State of the Industry Simha Kumar, President, Sports and Fitness, Children’s Entertainment, Sears Holdings How are you engaging consumers in-store to drive sales? Kmart is focused on offering the most-desired toys—affordably and conveniently. We feature top licensed toys and hundreds of Kmart exclusives— whether purchasing in-store, buying online and picking up in-store, or having them shipped directly home. Our engagement approach has featured compelling, creative promotions and offers that resonate with our members and customers. Some recent holiday examples included leveraging our popular Fab 15 list of the season’s hottest toys and offering special incentives like free two-day shipping for six months via the Shop Your Way Max program with the online purchase of any Fab 15 toy. Members could also enter a Shop Your Way sweepstakes to win all 15 of the Fab 15 toys, and the annual Kmart holiday toy catalog carried a broad selection of on-trend toys for all ages and stages and featured hundreds of deals and coupons via the online version. How do you differentiate your toy department from the average retail toy department? Kmart features hundreds of exclusive toys, including the WWE 31-inch John Cena action figure, My Little Pony, Holiday Barbie, and more. In addition, we drive added value via our exclusive brands, such as Just Kidz. Our Shop Your Way program is another key point of differentiation. It’s free to join and members get access to special deals, early access to sales, and the ability to earn points and redeem them on future purchases. We’ve also established Kmart as a leading integrated retailer, providing the right mix of toys available in store, online, and via mobile.
58 • THE TOY BOOK
Paul Solomon, Co-CEO, Moose Toys In what new way are you using social media to correspond directly with consumers? The popularity of toy unboxing videos on YouTube has given Moose the opportunity to reach more consumers on platforms other than TV. Moose has seen first-hand how social media allows consumers to engage more directly with our products. For example, Moose garnered more than 11 million views from our animated Shopkins webisodes. We are constantly creating new content for fans to enjoy, which deepens the brand experience. Our webisodes encourage consumers to create their own character stories and share via social media. When fans become brand advocates, they create their own content. The 1.2 million Shopkins videos on YouTube are testament to that. Which toy categories do you expect to expand in 2015? Which do you expect to contract? We will continue to grow in the girls’ category and we are excited to expand the electronic pet category. With Little Live Pets, we will introduce 13 new pet items in 2015. While cute and cuddly will continue to be well-represented in the brand, we think kids are ready to embrace interactive pets from all creepy, crawly walks of life. Expect new technology to bring these pets to life in 2015. What categories were driving sales in 2014? What categories will flourish this year? In 2014, Moose Toys had a breakout year in the U.S. market, becoming a true competitor in multiple toy aisles. We experienced our greatest growth in the girls’ and electronic pet categories with Shopkins and Little Live Pets driving sales. We are especially proud of how our homegrown brands thrived in a year dominated by girl toys attached to a major motion picture-licensed property (brrrr). At Moose, we love creative freedom and we take great pride in our development process, producing toys with wonderful character personalities, amazingly detailed designs, and the latest technology.
FEBRUARY 2015