C Is For: Cute Toys Like Care Bears... And China
‘Cute’ is a massive thing for the toy business. Toys which are super cute and huggable are often very compelling for children. The younger a child is the more their sense of touch takes priority over the other senses. That’s why a really cute, soft toy will be loved by kids.
Care Bears is an iconic toy brand first launched in the 1980s, and now back in the market via Basic Fun. More than $1billion of Care Bear toys have been sold across retail. There are a number of ‘best practise’ elements of Care Bears to observe: first, a range of characters with different looks, colours and characteristics. They also have a distinctive and presumably ownable pattern on their tummies to differentiate them from any other teddy bear products in market. Care Bears (as the name suggests) encourage caring for other people, something which is very appealing for parents who are trying to teach their kids the right way to interact with other people and the world in general. And then finally (of course) they are super huggable and cute!
China has been a force in the toy business for many decades. Originally entering the toy manufacturing sector with massive and cheap labour force as the attraction for toy companies competing in the massively price sensitive business of toys. Today China is many things to the toy business – it still remains the primary hub for toy manufacturing globally, although the country as a whole is transitioning upwards in terms of manufacturing capabilities there is still a massive array of toy factories of all sizes and shapes. But as the economy in China increasingly moves beyond cheap products to more advanced manufacturing, China’s growing domestic market is the second biggest in the world and growing.
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