Determining the age range that you will be targeting for your stuffed toys is one of the more important things that you have to consider. If you have an idea for a plush toy, one of the first things that you’re going to ask is “who is it for?”
Obviously, a lot of your decisions would be based on your target age range. Should you make these toys for kids? This is the road more travelled by toy inventors. Even if kids don’t have money to spend, your market is the parents and the adults who wish to give them to their kids. This is because kids love plush toys.
For example, you can make stuffed toys with kids aged 1 to 9 in mind. Can you imagine the number of kids aged 1 to 9? You can even break it down to smaller age ranges. But even so, that’s still a big market. So what can you do to reach out to that market? The moment that you think of that idea for a toy, you can customize the design with the kids in mind. You can make it more colorful because kids love color. Even babies are drawn to colors and you can take advantage of this fact to help them develop their visual skills by providing something visually entertaining for them. Being colorful also makes your toy easy to stand out among the other toys on the shelf. You can also customize how your plush toy feels. Kids would want to touch and hug the toy. That’s the second thing that they’re going to check. Once they see your stuffed toy in the toy store, they’ll hold it and see how it feels.
If you’re going to target kids, it’s important to take some things into consideration. The first concern is safety. Obviously, there are hazards like choking, so make sure that your stuffed toy complies with safety regulations. Also, your toys should be very durable. At that age, kids will be throwing things around – including your plush toy.
It sounds like kids are the perfect market for your stuffed toys. Can you still target adults? Yes, definitely. Adults have the purchasing power and a lot of adults are into toy collecting. With that being said, they can be your primary target – the collectors. Obviously, you need to improve on the quality and the design of the plush doll for it to be a collectors’ item. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Beanie Babies craze last decade. If you have a great idea for your toys, they can be the next big hit.
There’s also the option of targeting everyone for these toys. Yes, it’s an option but it’s not advisable. You don’t want a target age range that is too spread out because it can create confusion on the manufacturing end and for your customers. But keep in mind that a stuffed toy for kids can create interest for adults and vice versa and that’s a good thing. Either way, you are still the winner together with your target market.