KIDS INDIA MAGAZINE ISSUE II OCTOBER 2013 | Page 4

Page 4

Super-Heroes in India
their kids not to have heroes. But
most of the parents (72%) consider super-heroes are part of
the growing process for a child!
Heroes are needed to help their
kids develop their imagination
when they are young. As they
grow, heroes help to develop a
child’s confidence and become
role models for them, particularly those that they can relate to.
Heroes play a steady helping role
across all age groups in a parent’s educational role.
Parents also believe heroes now
a days need to be emotional with
human qualities and values, but
at the same time have strong personalities.

Who are the super-heroes of Indian kids? Comics’ characters?
Movies’ characters? Cartoons’
characters? Toy characters?
In fact, this world is highly structured and codified, both for kids
and their parents. Our last wave
of the Kids Observer survey* –
tracking attitudes and behaviors
of more than 10,000 kids and
10,000 mums – tell us more about
this universe.

Who are they?
Chhota Beem, Spider-Man, Superman, Salman Khan or Ben 10.
See the table above.

Heroes change as they get older:
there are a lot more national brands
in India rather than universal entertainment and toy characters heroes as we can find in many other
countries around the world. However, this tends to decrease as kids
get older. Chhota Bheem is a perfect example, being the first superhero amongst kids up to 8 years
old, and within the top 5 mentions
for kids 9 to 14 years old!
Heroes are not gender specific with traditional boy superheroes popular with girls through
all age groups; e.g. Spider-Man
representing 18% of the men-

tions for both boys and girls
12 to 14 years old.

What makes a super-hero?

Generally, both boys and girls
agree on the key elements a hero
needs. Both believe that they
need to have gadgets as the #1
thing and having a team to support them. Both are in agreement that their heroes don’t need
to have extra super powers or be
brave; although girls want their
heroes strong & relentless, fast
and able to fight.
Having separate lives is also important for being a hero, par-

ticularly for boys, while girls
would prefer they were risk takers instead of having a secret life.
They don’t need to have extra super powers or be brave. Heroes
are people with skills and tools
in their life that are real and
achievable.

What do parents think
about super-heroes?

Parents are extremely lucid about
the marketing source of superheroes: their popularity is driven by marketing, TV and movies (68% of the parents believe
this!). That’s the main reason
some of the parents would want

Last, 62% of parents enjoy passing down their own heroes to
their kids, particularly when they
are young. But parents know that
kids need to have their own heroes and that their childhood heroes may not be relevant anymore, while a high volume of
parents are unsure.
Philippe Guinaudeau
Kids Observer wave*: 1st World
Kids Observer. Research conducted
in January & February 2013 in India, but also in China, Brazil, Russia,
Poland, France, UK, Germany, Italy
and Spain.

Relevance and Risk – the Licensing Game
Licences have become an indispensable part of the toy world.
No more than just a marginal
phenomenon a few decades ago,
the licensing sector has since
flourished into a multi-million
dollar industry.
Today, the classical supply chain
of licensor, licensee and the trade,
is just one of several business
models, with manufacturers marketing properties directly and retailers becoming licensees.
Relevance is an important factor
in explaining why no-one in the
toy sector can ignore licensing
any longer. Licences function in
the same way as branded goods –
they create desire and give direction in a world where consumers
struggle to find their way.
Today’s children take television,
cinema and the internet for grant-

KID_Tabloid2013_MAG2_02.indd 4

ed. More often than not, information that is not expressed through
the media does not exist in their
minds. Therefore, the role of content disseminated through the media is becoming increasingly important, embracing everything
from blockbusters and TV series
to popular videos on YouTube.

With big film studios such as
Walt Disney, Warner Bros. and
Dreamworks as well as the
globally operating TV channels
Nickelodeon (Viacom) and Cartoon Network (Turner Broadcasting), the USA is home to the
world’s most important content
suppliers.

Manufacturers and toy shop owners can no longer ignore the latest themes. Lego, for example,
resisted licences for many years
and it was not until 1998 that it
finally signed its first agreements
with Lucasfilm («Star Wars») and
Disney. Looking back, Christian Korbes, marketing head of
Lego Central Europe, comments:
«Lego’s doubts were founded on
the ups and downs of the licensing business and whether we
would be in a position to react
quickly enough given the company’s structure at the time.»

A trend in recent years has been
to concentrate large sections of
the licensing supply chain in the
hands of just a few companies.
One such example is the directto-retail business model which
is rapidly gaining in popularity. In this instance, the retailer is the licensee, manufacturer and vendor of the product. In
the fashion industry in particular, this model has been in use
for many years and with considerable success, but the concept
has also been common in the toy
trade for some time now.

These doubts have since been
eradicated: «Star Wars» and
themes such as «Indiana Jones»
and «Harry Potter» have been
hugely successful, showering
Lego with impressive sales levels. «Licences such as ‘Star Wars’

enable us to gain relevance within
target groups that would not otherwise be there,» states Christian
Korbes on the impact of licences.
The US is still the biggest licensing market in the world.

01.10.13 17:00