Hey there!
Today, I’m going to touch upon some insights I arrived at while looking at products for toddlers.
📢 Announcement: I am currently writing a short story series called Easy But Hard. It’s a series about how life is easy on some while hard on others. Some stories that are lined up:
📰The newspaper boy who failed to deliver one day.
🥛The milkman who got replaced.
👴The post-retirement businessman.
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At the same time, I will be reducing the frequency of Zoom In, Zoom Out! I will no longer write a weekly e-mail, but only when I have an original essay to share.
👶 Products for toddlers
💡#1: Toys are similar to enterprise software.
In a way, toys are similar to enterprise software products, where the buyer of the product is not the user of the product.
This got me thinking. How do parents buy products for their kids? How do they buy toys without a “trial” period?
About six months ago, I had also posted a question on Twitter:
Some people stated that it is a matter of smart packaging and marketing which attracts kids. For example, G.I.Joe, an American brand was very popular among kids because of its attractive branding and, of course, peer pressure.
One obvious answer to the above questions is that parents are looking to educate their kids. But when that doesn’t work, anything that keeps kids engaged for long periods of time works.
But this answer is still vague. It is hard to predict what works for one kid vs. another. The toy car that works for one child will not work for someone else.
🤔As such, doesn’t a trial period of 30 days for a toy, make sense? You try out a lot of products with your kids and return the ones that are not played with.
💡#2: I also realized how creating content for toddlers is a solid business. If you’re a content creator, you should think of creating content for kids.
Some reasons (if your content is good, of course):
High retention rate
Little to no churn
Kids will make their parents pay for content.
Content can be universal, since toddlers focus on moving images and audio, without emphasizing on the language.
Here’s another tweet I posted a few days ago on this topic:
In case you don’t know, Chuchu TV is a famous YouTube channel for toddlers. It started in 2013. It was founded by Vinoth Chandar when he decided to make an animated video for his daughter. He casually uploaded it on YouTube. Realizing that the video was well-received, he has been making content since then, amassing a combined viewership of 20 billion.
For the above 2 reasons, the opportunity to start new businesses for toddler products is unique. Startups like Smartivity are making educational toys, while others like Chuchu TV are making educational content.
Thank you for reading :)
Hemant