Industry leaders, retailers, and manufacturers weigh in on toy trends, changes, and more in The Toy Book’s annual State of the Industry Q&A.
STEVE TOTZKE, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer, Mattel
Many retailers stepped up their offerings for the 2018 holiday season. How many of these changes will stick? Will consumers have as many options for shopping this holiday season?
The 2018 holiday season was going to be a learning opportunity for everyone in our industry. It certainly was, and frankly it continues. The toy consumer is so important and valuable from a demographic and traffic standpoint, so retailers are motivated to attract, maintain, and satisfy this consumer base. The traditional retailers will continue to enhance their omnichannel experiential retailainment events throughout the year around beats, such as Barbie’s 60th anniversary or the upcoming Toy Story 4 movie, as they build momentum into the holidays. Some other channels may be more selective with when and how they amplify the toy category. Ultimately, toys are a terrific, important, and fun category, and I’m excited for Mattel to continue working closely with our retail partners to help surprise and delight families around the world.
How did the demise of Toys “R” Us challenge you to rethink the way you did business last holiday season?
The Toys “R” Us brand is still going strong in many parts of the world, including Canada and throughout parts of Europe and Asia Pacific. In the U.S., it energized us to continue to evolve and innovate our demand creation and retail execution with our key partners both in stores and online. You are seeing that show up in the activations and results for Hot Wheels and Barbie, as well as our Polly Pocket launch and the biggest toy year ever for the Jurassic World franchise. It also validates and accelerates our channel management strategies to have the right product for the right consumers in the right channels to optimize results.
Finally, I am pleased with our data-driven approach to inventory management this past holiday, and I will continue to learn and apply that this holiday season. The bottom line is that strong brands and product innovation are more critical than ever.
