Q&A
Mattel
Winning ways Despite the gloom that settled over much of the toy industry last year, Mattel emerged from 2019 with a spring in its step and plenty of good news to share. Toy World sat down with Michael Hick, UK & Ireland sales & country manager, and Pauline de la Riviere, marketing director, to understand how it bucked the trend.
How did Mattel fare in the ‘interesting’ trading conditions we experienced in 2019? Michael Hick: If we go back a little further, 2018 was quite transformative for Mattel. We made several changes to the team and overhauled the way we invest in retailers and brands. Rather than just spreading our bets, we started focusing more on select areas which promised the biggest return on investment. We also significantly upskilled our teams in several areas. The combination of these new approaches resulted in a very strong 2019 for Mattel. We wanted to help grow the toy market this year, but instead we’ve taken a large share of a declining category. As a manufacturer, Mattel has moved from No. 4 to No. 2, which is nice but wasn’t what we set out to do. Our aim was to invest heavily in the category, growing our brands and delivering higher footfall and traffic to retailers, ultimately becoming part of the resulting growth story. As you’ve alluded to, 2019 was one of the toughest years we’ve seen for the industry, with expectations for the year being way off what has actually ended up happening. It’s certainly been a very interesting few months.
What brands have been the biggest success stories for you over the past year? Pauline de la Riviere: Our whole portfolio has been performing well. Barbie’s 60th anniversary in 2019 was a major growth driver for the brand, which benefitted from a high volume of media coverage and awareness, and we also saw double digit growth for Hot Wheels. Fisher Price’s performance is improving all the time in a category that is undergoing huge declines, and Mega continues to grow too. Toy Story was a massive hit for us thanks to the hugely positive reception to the fourth instalment of the Disney Pixar franchise. In addition, Pictionary Air was the best-selling game title in the weeks leading
up to Christmas, and was difficult to keep in stock. We couldn’t believe how strong the reaction to the game was. Michael: We took maybe 10 strategic decisions last year, and you know how it goes; four usually don’t pay off and everything ends up hinging on the success of the other six. However, in a rare turn of events, all 10 came off for us. As Pauline mentioned, Pictionary Air Michael Hick has been huge. We haven’t been a massive player in the Games category to date, but Pictionary Air marked the start of us taking it far more seriously, and we’re delighted with the results so far.
Were there any stand-out bright spots in 2019 In terms of the overall retail market? Michael: With our retailers, as well as our licensing partners including Disney, Universal and WWE, we’ve gone into listening mode. We’re hearing what they want from us, what we’ve done well in the past - and where we need to improve. We’re also making a concerted effort to understand each retailer’s consumer base, so that when we visit them, we can go with a specific, individualised joint business plan that’s relevant to that particular business. Using a one-size-fitsall approach across a variety of retailers won’t work. We’ve grown with virtually all our retail partners; it’s not just one single brand or one individual retailer we’re seeing success with. Our aspiration is to be the first vendor that retailers pick up the phone to, but there are of course others in the way of that call. We need to work towards strategic alignment with key retailers to
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Pauline de la Riviere place ourselves top of that list, and I think we’re making good progress.
You talk about the shoppers’ needs; are there any areas of consumer attitude or behaviour that surprised you last year? Michael: The most surprising thing is how late everything is getting now. Black Friday week (week 48), versus the same week last year (which didn’t have Black Friday, in 2018 it fell in week 47) was only 2% up, according to NPD. This is supposed to be a major shopping week! Nowadays, Black Friday seems to serve more as a reminder to start your Q4 shopping. A lot of consumers seem to breeze through Black Friday itself and ignore all the marketing surrounding it. It’s also worth noting that it’s an event the press isn’t particularly kind to; Which? issued a report revealing that some of the ‘deals’ on offer were the same price as three months before. I think consumers are getting quite wise to it now. We’re keeping a close eye on how late things will continue to get. Retailers and manufacturers in the supply chain network need a few weeks’ leeway to work through the system and get