explain the case in detail: Chapter 5: Consumer Behaviour

Playright Toys Limited

Quite honestly I dont think we need to do a lot of formal research on this. I mean, just think about it. Simple: parents buy toys for their kids. They walk through a toy store, look around, grab something, pay for it, and get out of there. In most families in Canada today both parents are working. They dont have time for much more than grab and run. I dont think there is anything more to it.

Janet looked sceptically at Kate, her manager, who had spoken these words. Janet was not so sure that Kate was right, but she lacked solid information to argue further.

Janet Ling and Kate Rosselini constituted the marketing team at the newly formed Playright Toys Limited. Until a few weeks ago Playright was a division of a much larger company. About a year ago the owner decided that Playright Toys did not fit well with the companys core business and began looking for a way to spin it off. The division manager, Abraham Beaton, was subsequently successful in buying Playright with the assistance of a venture capitalist. He was now the majority shareowner and president. Intent on driving the toy business much more aggressively than the previous owner, Abraham hired Janet and Kate away from a competitor as soon as he assumed ownership of the division. His immediate directive to them was to improve the performance of the baby toy product line.

Janet and Kate had worked together at Playrights competitor for three years. They knew each other well, respected each others marketing expertise, and worked effectively as a team. Kates strength was her disciplined strategic thinking; her decisions around marketing strategy consistently yielded exemplary results. Janets background was in psychology, and she excelled in understanding the nuances of what made consumers behave as they did. At their previous employer they had marketed toys targeted to children aged nine to twelve years. Baby toys were new to them. However, both women believed that, although marketing to much younger children would be somewhat different, their respective skills made them fully capable of developing a successful marketing strategy for baby toys.

Aside from a few conversations concerning the business in general, this was their first meeting in which they were having a hard look at the available information and attempting to obtain at least a preliminary idea of the work ahead of them. Both believed that a careful analysis of the purchase behaviour of their customer base would yield substantial insights regarding how to improve the baby toy product line. At this meeting they began to focus on the purchase behaviour of parents, the primary buyers of baby toys. Although grandparents, family friends, and so on bought toys too, parents purchased 80% of all baby toys.

Playright was aptly named: all the toys that the company marketed had an educational component to them. The baby toys, in particular, were positioned as babys first lessons, and, based on the review that Kate had completed to-date, she believed that working parents, usually the mothers, already had a vague notion of what they were looking for when they entered a store. This, she surmised, did not necessarily mean an active search for information, but rather a passive collection of bits and pieces of information in the course of daily living. Once in the baby section of a toy store, they would scan the shelves for the kind of toy that met their needs. For example, if they thought their child needed more practice developing manual dexterity, they would look for something on the package that alerted them to that benefit. There was, in her opinion, little else to the process. This had, of course, clear marketing implications: Playrights focus had to be at the store level right where parents were making their decisions.

Although Janet was willing to believe that some parents operated this way, her sense was that, for the large majority of parents, there was a great deal more to it than what Kate was describing. She had not put a great deal of thought into the purchase behaviour of parents yet, and this meeting with Kate had caught her a little flat-footed. However, she did immediately think of several relevant issues which, she suspected, Kate had not yet considered.

Yes, parents are busy these days, but they are also increasingly conscientious some would say obsessed about their childrens intellectual development. Youve heard the stories, Kate: things like teaching their one-year old how to read. I bet parents are doing a lot more research on effective parenting than they used to do, and they are walking into stores with a lot of opinions already formed about exactly what they should be looking for. If I have understood you correctly, you are thinking that we should emphasize the importance of packaging in our marketing strategy because parents will be learning about Playright for the first time in the store. I disagree. They will enter the store, already armed with a great deal of completed research and evaluations.

Janet went on, I really think we need to understand where and how they are forming their ideas about what to buy. Let me give you an example: we know that someone is taking care of those babies when both parents are at work. Dont you think that parents notice what toys their children are playing with when they pick them up at the daycare centre?

Kate responded, My point is that the parents are too preoccupied with a million other things to pay too much attention. I am sure I am right: a toy purchase is not a long involved process for most parents. It is a quick in-and-out-of-the-store kind of thing. Very little thought goes into the purchase before they enter the store, and very little thought goes into it after they leave.

Janet persisted. Kate, all the evidence points to the fact that parents today are more worried about their childrens future than they ever were when we were kids. I know what you are going to say: that does not necessarily mean that they are spending more time thinking about, and shopping for, baby toys. Alright. Here is one more thing to think about, though: you have implied that parents just go out and buy whatever they think is best for little Johnny, based on a quick in-store evaluation of their own. In addition to the other points I have made, I also think they consult, in a manner of speaking, with Johnny, too. That is, it is not just a case of what the parent thinks is best, but also of what Johnny thinks is best, too.

Kate was annoyed. You are telling me that Johnny, who cannot even form words yet, is telling Mommy what to buy? Okay, okay, we have a real difference of opinion here. Lets resolve it: sketch out what you think is the parents decision process with respect to the purchase of baby toys. If you can present convincing arguments, then Ill go along with it, and well develop our marketing strategy from there.