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of Bryony Bouyer ’86 From Charlton College marketing major to keeper of Hasbro’s global brand
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rowing up as a child in Jamaica, There was a real emotional connection to Bumblebee, the Bryony Bouyer was accustomed character most associated with Shia LaBeouf’s role. My youngest to creating her own daughter had stopped playing with dolls a couple of years before games. With limited this movie was released, and she was very interested in a Bumblebee access to manufactured toys, action figure. I was intrigued to see how the movie crossed over she and her friends would make different genders. It certainly affected my thoughts on the their own toys, including a version brand’s marketability,” said Bouyer. “UMass Dartmouth of “Keep Away” using a ball that was Similar to one of the brands made of an orange juice container stuffed that she so successfully markets, provided me with a with newspaper. It wasn’t until age nine that Bouyer Bouyer’s meteoric rise has been was first exposed to a board game and learned to play transformational in its own right. very practical education. At Monopoly at the home of a neighbor who received the age 13, she and her parents moved game from a U.S. relative. from Jamaica to Cambridge, MA. It was the first time “I played jacks and had dolls growing up, but After she graduated from Cambridge Monopoly was fascinating to me. It was the first time Rindge and Latin, she came to that I was challenged that I saw a game with so many pieces organized UMass Dartmouth, finishing a to create my own to create another world where you could play. It semester early by doubling up really appealed to me,” said Bouyer, who majored in on classes. “I was very impatient business.” marketing at the Charlton College of Business. and wanted to finish,” Bouyer Today, Bryony Bouyer is the Senior Vice President of said. “I liked school and thought —Bryony Bouyer ’86 Franchise Development and Marketing at Hasbro, the that UMass had the right mix of company that has established powerful global brands such students, professors and classes, but as Transformers, Playskool, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and yes, I was anxious to get my degree.” Monopoly. In her role, she leads her team to determine long-term “UMass Dartmouth provided me with a very practical global licensing programs for key consumer products categories education. It was the first time that I was challenged to create such as apparel, footwear, home goods and party goods. my own business and write an advertisement. I was also exposed to “Strategically, we always strive to understand key consumer the process of collaborative projects, which is how most successful insights, our vision for the brands and the most appropriate companies operate. Hasbro is a matrix organization—it is categories that will maximize their DNA,” said Bouyer. impossible to work and be successful without collaboration. Many “Hasbro is not a company that is in it for the short term; smart people fail because they don’t know how to collaborate.” instead, we are building long-term franchises. As was the case Shortly after graduating, Bouyer began working at Reebok for the first Transformers movie, we worked to carefully and and at age 22 was promoted to lead their Walking Division. She strategically launch the right amount of products vs. flooding continued to rise through Reebok before Hasbro hired her— the market. It is sometimes better to leave the consumer and just six days before giving birth to her first child—and it was retailer wanting to see more.” this gesture of commitment that really caught Bouyer’s attention. Although there are many Hasbro brands to license, the “I was very impressed that Hasbro was willing to hire me development of the Transformers movies has made that brand while I was pregnant,” she said. “They sent a strong message an especially hot commodity for licensing. The series is arguably to me about the value system of the company. We work very one of Hasbro’s most successful ventures, and the third film, hard, but Hasbro is also very family and community oriented.” Transformers: Dark of the Moon, will be released on July 1. Much has changed over the past few years and Bouyer’s With the first two Transformers movies grossing more than $1.5 efforts to license established successful brands allow her to billion internationally, box office expectations are high and the think and act more strategically about Hasbro's approach. opportunities for licensing are plentiful, but a conversation with Prior to the release of the first Transformers movie in 2007, Bouyer will occasionally re-focus on the story line of the movie Hasbro and Bouyer spent considerable time convincing and how the brand is perceived at its most basic level. retailers that the Transformers brand had far ranging appeal. “When the first Transformers movie was released, I took This hard work reaped benefits for both the company and my two daughters and a friend—ages 13, 15 and 17—to see Bouyer whose creative marketing has helped propel Hasbro the film, and while I expected that they would enjoy it, I was forward— a fascinating twist of fate for the young woman surprised by how much the characters appealed to the girls. who created her own games as a child.
UMass Dartmouth Magazine
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