By Christie Nicholas

Walk into any toy department and you will see on shelves a mix of two types of kids brands; ones that have been around since you were growing up – the evergreens, and then there are the ones that will disappear faster than you can say ‘June/July Toy Cats’. 

The great thing about the traditional evergreen brands like Lego, Meccano, Megabloks, Thomas, Barbie, Playdoh, is that they withstand the test of time.  They are reliable. They are nostalgic.  Year after year, parents will invest in them because they have fond memories of them growing up. Gift givers will invest in them because they are familiar with the brand and know they are a ‘safe bet’.  Buyers will invest in these brands in economic uncertainty because they are the less risky choice.  And kids always want them because they ‘just get it’.

Technology, the fact that kids are growing up faster, societal trends, disposable everything at our fingertips will probably sku the notion and definition of an evergreen over the years to include any brand that is still standing after a much shorter window of time.  But for now, the features and functionality of the evergreen products have something in common; they are easy, engaging and reliable.  They are normally based on an existing play pattern and can stand out without any bells and whistles associated with a new movie release or use of fad language; “LOL, KWIM besties”?  And they have been around for a really long time.

It takes years of brand survival to determine if a product or brand is an evergreen and many marketers battle with the process of creating an evergreen product at development stage, versus turning a brand into an evergreen over time.  Do you put the money towards the pre-development of the product to ensure it has all the great characteristics on an ever green? Or do you create a whiz bang brand/product and pump the dollars post-launch to (hopefully) make it successful for years, or decades to come? Do you do both? Is an evergreen product the result of luck? Timing? Marketing genius?

It’s no doubt, a hard to obtain, elusive combination of everything – which is why we all know of the same dozen or so brands that have withstood the test of time, but collectively we could think of hundreds that didn’t last the distance.  The other thing with most evergreens is that they don’t try to re-invent the wheel. They identify a play-pattern and figure out how to enhance that experience in the most engaging way possible for the consumer, who they understand so well – another critical part of the process.

A significant first step of investing in a new brand would be to determine your objective for the brand.  Perhaps you don’t necessarily want the evergreen.  You might want to focus on seasonal, highly trending, and often lucrative products that you know will come and go and leave you with a nice injection of short-term funds in the process.  There is still a great demand for these products.

This is because kids are a highly fickle bunch these days.   They are exposed to many extra brand messages than ever before, their parents can afford to buy them more than previous generations, and their expectations and demands have also increased.  Children normally chop and change and pump their pocket money from one trending toy to another before they often return ‘home’ to a bevy of Barbies and bricks of Lego; the easy, reliable, familiar play activities they know and trust.   Well, that is until the bells and whistles distract them again.

Fortunately to succeed in this industry, it’s good to know that there is a place for evergreens as much as there is a place for trending brands – you just need to figure out where you want to be and be the best of the lot.  No pressure.

Characteristics of a traditional evergreen product:

• Suits the needs of the established end user
• Easy to understand/explain
• Doesn’t need bells and whistles, i.e. Licensing, GWP
• Has the ‘stickiness’ factor
• Based on established play pattern, i.e. building, role play, molding, collecting
• Engaging for kids and sometimes adults too
• Successful over the years
• Reliable

This article first appeared in Toy & Hobby Retailer – Yaffa Publishing