CHANGING SCENARIO OF THE INDUSTRY
Like every industry, the toy and children product
industry is also experiencing changes. In the past few
months, there has been a lot of hustle in the market in
general. First demonetization and then the GST, but
now things are looking more settled, changes have
been accepted and businesses are now moving
forward with their new strategies suiting best for their
growth and development.
Given the rising importance of education and the
improving living standards of the middle class in India,
the demand for educational toys has been on
continues rise since some years and this trend is likely
to continue. With prior experience as a management
consultant, Mr. Dhvanil Sheth of Skillmatics mentions,
“It is certain that there will be unprecedented
consumption over the next 20 years in India and
education is the key to a successful nation”. Hence,
his company is developing educational products that
are affordable to every Indian.
Then there are start-ups which are purely based on
discovering a demand with self- experience. One
example is the story is of Aanchal Mittal, mother of two
who launched a series of ready to eat food for children
called Baby Staples. “After facing difficulty in meeting
the need for nutritional food for my children along
with other works, I decided to do meet this need as an
entrepreneur” says Aanchal Mittal. After conducting a
survey, she was certain that there is a huge market for
such ready to eat, nutritional baby food among
mothers.
In 2016, traditional toys and games grew by 6 percent
in India and are further expected to grow in 2017 and
2018. Indian parents are gradually realizing the impact
of toys on the child’s learning, understanding and
behaviour process. There has been an increase in
educational toys, e.g. stem toys and other solution
oriented toys. Pre-school and construction toys have
grown by 20 percent in the last year.
Awareness for safety and usefulness of toys is getting
stronger. Popularity of cartoons and action figures
among kids has increased the demand for
international brands. This also has widened the
licensing business in this industry. A total of 6 percent
of traditional toys and games sales were licensed
products in India in 2016. Action figures, dolls and
accessories, and games and puzzles have been the
major categories which generate sales in the
licensing segment. Also, categories such as plush and
model vehicles are expected to increase their share in
the licensing space with manufacturers licensing the
characters of movie heroes. Not only international but
Indian movie characters, e.g. Bahubali have become
very popular for which Simba has taken up the
licensing for it.
THE NEWCOMERS OF THE INDUSTRY
Indians have always been known for their risk taking
behaviour. This behaviour has led them to a lot of new
opportunities and success. The Toy and children
product industry also welcomed a lot of start-ups in
the past few years. With changing awareness and
lifestyle of customers there is a change and a new
enthusiasm in these newcomers.
Today, the most trending factor that customers
demand in a product is that it is “organic”, safe and
chemical free. “We were passionate to make
high-quality, natural and safe toys available to
Indian children. We did some market research
beforehand to identify the right consumer target
segment, distribution channels and communication
channels for promotion and we found that there is a
big potential for high-quality wooden toys that not
only are fun to play with but also promote learning, at
an affordable price” explains Ms. Ruchi Shaikh of
Toyroom, Block Stock and Barrels Pvt. Ltd., a start-up
which recently kick started its operations in India.
When we speak of organic products, there is another
trend, since some years known as “urban gardening”.
More and more people in the cities are having a little
garden which could vary from a terrace garden to two
pots with flowers or a tomato plant on the window.
Although many might think about growing their own
Kids India Mag Issue 2 : Sept 2017 | Page 03