parent (grandgrandparent.com), where he writes about the role of grandparents in the play category, in addition to leading workshops, panels, and focus groups to help businesses improve their grandparent customer strategy. Businesses need to pay attention to the specific interests and concerns of grandparents in order to benefit. “Try to put yourself in their shoes and remember that this is not a one-size-fits-all market segment,” Bildsten says. “Grandparents can be modern and affluent or nostalgic and frugal, for example. What they have in common is that they all care about kids.” He divulges some tips on how businesses can pay better attention to the grandparent factor: “1. Recognize that grandparents are a specific and considerable component of your revenue stream; 2. Accept that there are many sub-components of the grandparent category; 3. Develop a plan to communicate with these segments; and 4. Realize that you need them — and they need you.” Don’t underestimate the power of grandparent shoppers because it’s a customer base that’s not going anywhere. 26
THE TOY BOOK | MAY/JUNE 2019 | toybook.com
That's what grandparents want with their grandchildren; they want that magical, special event.
“Our over-60 population is a growing share of the general population, and that trend will continue,” Bildsten says. “However, I’d suggest that rather than being a growth spurt, it’s more that we are now starting to pay better attention to the grandparent factor and are in the early days of doing a better job as an industry of quantifying that activity.” Bildsten will address more strategies to reach grandparent customers at ASTRA’s Marketplace & Academy in Pittsburgh this June. Although it plays a huge role, it’s not solely the in-store experience that grandparents are after. Grandparents’ internet spending is growing greater than any other toy-purchasing group, with the online channel increasing more than two times
faster for grandparents compared with the rest of the market, according to the NPD Group. Grandparents are willing to dish out more money on the web, spending 3.5 times more per toy online than they do in store. This is significant for specialty stores to note because it means having an online presence is equally important as those in-store special touches. Not all grandparents have local grandchildren that they can spend the day with at a toy store, so giving them the option to shop online is another tool that businesses can use to their advantage. Toy trends come and go, but grandparents never go out of style. » Jacqueline Cucco is an associate editor at Adventure Publishing Group. She writes for the Toy Book, the Toy Insider, and the Pop Insider, and is in charge of all things Instagram. When she’s not watching slime videos, you can find her playing paparazzi for her pet bunny Peepers (@thebigpeep on Instagram).