I have a friend who works in marketing for a toy company. She has been telling me about how bad sales have been over the past few years. The Baby Boom Echo is aging out of the toy market, which means there are simply fewer children. Her company is trying to expand their market to teens and adults. I believe that AG is trying to do this as well with their attempt to brand non-doll products and their failed GOML line.

I was thinking that AG might be able to expand their market just by marketing some of their existing items as a "Collector's Line" and putting an age recommendation of say 10 - adult on it. Items such as Felicity's party treats and Kaya's jingle dress come to mind.

I think that one of the effects of such a marketing strategy would be that they might be able to hang onto their pre-teen market a bit longer. Girls, particularly pre-teens, emulate older girls. Just by changing the recommended age on a line of products, sends the message to pre-teens that teens still collect AG. It also encourages teens and young adults to continue to collect AG without "losing face." They can tell people, " Oh, these aren't toys. This is the 'AG Collector Line.' " It also wouldn't hurt sales to younger girls, because as soon as you mark a higher age recommendation on something, younger kids want it. Parents are always buying above their child's age recommendation because all parents believe that their child is smarter and more mature than the average child. (Raise your hand if you have a child under 8 with AG stuff).

*edited for grammer and spelling

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 08, 2005 11:47 AM: Message edited by: ubarose ]</font>