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A random collection of rants, reviews, and miscellaneous thoughts on everything from instructional technology to local restaurants.
Babes in Toyland
Since we don’t have kids of our own, each year Laura and I contribute to Toys for Tots and other charities. Last night we went shopping at Toys R Us and ran into an interesting dilemma. We always try to get something for the older kids. It’s easy to run into a store and pick out something bright and shiny for younger children, but those in the 10 – 12 year range are often overlooked. Toy manufacturers aren’t making it any easier.
Take, for instance, the game Uno„¢. It’s a simple, straighforward game that should appeal to a variety of ages. However, we could only find the game with Disney branding for their movies. There was a Cars version…
…and a Disney Princesses version…
…and while the store had tons of these, we had to struggle to find just a plain version.
The problem is that branding like this associates the toys with younger children, so older kids are reluctant to accept them, thinking that it’s a “little kid’s toy.” We found this to be the case with several popular games, including Monopoly„¢ and Clue„¢. Toys that used to be a safe bet for those middle kids were now branded in a way to make them less appealing.
The marketing analysis must show that these do increase sales. After all, if you’ve got a boy and a girl, the boy’s not going to want to play with the princesses cards, so you would have to buy two sets if a generic version isn’t available. Still I prefer the classic versions. Maybe I’m just an old fuddy-duddy who doesn’t like companies like Disney messing with iconic games.
Posted in Miscellaneous
