Grandparents are fueling toy marketing
February 23rd, 2007Toy industry marketers are starting to realize their most important revenue growth in the years ahead will come from high-spending Boomer grandparents. That means they will need to get much smarter and more creative about reaching this 
most important target market. Right now, the industry’s sales are flat, according to NPD Group research released at the American International Toy Fair earlier this month. Meanwhile, BrandWeek noted that successful marketing campaigns “are shifting to preschool, which is one way of getting baby boomers to part with their cash.”
“Marketing to grandparents is huge,” said Jill Bazos, vp-marketing at Sababa Toys, which showed a vintage-inspired Classic Fisher-Price toy line designed to lure boomer buyers along with its classic-games-with-a-twist. “First, grandparents are young — Goldie Hawn is a grandparent — they have a lot of money, a lot of time, they are online and want to spoil their grandkids. People are getting older, older.”
The Grandparent Marketing Group pegs annual spending by grandparents on grandchildren at $50 billion—numbers that are sure to grow as more Boomers age into grandparenthood. Their interesting market statistics are here.
November 17th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I have been researching information about toys made in the USA for some time now. Through that research I also discovered the desire of grandparents to provide their grandchildren with the joy of toys they remember from their own childhood. This is indeed an untapped market. However, the recent recalls for toys has awakened the desire for basic, quality, handcrafted toys that have been made for years here in the USA.