Had to take oldest to school this morning and needed to kill half an hour before another store opened, so I went to WalMart. Picked up a few things from the toys aisle, including the POC Cobra Ice Cutter. As I was walking away from the Joes display, I noticed the lady heading the other way was wearing a black polo shirt with the Joes' "screaming eagle" logo. Hmm, thinks I, a pretty serious fan. Well, until I realized the satchel she was carrying had "HASBRO" embroidered on it!!
Yes, my friends, I had come face to face with an honest-to-the-Maker Hasbro market rep!! She knew her toys *and* her Star Wars, so we had a very good conversation.
We talked toys for weeeeeell over an hour - more like an hour and a half. I learned quite a bit - or, more accurately, had quite a few suspicions confirmed - and was able to share with her a few things. She was totally unaware of the existence of customizers! I made sure to mention ISY, of course. I also expressed the community-wide disappointment over the reduction and disappearance of "pack-ins," particularly the BAD line. I suggested some figures *I* would love to see. We discussed the whole casting process and customizing. I mentioned some of the results - photo-novels/illustrated stories and minor characters - that drive customizing. I shared with her the sentiment that "GI Joe is the best thing to happen to SW toy customizing." I also - repeatedly - stressed my/the community's appreciation of Hasbro's efforts to create and deliver products that are in general the best on the market *and* Hasbro's willingness to listen to the fans thru the "fan-choice" competitions and the Q&A sessions. We may disagree over the choices they make of which mold of a figure to re-issue or which figure to make or how to package it - but other than the GI Joe figures, SW figs beat out every other figure line I've looked at for consistent quality.
Some interesting points:
- Hasbro's leading seller? Their boys' action figures lines. Their girl lines and boy non-action-figure lines pale in comparison.
- The driving SW fig demographic? Us "old farts."
- TCW figure sales are strong. Sadly.
- Hasbro has nothing to do with the price we pay at the retail level. (I didn't bother arguing the point there, but I do have a LOT of college hrs in ECON.)
- She doesn't understand the logic involved in picking the "legends" re-issues any more than we do.
- She has a talking Yoda doll that she loves.
So all in all, it was a very good discussion and hopefully I was able to give her some good insights she can take back to her boss in Marketing as to what the end-users are interested in seeing. She said she didn't normally encounter consumers as knowledgeable - I suggested "articulate" and she grinned without further comment - about the products as I was.
So it was a very interesting visit. I doubt one customer in one backwater area talking to a single Hasbro marketing rep will make anything more than tiny ripples, but you never know.
