Toy & Game Industry - Healthcheck Survey Results April 2024 Would you or your team benefit from a training course offering a basic level overview of all the key elements of the Toy & Game biz? We will soon be launching our TOY & GAME BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS TRAINING COURSE. Sign up to the waiting list for advanced ticket sales & more info here: https://steve-reece.aweb.page/p/f7499bff-42aa-436a-9ff0-ef581613a681   I put out a survey last week asking 10 questions about the health & performance of the Toy & Game industry right now. Here’s the results:   ..read more

TOY LICENSING: IS HARRY POTTER THE ‘NEW STAR WARS’? Would you or your team benefit from a training course offering a basic level overview of all the key elements of the Toy & Game biz? We will soon be launching our TOY & GAME BUSINESS FUNDAMENTALS TRAINING COURSE. Sign up to the waiting list for advanced ticket sales & more info here: https://steve-reece.aweb.page/p/f7499bff-42aa-436a-9ff0-ef581613a681   Is Harry Potter The 'New Star Wars' For Toy Licensing? I was talking to an old time Toy industry guy at Toy Fair this year, and we were discussing Licensing in the ..read more

Several of our clients have asked us to put together a training day program covering the fundamentals of the Toy & Game business. We are currently working on rolling this training day out to a broader audience. If you want to sign up to the waiting list, to receive more information and to get advanced ticket sale information for you or your team, please click here to sign up: https://steve-reece.aweb.page/p/f7499bff-42aa-436a-9ff0-ef581613a681  If you want to complete a simple survey to feedback on your needs so we can structure the course accordingly: https://docs.google.co ..read more

Toy Market Growth Opportunities In Turkey & The Istanbul Toy Fair Sign up for my free e-newsletter and receive all the latest reports, analysis and insights on the Toy & Games business: sign up for free here: https://forms.aweber.com/form/54/1325077854.htm   THE NEED FOR GROWTH MARKETS I have written extensively in this newsletter about the dropping birth rates in most major ‘western’ Toy markets. This is a threat to sales growth, because if we have fewer children we have fewer customers. However, one avenue to sales growth over the medium term is to look at economies which a ..read more

,,Sign up for my free e-newsletter and receive all the latest reports, analysis and insights on the Toy & Games business: sign up for free here:, ,,https://forms.aweber.com/form/54/1325077854.htm,, THE BIG 3 REPORT FULL YEAR 2023 RESULTS: WHAT DID WE LEARN? FY 2023 results have now been reported by Hasbro, Mattel & Spin Master (although the latter only reported preliminary results with some financial work still to be done on the details). For those trying to follow what is happening across the world of Toys & Games, these results are normally revealing because a). They offer u ..read more

Spielwarenmesse Nuremberg Review & 2024 European Toy Market Outlook       SPIELWARENMESSE 2024: ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SHOW Freshly back from the annual pilgrimage to Nuremberg for the Spielwarenmesse trade show, I’m writing this through the usual fog of fatigue, sore feet (c. 50 miles or 80 KM walked during the show), social and business dialogue overload and a low-level continuing hangover! This time around there were some travel challenges around the show. There was a train strike in Germany planned to last until later on Monday but called off earlier than planned. I had alre ..read more

, Sign up for my free e-newsletter and receive all the latest reports, analysis and insights on the Toy & Games business: sign up for free here: https://forms.aweber.com/form/54/1325077854.htm Happy New Year, and welcome to the first of these newsletters in 2024. Wishing you health, happiness and prosperity this year. This instalment takes a look at the outlook for the worldwide Toy & Game business as we head into 2024: Setting the scene – the Pandemic Years and the counter reaction aka 2020 and 2021 were unexpectedly good, and 2022 and 2023 were particularly bad! One of the bigge ..read more

The Massive Volume Driving Potential Of Off Shelf Placement In Toy Retail Sign up for my free e-newsletter and receive all the latest reports, analysis and insights on the Toy & Games business: sign up for free here: https://forms.aweber.com/form/54/1325077854.htm   This newsletter instalment follows a recent edition where we looked at 3 ‘old skool’ retail concepts which are still critical to success in Toy retail today. If you haven’t read that instalment, you can read it here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/23toy-retail-three-old-school-fundamental-practises-which-steve-re ..read more

Ep 103: Why Product Selection Is Critical For Toy Companies (AKA Why I Turned Down Settlers of Catan) This is the script used for recording Episode 103 of our PLAYING AT BUSINESS podcast. If you prefer to listen to the podcast instead of reading it, you can just click here: https://playingatbusiness.libsyn.com/why-product-selection-is-critical-for-toy-companies-aka-why-i-turned-down-settlers-of-catan · Hello and welcome to Episode 103 of the Playing at Business podcast. · I’m your host Steve Reece · For today’s podcast We’re going to take a look at Product Selection and why the process of sele ..read more

Global Toy Industry Q4 2023 Outlook: What’s Going On & Will Product Sell Through Retail This Q4? Sign up for my free e-newsletter and receive all the latest reports, analysis and insights on the Toy & Games business: sign up for free here: https://forms.aweber.com/form/54/1325077854.htm This newsletter instalment takes a look at what’s happening in the global Toy business as we head deeper into peak selling season. Also below is a link to my latest podcast episode looking at how Toy companies are bought & sold, how to go about selling your company and how to get the best possible p ..read more