1. IntroductionToys R Us business is one of the worlds leading retailers of branded and unbranded toys, children’s clothing and baby products. During all the bankruptcy and closures of stores, Toys R Us has always remained a well-known store. Even with the losses suffered from competitors like Amazon, the brand still holds sentimental value for many, all over the world, and I feel that these will be key to relaunching the brand in Australia. This report will outline an assessment on TRU re-entering the market place by determining a new marketing strategy.
2. Strategya) Marketing Objectives:- Target the right market: Toys R Us should reenter the market place across gaming toys and baby goods products. TRU, already has developed a great brand, they have a great chance of selling goods if they can identify the correct markets and current demographics out there. Yes, TRU’s market share has been targeted by the competitor in the time that they have been out, I believe that with an effective marketing strategy in place, they could reclaim its core customer again and win back some of the toy and baby market out there.
– Introduce new product and innovation: The toy and game industry is predicted to grow in the next 5 years and consumer demand for the latest innovative toys just grows rapidly. Competition is still a factor and online operations and competitors would have to be apart of their strategy. Review to their product line would be key and more focus on what is attracting our population and how is the major market segmented.
Online toy shopping is also becoming an easier trend (Lisa Bannon ” Oct 2000) for shoppers. Market segmentation graph (Figure 1 IBISWorld, 2019) shows that 45% market share is based on age group 35-54. People find online shopping a saving grace in the rush of life and this has to an option for TRU’s comeback. Figure 1(IBISWorld, 2019).- Strengthen your Brand and relationship with customers: Many businesses tend to focus on attaining new customers and growing their brand but have never stopped to focus on current customer base and what is already been created as your brand. I have learnt that brand is the entire customer experience from the way the product was purchased, be it online or in a store, to the way you felt making the purchase and how you felt as a customer after the transaction (Amy Hand-Feb 2011). Objective for TRU, should be to focus on customer and business relationship. b) Specific Target Markets:Segment one to focus on would be ages 35 to 45 (Refer to figure 1) Profile: Odessa Ward (very busy mum)Age: 38Key drivers to shop: Time and convenienceDescription: Odessa is a working mum with 2 beautiful kidsWhat is important to Odessa and how can Toys R Us market her?As Odessa is a full-time working mum with 2 kids, she has a steady income that allows her to spend comfortably on a few spoils for kids from time to time. Odessa also having two young children would have purchase toys not only for her kids, but also for her friends’ kids and for her kids’ friends. This age market has expanded over the last 5 years (Fig.1 IBISWorld, 2019), and due to this growth, the market for sale of toys and games has also grown. The demographics and psychographics point out that Odessa would require the help of Toys R Us to help her with an easy shopping experience that will service he lifestyle needs. Odessa would be seeking an online solution from Toy R Us to help her in her busy lifestyle. Segment two to focus – Traditional Toys and Games (Refer to figure 2) Figure 2(IBISWorld, 2019).Profile: Michelle Taylor Age: 37Key drivers to shop: Time and ConvenienceDescription: Michelle is a stay at home mum with a baby and 2 kids in Kinder.What is important to Michelle and how can Toys R Us market her?Toys R Us need to spend some time and focus on traditional toys and games and give them a face lift when relaunching in Australia. This segment has declined in the last 5 years (IBISWorld, 2019) and this is due to the increase sales in electronic gadgets and interactive products. TRU needs to help focus on making Michelle’s life easier instore, as her lifestyle could have potential cash and help restrains, and being limited with help to mind her kids, she’s having to take them into store with her to shop. To make her experience more pleasant instore, TRU should introduce traditional items like Lego and give them and innovative position in store (example Lego building stations instore, or even introducing a movie area where mums can allow kids to view a movie, while she finishes off her shopping without any interruptions) c) Positioning Statement:Toys R Us will be targeting the market of ages 35 to 54, this is seen to be the major market. With a change in technology and innovation, the company will increase interaction with this range of customer and allow loyal customers that have always trusted the brand to renew their confidence in Toys R Us. 3. Tacticsa) Specific Marketing Tactics: Product Tactics: Toys R Us has always had the advantage of owning products that were well known brands. They have a good mix of product ranging from action figures to the great brands like Hot Wheels, Lego, Marvel and Disney. They were always associated with well-known tech brands like Nintendo and even X-box and PlayStation. The product and brand experience instore were always well embraced by all customers. TRU was known as a category killer (Flax-1989)Pricing Tactics: Unfortunately for TRU, their pricing was higher than other retailers like them. The same product was often found to be cheaper in other stores like K Mart and Target. Stores like K-Mart and Target also had other cheaper offerings for unbranded toys and even TRU’s Birthday cards selection was kept branded (at a cost), forcing mums to buy the gift at TRU and leaving the store to pick up an unbranded birthday card at another retailer, as the birthday gift package was becoming too expensive. When reentering the market TRU will have to focus and all sorts of demographics.Place Tactics: Location, location, location, is always crucial, even though Toys R Us had massive foot print stores, that contained large amounts of inventory and well stocked warehousing and they still ran into trouble, having to close 44 stores and around 700 staff were affected (Australia Toys R Us stores to close down 2018). With growth in Online opportunities, they will have to focus on this opportunity and maybe lessen their store footprint. Stores like Kmart and Target have established massive footprints in shopping centres, creating a risk for the comeback, but with the correct strategy, TRU can regain market share.Promotions and Communication Tactics: Toys R Us was known for being very brand savvy and constantly had promotions in store and really went big instore. Examples were when I worked at Hallmark and a new Spiderman movie was released we had to develop and bag design, card design and wrapping paper design to go with the promotion of the new figurines and product that had instore. Branding was always their strength and that is still well known about TRU by most consumers.SWOT Analysis 4. Conclusion:I think that Toys R Us has learnt some valuable lessons along the way, these lessons have taught them to take ownership of their already reputable brand and reintroduce themselves to the market with a focus on market demographics and more intelligent and operational strategy to last into the future.
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