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Posted May 8, 2009 Hasbro is an entertainment company that makes toys and movies. Hasbro 2.0 is the new model of what a toy company can be, or perhaps the new model of what an entertainment company can be. They are no longer a toy company. They have gotten into the movie making business based on Transformers, GI Joe, and other properties they own, and are starting their own cable TV channel, as well. They are not looking to inventors like us for new lines of products. In general, they don’t need and don’t want new lines. Thankfully, they need new items to fill their existing lines, but those are smaller opportunities, and these fillers will be replaced yearly. Certainly this must mean opportunity for smaller toy companies who will find a new type of product to break into the marketplace, perhaps grow, and if successful, be acquired by one of the big toy companies, who became big largely by acquiring many smaller companies. This will not be the future of the toy industry, as this model cannot be adopted by many other toy companies, not having the established brand entities on which to build an entertainment empire. But it will have an impact on other toy companies and the industry as a whole. The toy business has always been one of fad and fashion, a leader in bringing new technology to consumer products, marked by a high level of innovation and product turnover. It has always been an exciting industry. But change is certainly afoot, and change brings opportunity. Opportunity riding the dangerous wind. Perhaps we are no longer the Toy Industry at all, but the “Children’s consumer entertainment product” industry. It is time to look at redefining who we are and what we are in the context of society. We do not want to be the turn-of-the-century buggy whip makers missing an opportunity by failing to define ourselves in broad enough terms.
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Ramin