COLUMN ONE : Playing It Smart in Toyland : Parents--and children--are buying the idea that learning is fun. Holiday sales of software, quiz games and ant farms are surging, buoyed by a backlash against violence and ailing schools.
They rang sleigh bells and handed out miniature body bags along with buttons declaring, “No War Toys.” But the motley collection of activists who mounted holiday protests at toy stores in the 1980s were virtually ignored.
“It was very frustrating,” recalls Stevanne Auerbach, a San Francisco psychologist and toy militant who answers the phone “Dr. Toy.” “We couldn’t sustain that movement. It wasn’t a popular message, and we were swimming against the tide.”
Today, however, Dr. Toy is absolutely buoyant as she surveys a holiday shopping scene marked by strong demand for learning toys, a retail and public backlash against violent toys and a proliferation of store chains with monikers such as TeachSmart, Store of Knowledge and Noodle Kidoodle.
“The tide is turning,” Auerbach proclaims.
The hottest toys this season are still the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the latest incarnation of a perpetual wish-list favorite: the shoot-em-dead, beat-em-to-a-pulp plaything.
Yet, the popular television program on which the Power Rangers are based has come under fire in a number of countries, including Sweden and Canada, where complaints about violence have prompted official scrutiny. And there is persuasive evidence that American parents--bombarded with crime-laden news reports and worried about deteriorating schools--are demanding more toys designed to encourage learning and creativity.
These demands--backed by robust numbers--are reshaping the marketing strategies of retailers and manufacturers.
So, while retail giants Toys R Us and KayBee stores cite recent shooting tragedies to explain why they quit selling realistic toy guns, the fact is that sales have cooled in the past few years, says industry analyst Jill Krutick. While overall toy sales were flat last year, nationwide sales of play guns tumbled by 24%.
In the past four years, learning toys in general have made a dramatic leap. Sales in the construction category, which has seen an explosion of new entries, have surged by 22%. The value of construction toy shipments to retailers climbed from $186 million in 1989 to $326 million in 1993.
In the same period, shipments of cardboard puzzles rose from $80 million to $103 million; electronic learning aids went from $132 million to $175 million, and art supplies, such as crayons and drawing sets, jumped from $172 million in 1989 to $370 million.
These are the kind of signals that merchants understand far better than protesters’ complaints.
Indeed, as consumer demand for more educational gifts surges, even mainstream retailers are scrambling to rearrange their shelves.
Toys R Us this year launched sections called Books R Us. And Target stores this holiday season have expanded sales space for construction toys by 50%, increased the space for electronic learning aids by 40% and broadened the assortment of learning-oriented board games.
“We expect a significant sales increase in these categories,” says Dave Clark, the Target vice president in charge of toys. “People are more interested in gifts for the mind, and we want to be smart enough to offer what they want.”
Sheree Newman, an Orange County mother of four, is one of those parents. She recently bought books, puzzles and nature-study kits for her children, ages 2 to 16.
“I don’t buy a gift unless it has educational value,” she says. “My kids don’t have Power Ranger toys and they don’t watch the Power Rangers television show.”
Like Newman, most Americans believe certain toys and games can have a positive effect on children, according to a new study by EDK Forecast, a newsletter that tracks consumer attitudes. In a nationwide poll of 500 parents, 82% said children who play with educational toys tend to do better in school.
Such beliefs are well-founded, says Karen Shanor, a Washington, D.C., psychologist who has lectured on the benefits of learning-oriented toys. Shanor said many child psychologists have concluded that educational playthings build competence, inspire creativity and promote independent thought.
“In a sense, playtime is a serious matter because children are rehearsing for lesson-learning that should continue the rest of their lives,” Shanor said. “More and more parents are beginning to understand that.”
Specialty stores that cater to learning-oriented parents and children are springing up or expanding across the nation.
Newman shops at what has become a prime example of the robust new market: KCET Store of Knowledge Inc. After opening its first store in Glendale in April, it has added three more in Southern California. The fledgling chain is about to open 24 stores in 10 other cities in the next two years.
The chain is backed by the Los Angeles venture capital firm of Riordan, Lewis and Hadan, formerly headed by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, which owns one-third. KCET-TV, the Los Angeles public broadcasting affiliate, which uses air time and mailings to promote the retail operation, owns one-third. The rest is held by Lakeshore Learning Materials, a Carson company specializing in educational school supplies.
As it expands, the company will work with local PBS affiliates, which will own 25% of stores in their areas.
Typical of the new breed of specialty chains, Store of Knowledge sells science kits, books, construction sets, puzzles, learning-oriented board games and recreational software that is also educational.
It also sells items linked to public broadcasting--videotapes of some PBS programs, such as “Sesame Street.”
The tie between PBS and the “smart toy” movement is, of course, long and strong. In fact, the federal grant that launched the seminal “Sesame Street” series was approved in 1969 by a U.S. Department of Education official named Stevanne Auerbach.
Meanwhile, some of the veterans of learning-oriented retailing--for example, the 7-year-old Mind Construction and the 4-year-old Learningsmith--are expanding rapidly.
Learningsmith, which also has business associations with some PBS stations, expects sales to reach $40 million this year, more than double last year’s total. The Boston-based company added 14 stores this year and now has 25 in eight states, including three in Southern California.
It was wall-to-wall shoppers over the Thanksgiving weekend at Learningsmith in South Coast Plaza, where preschoolers stood in line to try out educational software at the store’s bank of computers.
Unlike many traditional toy stores, many specialty chains whet children’s appetites by allowing them to sample the merchandise. For example, Imaginarium, a chain that caters to younger children, leaves demonstration toys on tables or floors. On busy days, an Imaginarium can resemble a kindergarten play room.
Retailers say this marketing technique allows children to have a hand in the selection, a hedge against an educational toy gathering dust from non-use.
TeachSmart, based in the Dallas area, opened its first store in May and already has five stores in three states--Texas, Florida and Arizona. The company plans 30 more stores in the next two years, some in California.
TeachSmart’s president, Jim Berk, says demand for educational computer software accounts for much of his early success. Each store offers about 800 titles; 30% of them are suitable for children younger than 5, Berk says.
Then there’s Noodle Kidoodle in New York state, Toys & Treasures in South Dakota, Building Blocks in New Jersey and two chains in Pennsylvania--Boomers and Zany Brainy.
The smart-toy genre finished higher than ever on this holiday season’s toy industry surveys. Duracell batteries’ annual forecast, which is based on the views of analysts and manufacturers, predicts that educational and construction toys will be among the hottest categories this Christmas. (Action figures and dolls will be the other top categories.)
“The construction toy rage will continue this season because parents are looking for toys that offer real hands-on learning,” says Jodi Levin, a spokeswoman for the New York-based Toy Manufacturers of America.
Levin says construction kits with the well-known Lego label and newer entries such as K’nex, a color-coded set introduced last year, will be hot, a forecast that sales clerks say was borne out over the Thanksgiving weekend. And industry analysts see a revival of vintage offerings such as Erector sets, Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys.
Mary Kerins of Havertown, Pa., is among the growing number of parents buying toys designed to combine fun and learning. Kerins and her husband, Michael, have two boys--Michael, 6, and Danny, 9.
The Kerins are so enthusiastic about K’nex that they have acquired about 7,500 pieces--more than four times the number found in one jumbo set. With their K’nex-smitten mother in tow, Michael and Danny recently used the pieces to build a playhouse that was 5 feet high and 6 feet wide.
“I like construction toys because I don’t need instructions. I can use my imagination to make things,” says Danny, who has taken some of his best creations to show off at school.
Construction kits aren’t the only toy category making a comeback. The retro surge also includes such chestnuts as chemistry sets and ant farms, retailers say. They are coexisting nicely on the shelves with higher technology items such as computer learning aids and software with animated characters that teach reading, writing and arithmetic.
Meanwhile, some new twists in board games are generating impressive sales. Mancala--an ancient Egyptian game requiring math skills--is making a comeback after thousands of years in obscurity. And The Allowance, in which players learn to manage play money, is fetching a lot of real-life dollars, retailers say.
The software program Math Blaster constructively indulges youngsters’ appetite for mayhem: It allows a player to blast dangerous and calculating space aliens only after math calculations are completed.
Toy experts say the market for learning-based toys already has been boosted this holiday season by dim prospects for video game equipment. Consumers are expected to shy away from that market because the industry’s two giants--Nintendo and Sega--will be introducing new game-playing technology next year.
“In the past, video games have taken sales away from certain segments of the toy market--board games, for example,” says Frank Reysen, editor of New York-based Playthings magazine. “Parents are not satisfied with school system performance and are looking for ways to supplement the learning process. . . .
“This year,” he says, “some of the dollars normally spent on video hardware will be used to buy non-electronic toys or to buy electronic learning toys.”
