PPB May 2018

This Dr. Seuss paperback coloring book —featuring two colors of foil on the cover—will provide hours of creative fun for Dr. Seuss fans ages seven to 107. With intricate illustrations, playful patterns and iconic images based on pages from titles such as The Cat in the Hat, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, The Lorax and Horton Hears a Who!, you can color Dr. Seuss’s work any way you would like. The Book Company / PPAI 218850 / www.thebookco.com On the Safety Spin-It ™ , the bearings and weights are molded right into the plastic to reduce the likelihood of them separating and becoming a safety hazard. Cap colors can be mixed and matched for unique color combinations. With a two-minute spin time, this product is excellent for children and adults who need to keep their hands busy. Evans Manufacturing, Inc. / PPAI 110747 www.evans-mfg.com 36 | MAY 2018 | GROW F i dge t Pr oduc t s You HadMe At Hashtag Toy and gadget makers hope to capitalize on trends fueled by social media. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal shed light on how toy suppliers are striving to more quickly embrace trends that begin with social media. They are studying retail establishments like Forever 21 that make no bones about their strategy: spotting emerging teen apparel trends and stocking them in-store in as few as 25 days. As Veruca Salt articulated so well in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , “I want it now!” When a product becomes hot, today’s consumers have little to no patience in waiting for it, so turnaround times that worked in the past may be woefully inadequate. The toy industry grew a disappointing one percent last year, compared to five percent in 2016 and seven percent in 2015, according to NPD research firm. NPD says the 2017 growth was the result of social media as opposed to products tied to major movies, which have driven sales in prior years. Both Mattel and Hasbro have recently established teams to follow social media trends and respond with product development ideas. For example, Hasbro’s popular Speak Out board game was inspired by online videos of people trying to talk while wearing dental mouth guards. The game was developed in 11 weeks. Zing, a smaller toy supplier, employs three social media experts who look for trending hashtags and opportunities to capitalize on them. In 2016, they noticed that a product similar to rosary beads was getting significant online play as a fidget tool. Two months later, they had a prototype, and four months after that, their product, Thumb Chucks, was on the market. Some of the challenges for companies that favor this product development model include identifying trends that won’t burn out before they can be put in the hands of consumers and ordering inventory in amounts that satisfy demand but don’t result in an excess supply of items that have outlasted their moment. Suppliers who are committed to chasing the latest trends will need to crack the code so that the rewards outweigh the risks. Terry Ramsay is associate editor of PPB.