Episode #8: Stages of the Toy Product Development Life Cycle
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Have you ever proceeded down the path of developing your toy or game idea, to only realize that you weren’t sure what step comes next? If you’ve rushed down the path of sample making or prototyping your toy concept or invention, only to find yourself stuck in the process, then this episode is for YOU!
In this episode The Toy Coach breaks down the 3 stages of the toy product development life cycle. In this episode you’ll learn a definition of each stage, and the steps that will lead you toward successfully completing them.
Learn the main goals of every stage in the toy life cycle and how each stage best applies to inventors and entrepreneurs like you. This episode offers specific tips to help you avoid common pitfalls that even industry professionals experience.
Ready to listen? Click play above, or continue reading about this episode below.
WHAT IS THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE FOR TOYS?
If you’ve ever wondered “What is the product development life cycle for toys anyway?” Don’t worry! You’re NOT alone!
The product development life cycle for toys is very similar to the product development life cycle for products. It includes 3 major stages and many people are unsure of what development stage comes first. You may be wondering yourself, what you should do if you have an idea for a toy or a game. Should you start with the product development stage? Or should you start with the product branding stage? Or should you jump right into the product marketing stage to build a following around your idea?
The 3 toy product development life cycle stages are incredibly important in your toy invention and toy development process. But there is definitely an ideal order for the development process. If done correctly, each product development stage will inspire and guide the next. So, let's get into the ideal product development cycle for your toy products.
The 3 Toy Product Development Life Cycle Stages:
1. Product Development
Product Development is more than just coming up with the idea for your toy invention. It includes fully exploring every avenue like materials, colors, mechanisms, and anything that could make your toy stand out. Don’t rush the product development stage because it is THE MOST important stage. Most toy companies spend 6-months to a year in this stage alone!
2. Branding
Now, I know it’s tempting to start branding at the beginning of the product development process, (and yes, it IS a good idea to have a general idea of your brand throughout) but the specifics should be set in stone once you have a finished product that is nearly ready to sell. Your brand identity will continually lead your future marketing efforts, which is why it is best to finalize your brand identity before moving onto stage 3.
3. Marketing
It’s important to focus on this 6-12 months before your product launches to build up the hype. Your first step should be to build an email list. Next, use Social Media to build your following on every social media site you can find. But, social media isn't the only way to engage. You can also attend trade shows, and attend niche events that would fit your product. Another way to build up hype and funds for your product is to launch a Kickstarter campaign.
So, this is all a lot, and I’m really just covering the basics here, but it’s just to show how much really goes into the development process of a toy idea.
It can seem overwhelming but when you break it down into different stages and focus on one task at a time, you can avoid the stress and enjoy the process.
Would you like an easy to follow development checklist to keep you on track?
I've got you! To simplify the process of developing your toy product, grab this helpful checklist to guide you along the way! Download this FREE checklist here.
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This episode is brought to you by thetoycoach.com
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Azhelle (00:00): You are listening to making it in the toy industry. Episode number eight. Jingle + Intro/Outtro (00:06): Welcome to making it in the toy industry podcast for inventors and entrepreneurs like you and now your host Azhelle Wade. Azhelle (00:16): Hey there, toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back for another episode of making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com today we are going to talk about the product development life cycle as it pertains to toys. We're going to talk about the differences of the three major stages of the product development life cycle. So there are many blog posts, there are books and even podcast episodes that talk about the stages of product development, but I want to talk about how the stages apply when you're developing a toy or a game product and more importantly, how they apply to you as an inventor or an entrepreneur and just some tips that will help guide you through these stages. In this episode, I'm going to name and defined each stage and give you a little breakdown of key steps to take within each stage and then wrap up all that advice with a few tips for navigating through each stage and step successfully. Azhelle (01:28): So if you're at a point where you're struggling in your product development process and you're not sure what to do next, I hope that this episode will work as a guiding light and help point you in the right direction. So first, let's introduce the stages of the product development cycle that we're going to focus on today. Stage one is product development itself. Stage two is branding, and stage three is marketing. Now it's important to realize that every step in this cycle is crucial to the success of the other. So it's important that you understand what each step is and what your ultimate goal of going through each step and each stage should be. The second you have a new toy idea, I know your first instinct may be to rush your idea over to a designer. Get started with sketches or three D model and hop on over to spend thousands of dollars making a prototype. Azhelle (02:34): But I have seen many great prototypes be overlooked. Many wonderful concepts go underdeveloped purely because time was not taken to properly evolve an idea or develop a brand or just market a product. So in this episode I'm going to give you a few insights and tips to help make sure you're checking the right boxes through your product development life cycle or PD for short that you're evaluating the right markets for your brand and concepts and taking the most targeted initiatives possible within your marketing strategy. To start off, let's talk about stage one product development. Developing your toy idea. It should definitely be your first stage in your toy product development lifecycle. This stage is going to be the longest and most detailed stage of your process, but it must be the area at which you pay the most absolute attention. So first, let's talk about what product development is. Azhelle (03:45): Product development refers to all of the steps involved to bringing a product idea from a concept to market release. Now because you as my listener, are most likely an inventor, your product development process could end or pause at step three of this stage because it's not entirely necessary for you as an inventor to develop your product until the point that it's ready to manufacture, because you will hopefully be partnering with a larger manufacturer that will complete that stage for you or partner with you for the completion of it. With that in mind, let's break down the steps of product development. Step one, so product development begins with the unlocking of your great toy ideas, a concept which I talked about in the very first episode of this podcast, so for a more in depth look at this step, you're going to want to go to the toy coach.com forward slash podcast forward slash one to take a listen to that episode. Azhelle (04:56): Now, when you're unlocking toy ideas, you're opening up your mind to inspiration from every Avenue. In this step you're exploring mechanisms uses for those mechanisms, textiles, substrates, anything that you think you might be able to put together, put a spin on and give new life. Now in step two, you're going to be performing competitive research and concept development. Here is where you define your target market and defining your target market is extremely important to making sure that the rest of your product development efforts are not performed in vain. In this stage, you have to make sure that you're paying attention to what your competitors are doing, what they're offering, and how much they're offering it for. You want to make sure that you match them or better yet compete with that offering. Step three. The third step in the product development stage is the design and feature development of your toy or game idea. Azhelle (06:08): So this is the stage where we're going to be developing your illustrations, getting renderings done of your product idea, tweaking the idea and changing it. This step is where you're going to really explore and experiment with your idea, your mechanisms, your prototypes and play test your product with friends and family. Step four of the product development stage is to source your product with either a domestic or an overseas factory. Now, like I said before, you may or may not choose to complete the final step as an inventor and why is that? Well that's because when you're an inventor you might be looking for a licensing deal in which you won't always need concrete costing or a manufacturing partner to land a deal. What's going to really determine if you go to this stage or if you stay at a finished step three is the result of your prototype, is your prototype saleable? Azhelle (07:11): Does your prototype that you developed in step three look like it's something that could already be ready to sit on a shelf. If not, then you are going to have to move to step four and work with a factory till you develop a product that truly looks like it could be made by a factory. Whether it's a factory of your own choosing or a factory that the toy company or retail partner you partner with has used in the past. Now if you do choose to partner with a factory, this step is where you are going to tweak materials, tweak the build of your product and refine the price point of it to reach your target retail price point with a decent margin that will make your either retail target customer or your toy company target customer. Very happy. Now the main goal of the product development phase in its entirety though all of the four steps is to make sure that you bring your product vision fully to life. Azhelle (08:16): You start the PD phase with a concept and ideally end with a functioning prototype or a preproduction sample from a factory with some idea of how much this will cost to produce. Now I've got just a couple of tips for you, things to look out for while you're in the product development stage. Tip number one, make sure you vet your hire designers well, whether they're sketch artists or three D modelers, you want to make sure that you pick the best person for the job. They should ideally be experienced in the toy or game industry. Preferably come to you via a recommendation from someone in the industry and have a design style that aligns with the end vision you have for your product. Tip number two, make sure you record the costs that you put in to produce your prototype and your production sample as well as the estimated cost to produce your product in production. Azhelle (09:19): Whether you decide to stop at creating a prototype or you continue to work with a factory in develop pricing, you need to record what the costs are, produce your product, where you really need to commit to memory the domestic prototyping costs or the estimated factory costs for production of your item so that you can successfully estimate your retail costs and ultimately be sure that your product and your product design is serving not only your target market, which would be your end consumer who's picking it up from the store and buying it, but also that it fits in line with the business strategy of either the retailer you're aiming for or the toy company that you're aiming to obtain a licensed deal from. All right. Next we're going to move on to stage two and that is branding. Now I like to dive into branding both before and after the product development stage. Azhelle (10:22): Now the reason for that is a, you might have a few ideas for your branding when you first start out developing your Toyer game product, but a completed toy or game product is really going to sum up your brand identity. So while it's great to jot down a few brand ideas during the research phase or the product development phase, the best time to really delve into branding and subsequently packaging is when your toy product is complete. Depending on your own abilities, you may hire out help to develop your packaging or your branding, but whatever you do don't diminish or rush this step. When an item is on shelf, the packaging is often the first impression your customer will have of your product. So do not discount the importance of branding and do not rush this face. So now let's talk about what branding really is. Azhelle (11:24): A company or products brand identity is formed of their name, design, logo, symbol, tagline, or any other distinctive feature that identifies their toy or game product from another. Your brand identity should be built around the people you choose to serve, who you are and how you want to be positioned in the marketplace. Is your target market girls, boys, three plus six was your brand started by a stay at home mom or an experienced toy inventor? Do you want to be positioned as an attainable mommy brand or a high end exclusive? Now in this stage, the branding stage, there are four steps that you need to hyperfocus on and perfect before you move on to the next step. Number one, it is time to finalize your brand name and your logo. Perhaps you decide you need a mascot for your brand. You should really be comparing and contrasting your competitors brand identities to help guide this step in the process. Azhelle (12:33): Step number two, language. After you establish your brand name and your logo, you really need to dive into the language of your customer. You need to understand how your customer communicates. You need to understand how your customer communicates with their friends and other similar brands and emulate that as you continue building out your messaging as an inventor. It's also important in this stage to plan how you want to speak to retailers or toy companies that you plan to pitch to keep in mind what's important to them, what are their customers looking for and how does your brand meet those needs? Azhelle (13:19): Step number three in this stage is packaging. You have to drill down into your target customer to really get to know how they like to see their favorite products presented on shelf, what excites them at store level, what makes them pick up a box. This is where you define packaging that speaks to your end retail consumer and your intended customer. Whether that's a retailer like target or a toy company, and the final step in the brand stage is a focus on social media. Now in the age of social media, your social identity is just as important as anything else. You need to make sure that you have a visual plan for social media that matches your brand identity and your product. And resonates with your target market. Now, the overall main goal of the branding phase is to establish an identity that really connects you to your target audience. Azhelle (14:27): This identity has to easily translate to packaging, to social media, to a website, to swag. Your packaging needs to fit your product's position in the marketplace visually and monetarily. And I just have one tip for you while you're going through this stage, the brand stage, just to remember that your brand is your promise to your customer. Your toy brand subliminally tells children, moms, parents, and even buyers what they can expect from your products. And keep in mind a well thought out brand identity will help differentiate you from your toy competitors. And our last stage is stage number three marketing. Okay, so finally, let's dive in to the marketing of your toy product and why it's important for an inventor or an entrepreneur. Well, as an inventor, pre-launch marketing is where you should really consider focusing your efforts. Building a following, building a community behind your brand is the best way to add value to the brand in the eyes of retailers and toy companies. Azhelle (15:47): It's also a great way to get feedback and supportive reviews from your target market, which you can use in your pitch meetings. So to start, let's define what marketing is and what it's used for. So marketing is the process of just studying, strategizing, and building a connection with your target customer. Marketing is used to attract customers and build a following. So I want to break down just four main ways for you to connect with your target market and form an online community following. The first and most important way I'm going to talk about is of course social media. I am talking Facebook, Instagram, tick tock, YouTube, a blog. Build out your brand presence, utilizing the branding that you have established the phase before and make sure you acquire your brand name on every social outlet that you can and start posting and tagging content relative to your target market to gain their interactions, follows and trust. Azhelle (17:00): The second way to connect with your target market is going to be to attend trade shows. Once you have your socials in place, you want to start planning at your trade show calendar for the upcoming year. Applications for trade shows can have due dates, six months in advance of the show itself. So it's important that you plan in advance to attend these shows. You need to organize meetings with buyers in advance and maybe schedule for influencers to even stop by your booth plan, social posts, plan trade show giveaways to help engage, show attendees and draw a crowd to your booth. The third way you can connect with your target market and form a community following is by attending niche events. So I always recommend when you are launching new brand that you focus on the niches. When you're looking to market your product, your best bet is going to be to focus on events related to the theme of the product to connect with people within your target market. Azhelle (18:03): So let's say for example, you have a sustainable toy product. You might look for sustainable events targeted toward moms are targeted toward kids that you can attend and maybe pop up a trade show table or hand out pamphlets or become a sponsor of. There are always ways to get connected with local communities and spread your brand message around far enough that you can gain a social following that will be really supportive and really connected because they've met you face to face. Now the final way to connect with a community, I'm going to bring it up now, but I definitely don't want you to jump into this until you have an established social presence, but it's going to be Kickstarter. Now when you do a Kickstarter, and I'm going to have a full episode on this so I am not going to get too deep into it right now, but when you do a Kickstarter, you are supposed to go in already having a heavy following and a responsive email list who have already agreed to back your project. Azhelle (19:09): So if you have coordinated your efforts well and you create a beautiful Kickstarter and you have a great launch sequence to advertise it and you have enough backers and supporters to reach your 24 hour goals and then your overall campaign goals, Kickstarter can be a great way to gain further visibility for your product and show proof of concept. But again, I have to say, do not go into Kickstarter blindly. Make sure that you take the time and you do the work upfront before you ever launch. You should already have a following, but if you do have that following, then a Kickstarter campaign can be a great way to push it even further and gain some funds to help you develop the product on your own without needing to find a manufacturing partner right away. Now your main goal with marketing is going to be to develop a history of content and engaged community and a clear product proposal that will draw the interest of toy companies, retailers, and consumers. Azhelle (20:23): So the information that you gather in a stage is all going to be fuel for your product, pitch meetings and future launches. Okay, so I have three tips for you for the marketing stage. The major tip that I have is when working on marketing, it is I would say imperative to build out a three to six content calendar in advance of your launch and utilize an automated app to post directly to all of your social accounts. A lot of these things are going to be paid but they are going to be worth it and they're going to allow you to have a little bit of peace of mind. The second tip I have for you is to post every day. I'm sure you've heard this but I am telling you one to three times a day is the sweet spot. It will make a huge difference in the people interacting with your social media accounts. Azhelle (21:22): Make sure that you utilize not only the top hashtags for your specific niche, but utilize the hashtags that your target market customers are also using so that they'll find you. The third and final tip I have for you is to try to collect email addresses for the following that you build. You definitely want to be able to reach out to these people when you are pitching your product or when you land a licensing deal for your product or when you're just pitching a Kickstarter. Um, you definitely want to keep the people that are passionate about your brand, informed with all of the latest happenings, give them opportunities to see a little bit behind the scenes, maybe give them first dibs on giveaways. You want to keep them engaged and you want to keep them in your contact. Now, as I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, it's important to realize that every stage in this product development cycle is crucial to the success of the other. Azhelle (22:29): So it's really important that you understand what each stage is and what your goal should be going through each stage and the steps within them. Now I know all of this might seem like a lot of information to take in. I know that product development, branding, marketing are all three very different skillsets and you're not going to be an expert in all three of them or even in any one of them. But the overall message of this episode is to plan, prepare, and then execute a thoughtful PD plan. Like the old saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. The same applies here. Organizing a well thought out plan can allow you to navigate through each stage successfully regardless of the amount of experience under your belt. Remember, you don't have to be an expert marketer to do this, right? You don't have to have a decade of experience as an art director or a designer to lead the branding and product development of your toy idea. Azhelle (23:40): All you have to do is research, plan and find the right. Okay, so that is all I wanted to talk to you guys today about toy product of Bellarmine to branding and marketing, but don't head out just yet because I have got a special freebie for you guys. So because I know this episode was filled with a lot of information, I thought it would be helpful to create a checklist for all of my listeners for you to download and use as a roadmap through your product development life cycle. So to get that freebie, just head over to the toy coach.com forward slash podcast forward slash eight or if you don't feel like typing all of that into the address bar, just head over to the toy coach.com and a little bar will pop up on the top of the page that says new episode eight live. Azhelle (24:36): Now click that and we'll bring you directly to the freebie. Now I have one last announcement. Making it in the toy industry has officially set up our Patrion page to help support the podcast. So if you're an avid listener and you're interested in some fun bonus content like mini Q and a episodes, then head over to our Patrion page. You'll find the link in the show notes and become a supporter to receive bonus content that is reserved for show supporters only. And I want to thank you as always for tuning in this podcast. I know you have a lot of options for podcasts you can listen to and it means a lot that you chose this one. Remember to give this podcast an honest rating and review over on iTunes. So until next week, I'll see you later. Toy people. Jingle + Intro/Outtro (25:31): Thanks for listening to making it in the toy industry podcast with Azhelle Wade, head over to thetoycoach.com For more information, tips, and advice.
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🎓Learn more about how you can develop and pitch your toy idea with Toy Creators Academy® by clicking here to visit toycreatorsacademy.com and join the waitlist.
