Hasbro product and ratio release issues

[bowspearer]

hasbro australia really needs to get its sh-t together, sure we got jetwing prime but that doesn't mean it can ignore getting us the rest of the toyline.

Never going to happen- they're greedy to the point where they get stupid. If they were smart about it, they'd slightly understock the early waves to generate demand and leave room for later waves of stuff- especially when like with the movie line, Hasbro International leaves some of the more desirable stuff til the later part of the line.

I'm not sure of the problem is idiot retail buyers or an idiot Hasbro Australia Product Manager who just don't get the line at all. It's not like it's a minor or "young" toyline either so there's really no excuse for Hasbro and Australian retailers getting it so wrong for so long.

Alternately, perhaps the problem is that we actually have waves of figures where they double or even triple-pack certain figures....

[griffin]

It isn't correct (or fair) to call Hasbro greedy (or calling their product manager an idiot), as they are conducting business like any other in a capitalist environment. Their priority is to make money. Profit may be classed by some as greed, but if they weren't making a profit, they would be out of business, and we wouldn't have Transformers toys at all.

You need to attend the annual Toyfair to get an idea of how the distributor-retailer relationship works, and how retailers lock themselves into minimum stock quantities for the next 6-12 months, based on what *they* think kids & parents will like.
Retailers maybe need to do their own research or test-drive the products with kids first instead of being lazy and just relying on what the Distributors tell them will be popular.
The local branches of international toy distributors have their hands tied by what their head offices tell them they have to sell, and at what prices they are stuck with. As such, if retailers can't move stock, the local branch doesn't have much flexibility with prices or product range.
It's easy for us fans to target the local branch with complaints, but the bigger picture has a lot more players involved, and higher priorities than us fans.

[bowspearer]

It isn't correct (or fair) to call Hasbro greedy (or calling their product manager an idiot), as they are conducting business like any other in a capitalist environment. Their priority is to make money. Profit may be classed by some as greed, but if they weren't making a profit, they would be out of business, and we wouldn't have Transformers toys at all.

You need to attend the annual Toyfair to get an idea of how the distributor-retailer relationship works, and how retailers lock themselves into minimum stock quantities for the next 6-12 months, based on what *they* think kids & parents will like.
Retailers maybe need to do their own research or test-drive the products with kids first instead of being lazy and just relying on what the Distributors tell them will be popular.
The local branches of international toy distributors have their hands tied by what their head offices tell them they have to sell, and at what prices they are stuck with. As such, if retailers can't move stock, the local branch doesn't have much flexibility with prices or product range.
It's easy for us fans to target the local branch with complaints, but the bigger picture has a lot more players involved, and higher priorities than us fans.

Griffin, you completely missed the point I was making. Yes businesses are there to make money and no one should begrudge them that, but there is a difference in ensuring long-term profitability over a line and being so focused on wanting to make a quick buck to the point where long term sales in a line suffer.

Yes retailers lock themselves into an agreement, but at the end of the day it's upto the reps and product managers to inform the retailers to make the correct decision- that's the job of the reps, to inform the retailers so that they can make the correct decisions. Anyone who has worked more than 5 minutes in a more specialised form of retail (eg electrical retail) will tell you that that's what the reps are there for.

Retailer buyers aren't going to clog up their shelves with early waves if they know that "hot items" are waiting for them in later waves, so I would immediately question just how good of a job the Hasbro reps have been doing on this front, as this is a problem that has been going on for over a decade now.

If the reps aren't doing their job on that front then the buck for that arguably lies with the product managers.

So again, my point stands. Somewhere in there there, someone is dropping the ball and being so focused on the quick buck that they're harming their long term sales (ie being so greedy that they've gotten stupid about it).

[Hursticon]

I agree Griffin, but surely all parties involved can see that the models they've been pushing for so long aren't working - But in that same sense I guess the fact that they keep doing it must mean that it is working?
All I know is that one can always see mass amounts of shelf-warming, over inflated prices and missed opportunities with the brand in this country.
(Sure, we get the odd early release or exclusive but as a whole?)

I'm sure that kids nowadays move onto different things far quicker than in the past purely because they get bored with waiting for a new toy from their favourite franchise to show up in stores, but it never arrives and the parents very quickly get bored and fed-up with driving around all over the place looking for something that doesn't exist in this country.

Yes we collectors do tend to complain a bit, but I bet you there are quite a number of parents that feel not all too dissimilar and I feel that with the currently poor stocking tactics of Aussie Retail and it's Distributors, this could have a bad effect on the franchise's continued and sustained popularity.

Personally, I think the best thing we could do is educate as many people and parents as possible as to the far superior benefits of shopping and purchasing online, maybe and it's a big maybe, with enough business moving away from Brick and Mortars towards Online Sources the 'Old Guard' might eventually get it into their heads to start rethinking their approaches.

Being big Aussie Retail though, they'd more likely sell themselves off to Overseas owners or simply go into receivership before changing their ways.


*Main point: I want my bloody Soundwave figures!

[griffin]

As for the over-balanced assortment ratios - that's also Hasbro America's fault... and their major retailers (like Walmart) who dictate assortments.

Take a poll of regular parents or kids, or even collectors, as to which character they would buy first if they could only buy one toy (which is usually the limit of most kids & parents' budgets)... and I'd be imagining that over half would be prioritising Optimus or Bumblebee first because they are the main characters of the movie. Hasbro market research would have ascertained the same purchasing priorities with each movie, but perhaps failed to take into account that most people interested in TF3 were customers since TF2, so already had the main characters.

[bowspearer]

All I know is that one can always see mass amounts of shelf-warming

This was largely what I was getting at. The problem has been for years that the shelves have been swamped with initial waves and by the time everyone catches up, it's 4 or 5 waves later, meaning that countless sales get lost because items simply never materialise here.

The only thing that flooding the shelves results in is shelf-warmed toys that need to be sold at a drop in profits, and missed opportunities with high ticket items.

Retail buyers aren't stupid, and having worked under a former one in the past when I used to work at Bing Lee (he moved over into buying himself a few franchises instead), I can say that the good ones are pretty saavy.

Their job is to ensure that they're getting the stock in at the right levels to maximise profits.

The people they rely on for that info largely are product reps and product managers for the suppliers (whose job it is to push their products).

So again, if buyers are making poor choices, then the question needs to be asked about the quality of advice they're getting.

As for the over-balanced assortment ratios - that's also Hasbro America's fault... and their major retailers (like Walmart) who dictate assortments.

Which again is where the reps come in. They should be advising retailers of just where the overrings are and advising case assortments, as it beats the alternative which is offering rebates on figures when they go on clearance because they've been shelfwarming.

[kaiden]

the upcoming case assortment for TF Prime is silly especially with Voyager Prime x3 and Bulkhead x1.

[Hursticon]

the upcoming case assortment for TF Prime is silly especially with Voyager Prime x3 and Bulkhead x1.

LOL, yep totally agree but I've already vented my frustrations over that in the relevant thread ; ridiculous huh?

[griffin]

I don't see that as silly. What character would most kids or parents buy if they could only afford one Voyager toy - The main character (Optimus), or a character that is about the 5th or 6th most featured character (Bulkhead)?
Serious collectors like us may buy both, or critically evaluate both before buying either, but we make up like 10% of those purchases... leaving up to 90% of Voyager purchases to kids & parents who only buy one toy.
If Hasbro had equal case ratios for toys that are not equally featured on the cartoon, they risk shelf-warming the less popular character toys. I don't think they just randomly generate those ratios - they'd do some polling first I'd imagine, or at least order the importance of the show characters (and non-show characters) and estimate the best ratio possible to minimise shelf-warming.
(and the problem with the larger toy sizes is that there are less figures to a case, so less room to move on ratios - 3:1 may seem over-balanced, but 2:2 would be out of the question for two mismatched characters)

[Hursticon]

Hmm, you make a fair point Griffin but somehow I think we'll end up with the same discussion over the DOTM stock practices happening again - The cycle never breaks!

This is why I like online retail, the only arguments are scalped pricing and currency values.