Unfortunately, many parents shop price when they buy toys for their children. It’s an issue that specialty toy retailers deal with daily. Given the current economic slowdown, the situation has the potential to become even worse. To counter the negative effects on your business, teach your customers the difference between price and value. If they really want to get the most bang for their buck, they need to find the toys that kids will play with often, and for hours on end. The longer a child plays with one good toy, the fewer toys Mom and Dad have to buy to fill those hours of play.
The true-cost formula
You can show parents how much they’re saving by figuring out how much a toy costs per hour of play. At our store, we call that the “true cost” of a toy. As a formula it looks like this:
Cost of Toy ÷ Hours Played With = Cost per Hour of Play (or True Cost)
As an example, let’s use a high-quality wooden train set that retails for $40. Based on our experience, a typical child enjoys playing with this toy for at least 40 hours before becoming bored with it. Doing the math, we get a true cost of $40 divided by 40 hours = $1 per hour of play.
But what about a toy that’s not as interesting? A classic example is a $25 battery-operated toy that responds when you push its buttons. We’ve found that most kids think pressing the buttons is fun five or six times, and then they’re bored. I would put the average playtime at 30 minutes. Do the math: $25 divided by 0.5 hours is $50 per hour of play. Using our formula, the battery-operated toy costs 50 times more than the wooden train!
Criteria for long-lasting play value
Unfortunately, a toy’s packaging doesn’t say how long a child will play with it. How can a parent estimate that? I know I’m preaching to the choir when I tell you this, but customers need to be reminded to choose toys that are interactive, open-ended, creative and high quality.
An interactive toy engages the child. She has to do something more than just turn it on and watch it go. A wooden train is just colorful lumber until someone lays out the track, picks up the train, pushes it around and decides when, where and why it goes the way it goes.
The more a child has to do to make the toy work, the more she will play with it. A doll is a perfect example. At our store, we sell dolls that walk, talk, cry, eat, wet and more, but surprisingly enough, it is usually the doll that does nothing that becomes a little girl’s favorite. Why? Because she gives the doll life through her own actions. The process of inventing the doll’s personality, voice and actions creates the bond between child and doll.
Open-ended toys can be played with in limitless ways. Wooden blocks are the ultimate open-ended toy. A child can stack them, throw them, build with them, lay them out in designs or even decorate them. Blocks can be used with other toys like little cars (to create garages and tracks), fashion dolls (to make houses and furniture), or little green army men (for forts, foxholes and trenches). The more ways a child can play with a toy, the more often that toy will be included in play, and the lower the cost per hour will be.
A creative toy requires a child to use his imagination. Once a child engages his imagination, he takes ownership of it because he has determined how the toy is played with. This makes a child feel more attached to the toy and more apt to continue playing with it.
Quality counts. The quicker and easier a toy breaks, the fewer hours a child will use it, and the higher the true cost will be. For that reason, be wary of knockoffs and cheaply made versions of durable toys. Quality built toys will always be less expensive in the long run.
Encourage your customers to look beyond the price tag and consider the cost per hour of play. By purchasing interactive, open-ended, creative and high-quality toys, they will actually save money on their children’s playthings.
Phil Wrzesinski is president and owner of Toy House and Baby Too. Located in Jackson, Michigan, it is one of America’s largest independent toy and baby stores. To help parents spend their money wisely, Phil teaches in-store classes on smart toy and baby-product shopping. He also does business-to-business presentations on advertising, pricing, customer service and staff training. Phil is scheduled to speak at the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) Marketplace & Academy in June. For more information about Phil or his store, visit ToyHouseOnline.com.
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