TOY & GAME SUPPLY CHAINS

2020 has been a tumultuous year for mankind. For the toy and games business it has been interesting so far to say the least! Toy fair season mostly proceeded according to plan, albeit with fewer Chinese companies in attendance, but pretty much as soon as the trade show season wrapped up the world declared a pandemic and lockdown ensued.

We’ve written elsewhere about the purchasing habits of consumers during this time, but this article will look at the impact on and implications for the global supply chain for toys and games.

Firstly we should state that prior to the pandemic we were already at a crossroads in terms of toy and game manufacturing, with China’s rapidly developing economy moving beyond the point where it can easily sustain the type of high labour toy manufacturing which built the massive manufacturing hubs for toys in China. The following video presentation offers more insight on this trend, what it means, and why it means China is going to play a bigger part in the toy business in the future, but in a changed role and why that means some high labour toy production has already moved out of China and will continue to do so for the next decade:

Aside from this the world has changed a lot so far in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the question though will be the extent to which that is short-term versus permanent.

The first major impact on the toy and game supply chain was China’s lockdown and delay in re-starting production after Chinese New Year. Thankfully at the time of writing this has now largely cleared and Chinese toy factories are mostly back producing again, albeit producing for a much altered economic situation and a toy market with differing demand levels across categories.

Vietnam, the primary alternative toy manufacturing hub to China has seemingly managed the pandemic in an admirable way with far less disruption versus other countries. While India has been in a strict lockdown, albeit with this easing at the time of writing and most factories beginning to produce toys again.

So that’s what has clearly happened in the short term. The implications of what has happened are less clear though.

While China was locked down we saw a flood of urgent enquiries for toy production in India and Vietnam as companies knee-jerked towards alternatives to China. Then all of a sudden as soon as China’s toy factories got back into swing the enquiries tailed away and the status quo resumed. Frankly this knee jerk way of managing sourcing is worrying – as the cliché goes you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket!

Strategically speaking the market leaders in the toy business have been seeking to diversify their supply chain since at least 2013-2014, and at the time of writing Vietnam has been the primary beneficiary but with other Asian countries like India & Indonesia benefiting also.

So the trend has been to move some production away from China for some time. Both Hasbro and Spin Master have stated to the stock market that expect to have as much as 50% of their manufacturing coming from outside China in the next year or two. This is a huge shift versus where they were even 5 years ago.

So to understand whether there will be any long term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on toy sourcing we need to assess for two ends of the spectrum – at one end we have strategic stock market listed companies who have to manage and mitigate risks as a part of their corporate culture to avoid having to ever (as far as possible) deliver bad news to the market for any single quarter. At the other end of the spectrum are the majority of toy companies – often owner or family managed, generally managed in a competent but not corporate, ultra-disciplined or strategic way.

The major stock market toy companies have long since been diversifying to avoid relying entirely on China for manufacturing both in terms of managing risk of being reliant on on one country as a source but also to mitigate and to address cost inflation in China. For these companies, it is likely that they will stay on their planned track even coming out of the Covid-19 crisis, because they were already taking significant steps to plan for China’s rapidly advancing economic cycle and the hard reality that means this laudible increase in wealth and wages will make low end labour heavy toy production less and less viable over time.

For independent toy companies we would surely have to expect that some would recognise the risk of being so reliant on China’s toy manufacturing and seek at least a little diversification. To start from the beginning finding new factories, auditing them, checking them out and running a first year production pilot takes time. So to have to set all that up and do all the required work in a panic is not preparing for success. Nevertheless, we expect based on our understanding of human behaviour and the inertia and intransigence of toy companies who have a deeply ingrained sourcing from China ‘habit’ that most toy companies will not choose to change anything much coming out of the pandemic.

In fact, as change = risk and uncertainty we have seen short term signs of even the major corporate toy companies locking in their current arrangements. There is so uncertainty around the world, health, working practises and the overall toy and games business in the midst of the pandemic lockdown that even where it makes strategic sense, even the most corporate of companies will go into risk aversion mode.

Therefore, while we expect the long term trend of toy companies seeking alternatives to toy manufacturing in China to continue and if anything gather pace, the short term impact of the coronavirus outbreak is more likely to be a delaying influence on toy manufacturing transition.

We run a venture helping toy companies set up toy manufacturing in India: www.ToyTeamIndia.com 

We also help toy factories in China go from being OEM contract manufacturing suppliers to building their own brands and distribution. This change in business model allows factories to go up the value chain and move from c. 5% manufacturing margins to 30% brand owner margins. For more information on this: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/blog/toy-co-growth-booster-program/

WHY DO CLASSIC BOARD GAMES LIKE MONOPOLY JUST KEEP SELLING AND SELLING?

There are hundreds if not thousands of new board games coming to market each and every year. Nearly ever year of this millennium board games sales have been up year on year, and each year we seem to get at least one new  massive hit board game which really captures the moment.

At the time of writing in the midst of the coronavirus crisis we are seeing a very significant boom in board game purchasing and presumably board game playing as parents seek to gainfully occupy their locked down children. When you study the social media trends it becomes apparent that parents are often buying and playing those classic longstanding board games like Monopoly, Clue/Cluedo (yep the name is different in Europe vs the USA!), Game of Life, Jenga, Connect 4 and so many more.

When you speak to friends and family not in the board games business they quite often ask if anyone even plays these classic games any more when we have so much technology, video on demand and more recently launched board games? The answer to this question of course is a massively emphatic yes! As Hasbro’s ongoing success with their Games business suggests millions of people worldwide are buying and playing these classic games.

There are a number of reasons why they are still buying and playing these classic games:

1. Nostalgia for their own childhood – our childhoods are welded very firmly into our ongoing consciousness, and experiences which didn’t seem that important at the time become treasured and golden memories. For many, these classic games remind them of strong and positive memory of a fun and entertaining part of their childhood – playing classic board games. Each generation so far since these classic games launched has tended to play and then pass on the impulse to play to their offspring, which when you think about it is an awesome and timeless purchase dynamic.
2. The need for quality social interaction and social facilitation – modern day parents are constantly trying to pry their children away from screens – whether that’s phones, tablets, computers or TV. Parents, especially mothers, tend to use board games to facilitate social interaction and genuine quality time among family members. So often in this modern tech obsessed world people are in the same place physically but not necessarily mentally present, and board games offer an antidote to this. When many people who aren’t avid board game players go shopping for board games they will often tend to default to the classic games they know and have fond memories of, and this is again another strong driver of sales for these classic games.
3. Predictability and longevity of sales facilitates stronger more effective merchandising and marketing – at this stage, even an unsophisticated retailer with poor data gathering and analysis capabilities will know roughly how many copies of the classic version of Monopoly they will sell each year and each peak season. Of course this may be up or down to some degree, but the retailer and the publisher both know the product will sell and will therefore tend to commit to stock and marketing investment more easily and with less risk aversion versus an unknown quantity i.e. a new game! Therefore people are more likely to find stock of classic games in stores (physical and online), moreover there are more local manufacturing options for board games versus plastic toys and therefore replenishment can be done more quickly locally thus further ensuring product availability and therefore sales of classic board games.
4. People already know the gameplay and rules – learning new rules and new gameplay is one of the biggest barriers to playing board games. In general, people do not find it fun to read long instructions and to understand complex game play (there are of course objections, but this is a general global exception!). Classic board games like Connect 4, Guess Who or Risk have very familiar gameplay and adults tend to know how to play them. This makes it far easier for people to pick up and buy this type of game versus something with a rules learning curve which can be offputting.
5. (Last but not least) Classic perennial games are fun to play – there are so many factors involved in selling board games but the fact that these classic board games are actually really fun and often very compelling play experiences is under reported. The media will gleefully report how many game play faults Parker Brothers originally identified with Monopoly for instance, but they rarely focus on the fact that people play Monopoly because it is fun! Yes, there are parts of the experience which are not perfect, but the reality is the basic gameplay is entertaining. The same applies to so many of the long standing perennial classics in the market.

Of course there are other factors driving the long term success of classic games, not least of which is good management by Hasbro and the other brand owners or publishers of these classic board games. In the end though, the above reasons go a long way to explaining the ongoing commercial success and consumer appeal of classic board games!

We operate a joint venture creating and developing board games for people who need good games made quickly, for more information on this service: www.GameCreationAccelerator.com  We also advise toy & games companies on how to grow their businesses by a combination of strategy development and hands on export sales efforts, for more information on these services: www.KidsBrandInsight.com/services

We continue to publish board games market analysis, board game insights and board games expert consultancy via this Blog (please feel free to sign up for our free email newsletter with all the latest articles and insights) and via our other channels.

At the time of writing we’re seeing an economic slowdown like we haven’t seen in our lifetimes, and this is going to have significant implications far beyond just the global toy industry.

With large sections of retail shut down in many major markets, this is definitely not business as usual, and it is sadly likely that when we finally emerge from the medical emergency we find ourselves in we will find ourselves facing a large degree of economic damage.

While the toy business has proved over and over again that it is relatively cushioned from economic downturns and hard times, things might be a bit different this time because we will inevitably lose some retailers and also a number of toy companies of long standing and good reputation are likely to fail during this horrendous period.

All of that said though, whereas there are some people out there wondering if their chosen career is basically over for the foreseeable future unless they retrain and upskill, the longer term outlook for the global toy business remains positive for a number of reasons, and that should give many of us hope and faith. Here’s a number of reasons to feel reassured about the prospects for the toy market after the pandemic clears:

The Need For Play has not diminished – there are a myriad of play occasions and motivations. Children learn through play. They develop through play. And they play to have fun. This has not changed, and it won’t. If anything right now kids are playing a lot more than normal due to not being in school. Of course parents are constantly fighting screen time addiction, but either way kids do want to play, and if they consume content, some of that content creates interest in characters which normally leads to toy sales.

Parents still want the best for their kids – parents haven’t stopped wanting to be good parents, and haven’t stopped being concerned about their child’s development and fulfilment. In fact, all those categories of toys which are parent prompted primarily i.e. board games, puzzles, art & craft kits, science kits and such items are all flying out of retail despite lockdown as parents both positively seek to educate and gainfully occupy their kids as well as negatively in some cases are just seeking a bit of respite or peace and quiet!

Parents still get pestered by their kids for cool stuff – children do tend to sense when things are difficult for parents, but that won’t necessarily stop them asking for stuff they really want. And in some ways, parents are more likely to indulge their kids during tough times because they don’t want their children to be unhappy. As we come out of the current situation though, kids will feel less and less guilt about pestering for the stuff they want – and maybe they will be ‘into’ 3 or 4 new brands since they have been consuming so much content while not attending school.

The playground effect will return – this is one of the most powerful drivers of toy sales and toy consumption, and has been for a very long time. Kids love to show off the latest cool new stuff they are playing with and small items like collectable toys sit in their pockets, bags and pencil cases just waiting for the chance to come and play with friends at break time. Children are also (very thankfully) seemingly less likely to suffer from serious health issues related to COVID-19, so hopefully can go back to school sooner rather than later both for their sakes and for their parents!

Movies will return – lockdown has lead to a massive acceleration of growth trends for video on demand consumption from adults and kids as they seek to utilise the most accessible home entertainment in the current situation. But the typical movie release model will return for a number of reasons. Bigger companies in good financial shape have financial resources and balance sheets to call upon in times of crisis, of course they will seek all outside help they can from governments, employees and customers, but in the end they can usually access the necessary funds to get through even a long crisis. Therefore those mighty movie making behemoths will come through this less profitable in the short term but largely ready to go when things pick up again. Which means the entire model including big budget production with A list stars and the resulting marketing onslaught will return. The only thing is we may get a bit of a lag as nothing much is getting produced right now in most locations, but after the lag, the classic movie model will return. Some cinema chains may change hands, the physical cinemas might end up being operated by a different entity, but they haven’t disappeared, cinemas are great for one thing alone – showing movies, so someone will operate them somehow. Movies are a perennial driver of toy sales and this pivotal part of the toy business will return, while in the meantime on demand viewing will have broadened and deepened brand and character affinity.

Retail will evolve – retail is always a tough business to be in, but now things are worse than ever. Some retail businesses will not make it through this time, but many others will and they will be stronger due to having to work hard at diversifying their operating models. Either way though where there is consumer demand there will be retail of some sort, in some format and consumer demand will return mid term, if not before.

Global population is growing – the global population is growing fairly rapidly, which means there are more people to buy everything. In some countries the birth rate is not growing or is even diminishing slightly. Some analysis suggests that the population growth is at least partly due to people living longer, but don’t forget grandparents are a major secondary purchaser of toys after parents, so if we have more grandparents around for longer even if we don’t end up with many more kids we should still see sales increases.

Asian economies are set for major growth over the mid to long term – at the time of writing there are 2 potentially massive growth markets for toy sales. Firstly China, which is now the world’s 2nd biggest toy market after the U.S.A. is going to grow massively – because of China’s huge economic progress, people in China will be far more affluent over the next few decades than ever before in history, and as a result toy sales will soar. Secondly, India is also seeing significant economic growth which is set to continue throughout this century, and with nearly the same number of people as China, and with a culture which cherishes children we expect to see considerable growth in the Indian toy market over the mid to long term albeit from a small base.

So while we are all going through tough times, and need to fight our way through the current situation, and will then need to fight our way to recovery, as the song says ‘The sun’ll come out tomorrow’!

PS For toy and game companies looking to grow their businesses, we offer an ‘all-in’ Consultancy package. The Toy Co Growth Booster is open to a maximum of 3 clients at any time, and offers both strategic planning and commercial insights alongside practical help to grow your business and make it more profitable, even during these tough times. For more info: http://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/blog/toy-co-growth-booster-program/

Many countries are now heading into extensions of lockdown right now. It’s almost beginning to feel like normality, albeit a normality we don’t want. Thoughts are again with those suffering from this horrendous virus and those directly in the front line fighting it.

We’re now starting to see a lot of speculation about what can end the current situation, and then what kind of world are we going to emerge into afterwards.

We’ll leave the first question to the medical experts, but for the second question, there have clearly been some massive changes. The question though is which changes will be permanent and which will pass leading back to how things were before in some instances. Here are our thoughts on which changes are likely to be permanent and which are likely to pass:

PERMANENT CHANGES

1. Accelerated virtual lifestyles – we’re just over twenty years into the ‘Internet Revolution’, which in the future will be looked on as being as big a change in human society, culture, work and living as the Industrial Revolution. The lockdowns which have reached across the world have vastly accelerated what has already been happening for the last twenty years – a move towards virtual over physical living. Entertainment and social interactions have been moving online throughout the current millennium, but this trend has rapidly accelerated during the pandemic and while this may regress slightly, human beings are above all creatures of habit.
2. Accelerated shift from physical retail to online – this shift has again been ongoing for two decades by this point. The change here though is not just about changing behaviour on the consumer side. The major issue with retail is that many retailers were struggling anyway, and a period of paying rents and costs (even if some costs are reduced) combined with diminished revenue will be more than enough to push some well known retailers into insolvency. Alas there is just no way we are emerging from this crisis with all existing retailers in tact and profitably trading. Some non-food retailers are going to go out of business. Just was we lost a raft of retail customers for toys through the global financial crisis of the late noughties, now the current hard times will also take their toll. Food retailers who sell non-food items i.e. Grocery/hypermarché will come through this stronger and with increased market share which is a relief in some ways but a challenge in others as they aren’t always the easiest or most profitable accounts to trade with. Overall then, when physical retailers disappear, online appears to take up more of the slack than surviving physical retailers, and so the trend to online shopping will irreversibly accelerate coming through this pandemic crisis.
3. Growth in board game playing – some categories of the toy market are really struggling right now, and others are flying. We’re seeing creative play, arts and crafts and science kits selling extremely well for this time of year in some markets. This though is more driven by everyone being stuck at home and parents wanting to gainfully occupy their kids. The big impact longer term is likely to be in board game playing, as hordes of dormant game players rediscover how much fun board games are and how socially connecting they are versus screen time. Research studies we have conducted across our 20+ years in the business have always highlighted the importance of word of mouth or played at a friends house for driving board games sales, but the bottom line is actually one step back from this – board game playing begets more board game playing. We predict that the board games category will reap the rewards of the current pandemic lockdown for a long time to come.

TEMPORARY CHANGES

The global toy market may be down in 2020 or at least not grow as much as was expected, although this is hard to call because through tough times normally parents will go out of their way to treat and gift children to make up for the difficult times. It certainly won’t be plain sailing to meet demand however the final numbers come in. There are a number of issues caused by the pandemic though that will inevitably fade away once this pandemic clears either via fading away as happens with so many viruses or because a vaccine is developed.

1. International travel – we foresee a return to near normality within 6 months of the end of the pandemic because business is so global in this age, and there isn’t any way to move back from that as the world is so easily accessible online today. Even if any struggling airlines don’t make it through this tough time, the planes will still belong to someone and the airports will still be there so someone somehow will meet the upsurge in travel demand that is likely to come.
2. Disrupted supply chain – clearly China is now manufacturing again after being locked down, but at the time of writing some other countries with significant and ever growing toy manufacturing hubs are locked down including India. The long term shift away from China for a proportion of toy manufacturing is going to carry on regardles of the pandemic due to systemic and economic factors.
3. Movies and toys – the toy business has historically been up or down for a particular year based on the movie slate and success of otherwise of the latest big movie releases. While media and content consumption is ever more fragmented, movies will come back in the way they always have with big global cinematic releases driving $billions of toy sales.

Aside from these predictions, we would also like to take this opportunity say thanks to all those on the frontline fighting this virus and to wish you all the best getting through this challenging period of time.

Our Consulting company – Kids Brand Insight works with toy companies of all sizes on a Consultancy basis. We recently launched a new ‘packaged’ up Consultancy service to help toy and game companies grow. While we appreciate some companies are just trying to get through this time, we have found increased demand as those companies who are still enjoying success through the pandemic have still been seeking our help. Our Toy Co Growth Booster program is open to all sizes of companies. For more information: http://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/blog/toy-co-growth-booster-program/