How and why toy companies aim for ALTERNATIVE PLACEMENT

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: so you're a toy company or an inventor you've come up with an idea for a new toy well how do you sell it where do you sell it most people think about the toy aisle well in addition to the toy aisle i want to talk about other places where you can place things and receive a benefit than receive additional sales placing things where you might not think to place them and that is extremely true with the toy industry because getting incremental placement retail is the key to success this is basically the task that every brand manager is faced with when selling in a line is how much space how much square footage can they get i'm scott toy guru knight lincoln i want to take you through today what's called incremental placement and look at the different areas of a store that toy companies target when selling a product now a lot of this has to do with the psychology behind retail placement this is a science guys it's not they're not just making this up things are placed for a very specific reason in the back of the store or in the front of the store based on customer purchase behaviors for example things that eye level sell better it's also why cereal boxes always have their mascots looking down because that's where kids are and they're usually shorter than what adult eye level is now most items at any retailer sold in what's called a planagram and i've covered this in quite a few videos it's the organized foot by foot space that a brand is allocated at a major retailer and it's usually organized based on price with lower prices at top and then the higher prices at bottom what's called the christmas gift if you will versus the shut me up gift or your basic figure is going to be on top while the toy aisle is your main objective there are a lot of places to shop that are not the toy aisle that are targeted specifically by toy companies in order to order to secure incremental placement because every inch of space that you get equals dollars and toy volume so if you can get incremental space above and beyond what you have in the retail aisle some examples include dump bins which are used in we're called the the race track or track of that goes around the store where customers walk either these dump bins or purchase product displays are essentially dropped in this is often they are pre-packed so all of those figures are already set up and the whole display is just dropped right into the aisle the cover is taken off and it's ready to sell doesn't even require setup takes a lot to sell those in though another area that a lot of toy companies will target is the checkout lane now the check lane while we have a lot of self-service check lanes these days is traditionally where a lot of impulse items are and if you could get your toys in the check lane area it's a gold mine because this is usually when a child is crying because they've been through the whole store experience and you just need five more minutes to get to the store so if you could grab a barbie or a hot wheels or an uno deck or something made by hasbro or not mattel well that's why people want to place it there another opportunity near the check stand are the check lane end caps so this is solid gold if you can secure one of these because again it's an impulse buy and you've already been through the store and committed to purchasing because you're headed towards the cash wrap so getting a end cap in the cash wrap area is a huge opportunity and you'll see that toy companies very strategically target these cash wrap opportunities because of the psychology behind it another opportunity is holidays so when a different gift giving opportunity that's not christmas or birthday comes along well stores are going to take advantage and they're going to have seasonal displays set up and if you can get toys on these seasonal displays again this is literally about every inch every square foot that you can sell product it's just going to be more success all of these toys here these action figures on this father's day set are not in the main aisle it's additional incremental space within the store and taking advantage of these opportunities is a huge huge part of success from a toy buyer and a toy seller meaning the person who's the buyer for target or walmart and the seller meaning your hasbros and mattels and regardless of which holiday or which seasonal event it is there's usually always ways to incorporate toys and kids products because again they're being dragged around the store by mom dad grandma librarian whoever's their guardian and if they see and if they see everything from pajamas to toys to board games to plush well it's going to make the store visit experience that much more enjoyable for the child while they may not be getting something at least they can look at toys throughout the store even if their parents won't take them to the toy aisle which many parents try to avoid this because it means you're not going to be leaving without buying something which is why also incremental placement is great because even if mom and dad or aunt and uncle and whoever's with the kid is trying to avoid the toy aisle well you can't avoid it entirely when there are additional incremental placements of toys scattered throughout the store it's not only an opportunity to buy especially a shut me up gift a toy designed to be a quick purchase a sort of an afterthought versus having to actually you know buy a large what are thought of as under the tree gifts those are not really outside of the toy aisle what you're seeing in incremental placement of the lower priced items things that you don't mind buying on impulse and then finally there's the feature store so this is something where you'll see a retailer partner with a major studio and have a cross category additional incremental placement where a large sort of mini store is set up within a big box store and getting toy product in here hey every item that you can get just leads to the cash register and if you can get toys placed beyond the toy aisle you're setting yourself up for success you're pleasing your bosses you're hitting your bottom line making your numbers and hopefully making kids and collectors happy i hope this was an interesting look at incremental placement and why toy companies are so interested in this and how much this affects their bottom line thanks for watching thanks for sharing and i'll see you guys in the next video