Knock-offs are a common issue in what is otherwise a very wholesome industry:
toys. The strategy to deal with them is often to be the fastest to store shelves and apply the biggest advertising budget to block out competing noise. But what is an independent mompreneur who launched her toy company on Kickstarter to do when throwing dollars at the problem isn't possible?
"As a small startup, we don’t have the advertising power of some of our competitors, like Lego Friends which is backed by arguably the highest valued toy company in the world," says Laurie Peterson, Founder and inventor of
Build & Imagine (
www.buildandimagine.com), which has won more than 30 industry awards and has hundreds of five star reviews on Amazon and an average of 4.4 stars on their most popular item:
Malia’s House, a magnetic dollhouse you design yourself.
"What we rely on to help Build & Imagine grow is love of our toys. Rather than investing dollars in advertising, we’ve double downed on product quality," continues Peterson, who was named the "Rising Star Toy Inventor of the Year". The strategy to invest in product quality may be paying off. In a recent Net Promoter Score survey, Build & Imagine found that 73% of customers were "extremely likely" to recommend Build & Imagine to a friend or colleague.
But spreading the word without a megaphone in hand can be slow. Thankfully, Build & Imagine just bought themselves more time, as they were granted a utility patent (U.S. Patent No. 9,713,777 is scheduled to issue on July 25th) protecting their illustrated magnetic building panels. While other magnetic building sets feature plain colored blocks, Build & Imagine’s illustrated panels are key to inspiring rich imaginative play.
"In the age of social media, it doesn’t matter how much advertising you do if your product isn’t up to snuff," argues Build & Imagine’s founder Laurie Peterson. "The customers now control the message. The most important marketing move a new toy company can make is to provide a rich and lasting play experience that translates into customer loyalty. With Build & Imagine, kids aren’t just building a structure, they are building a scene for their stories."
Build & Imagine StoryWalls tend to received higher ratings than better known girls building lines, including two other start-ups incubated across the bay at Stanford. GoldieBlox, which launched with a successful viral video campaign, and Roominate, which appeared on Shark Tank. In addition to product quality, part of Build & Imagine’s secret may lie in the original product inspiration:
"Construction toys, and girls' construction toys in particular, has been one of the hottest area of growth in the toy industry over the past five years," reports Peterson. "I was seeing a lot of toy companies hop on this trend by taking their exact same toys and turning them pink. We call it
pink think. At Build & Imagine, instead of color coding we design based on the types of play mechanics girls have historically loved. Build & Imagine is building blocks meets dollhouse meets dress-up dolls. It’s all the fun of a dollhouse with the enrichment of a construction toy, and it turns out, boys love it too."
