A Plush toy without a persona or character is in essence a cushion - we could stop there, but that wouldn’t be very insightful!
Soft toys normally depict an animal or a character. It could be a derivative of a popular content franchise like a preschool TV show, a YouTube channel or a movie’s leading character. The driver behind this type of character toy is fairly straightforward – children want to have & play with a physical manifestation of their favourite characters. And whereas action figures or dolls are typically hard plastic & therefore not very cuddly, Plush iterations of favourite characters can be taken to bed & cuddled.
When it comes to looking at why Animals are such an engrained theme for soft toys, we can see the answer made clear by millions of Tik Tok & Tube videos showing animals looking cute, doing funny things or being crazy. Kids absolutely love animals! They find them funny, cute, entertaining and much more. But animals don’t necessarily want to be smothered by over affectionate children. An inanimate Plush animal can be manhandled as much as the child wants without any fear of escape or backlash!
Implicit within both these major areas of Plush is one prevailing theme – the sense of touch. The tactile interaction with Plush toys is so rewarding for children. Children’s balance of importance with regard to the sense is normally quite different to adults – for example, the younger a child is the more their sense of touch prevails, even over what something looks like. Therefore, the Plush toy core market often goes younger than for some other types of toys, but regardless of that, children of all ages love the positive tactile experience of cuddling a soft toy.
We run a Consultancy business for toy companies. We work with major toy companies through to start ups and one person bands. For more information on how we help toy companies grow their distribution around the world: https://www.kidsbrandinsight.com/blog/toy-co-growth-booster-program/
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