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Toy market India: increasing brand awareness &
demand for licensed toys
Despite the huge challenge from
imports from China, traditional toys and games in India grew
by 5 % in current value terms in
2015. Higher disposable incomes
and increased inclination to have
better quality toys and games for
children is driving the growth of
traditional toys in the country.
Following the news related to the
ill effects of poor quality plastics
on children who try to chew the
toys, Indian customers, especially in high-income groups, prefer
to buy branded toys from big retailers. With growing disposable
incomes, customers, especially
in metro and tier-1 cities, have
shown more of an inclination towards safer and better quality
toys and games.
Traditional toys that target young
children up to six years of age constituted the highest current value
share of 42 % in 2015, followed
by a 37 % value share for pre-teens
(population aged 7-12). This is because younger children still prefer to play with traditional toys
and games, whereas they tend to
incline towards video games and
outdoor sports as they grow up.
The demand for traditional toys
and games though generally remains the same throughout the
year, although this marginally
rises during the summer because
children enjoy longer summer holi
days in India. Festive months do
not particularly impact the sales of
branded toys because low-cost locally-manufactured traditional toys
and games are bought during festival times such as Holi and Diwali.
Leading toy retailer Hamleys
from Reliance Retail Ltd has collaborated with online delivery
partner Grofers to deliver its toys
directly to customers. This was
initiated in order to leverage the
growing popularity of internet retailing, especially through the use
of mobile phones.
Leading toy stores with e-commerce strategies
Growth of internet retailing and
discounted toys and games available through this channel is also
resulting in a restriction in the
growth of value sales of traditional toys and games in India. Since
local manufacturers have also entered internet retailing, the average unit price and thus the value sales of traditional toys and
games were hampered over the
review period.
Traditional toys and games are led
by international companies as the
two leading players Funskool and
Mattel Toys are the subsidiaries of
multinational companies. Among
the key domestic players in traditional toys and games are OK
Play India Ltd, Zephyr Toymakers
Pvt Ltd, My Baby Excels Ltd and
Creative Educational Aids Pvt Ltd
all performed well in 2015.
All leading toy stores such as
Funskool, Hamleys and Simba
are expanding their presence by
opening more physical stores and
also by listing their products on
leading ecommerce websites such
as amazon.in and flipkart.com.
Hollywood films drive sales of
licensed toys
Licensing in India has gained in
popularity due to greater exposure to Hollywood films and their
characters to parents and children
alike. Superheroes such as Batman, Spiderman and Superman
continue to remain as favourite
superheroes of Indian children.
Action figures in India are growing in popularity among the young
population. With an increase in the
number of action films from Marvel and DC comics, so is the demand for action figures. The recent movies such as Star Wars:
The Force Awakens, Avengers:
Age of Ultron and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice increased
the sales of action figures in India
and companies such as My Baby
Excels Ltd and Mattel Toys are
performing well. With many more
action films poised to be released,
the demand for action figures is
expected to further increase.
Indian cartoon superhero characters like Chhota Bheem and
friends continued to be popular
among children and are licenced
by a range of manufacturers in India. The cartoon series of Chhota
Bheem has aired in Hindi as well
as in regional languages, which
has helped the character to better
engage with children across different areas of the country.