Episode #147. This NEW Toy Category is Bursting into the Wellness Game
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Today’s podcast episode was inspired by several conversations I’ve had with my biz besties around health and mindfulness, as well as conversations with my colleagues in the toy industry. This is the exploration of a growing category in the toy industry called Comfort & Wellness. These toys are marketed to make us feel better, sleep better, and even think better…but overall the consistent theme of Comfort & Wellness toys is to reduce our anxiety. While this category seems to have most of it’s roots in plush products, that’s not the only place you’ll find it. In today’s podcast episode we explore the Comfort & Wellness category. What it is, what it means, what products are blazing the path ahead.
In this episode you’ll hear from Rick Derr of Learning Express Toys Lake Zurich, who shares his thoughts on the growing category. We’ll highlight the ways that the comfort category has already gone mainstream and provide links to research that support the importance of having products in this category that appeals to not only kids, but also adults. By the end of this episode you’ll get a history lesson on where this category may have emerged from and my goal is for you to leave inspired to add something comforting to your product assortment.
EPISODE CLIFF NOTES:
Learn the name of the new toy category that is breaking into the Wellness space. [02:48]
Find out the perspective of a toy retailer on this new comfort toys category. [03:37]
What are the benefits of comfort toys? How are they marketed to consumers? Find that out here. [06:07]
You might be surprised to hear where this new trend may have emerged from. [10:15]
Find out what toys are in this comfort category already [13:43]
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This episode is brought to you by www.thetoycoach.com
A recent study from UV University Amsterdam suggests that touching a stuffed animal, especially among those who have low self-esteem, helps to relieve existential angst. The study also suggested touch is a means of increasing social connectedness among people during periods of anxiety.
What is a comfort toy? Article from the toy brand heald-ish.
The Rise and Fall of Fidget Spinners Read The Article
Check out Zenimal by clicking here.
Check out Meditation Mouse by clicking here.
Check out Emotional Support Fries by clicking here.
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[00:00:00] Azhelle Wade: You are listening to making it in the toy industry episode number 147.
[00:00:05] Hey there toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of The Toy Coach podcast, Making It In The Toy Industry. This is a weekly podcast, brought to you by thetoycoach.com. Today's podcast episode was inspired by several conversations. I've had both in and outside of the toy industry from women in my mastermind groups and colleagues within the toy industry. Today, we're going to explore an emerging category in toys.
[00:00:47] One that I believe has the potential to become an evergreen category and sticks around for years to come. Now there is an overall existing category that you're likely to find this new one live in, and that is plush. So if you have an idea for a plush toy, listen up, there may be a new market opportunity waiting for you. The plush category right now we know is seeing its heyday with the brand squish, mellows, leading the pack and bringing some of that collector, got to have them all mentality.
[00:01:20] The back that we had with beanie babies years ago. Now, since the pandemic, a new function of plush has emerged and that function is comfort and wellness. Now I've heard my friends and family who work in psychology and education. Talk about how stressed their kids have been since coming back after the pandemic, how short their attention spans have gotten. Thanks to increase time on devices. And now that we're all coming out of that virtual world, returning to in-person life, many kids and even adults are suffering with debilitating anxiety and overwhelm.
[00:02:01] And it seems that the toy industry has swooped in with a fix. By the end of this episode, you will learn what this new category is called, what it is, where it came from and toys that are already filling this new market opportunity. I hope you'll walk away from this episode with some inspiration for product that you could maybe add to your assortment to fill this emerging category. So if you're ready, let's dive in.
[00:02:26] First of all, we've got to talk about what this new category is called. Before we start diving into this new category, we got to give it a name so that I'm not just saying new category, every five seconds. So I've done a deep dive on these types of toys. And I found, uh, the category tends to have a few different names. We haven't really nailed down on one just yet. This category has been labeled comfort toys, health and wellness toys, toys for anxiety, mindfulness toys, and even purpose toys.
[00:02:58] The term, that is my favorite is comfort toys, but I just like the sound of it. So once I did a deeper dive into the category, I found the most commonly used phrases are actually wellness and comfort for the, so for the sake of integrity and industry continuity, we're going to just call it the comfort and wellness category. This category seems to be the next evolution of our fidget toys. And the evolution comes with a focus on mindfulness and stillness over busy-ness and activity. I got a quote from a good friend of mine. Richard And he's the owner of Learning Express toys in Lake Zurich.
[00:03:36] Richard stated this quote, kids are smarter than we think today. But also more vulnerable for a lot of reasons, nerves, anxiety, fidgeting, or whatever you want to call. It is real and quality toys can help ease these feelings post COVID. After 2020, we saw this emotional and physical need more than ever, which is why some traditional toy categories have spiked and some are emerging. Like the comfort category as has been referred to. Just a hug, a squeeze or a feeling of comfort is needed by many kids, as well as adults let's face it in the old days.
[00:04:19] Personal hugs were granted to all, but today with so much happening in a fast paced world, a weighted plush. A soothing spa. Or a repetitive squishy toy will work too, especially when everyone is on the go. Look for this trend to accelerate into 2023, as schools have also reinforced the need to comfort students and quote. Thank you so much for that quote, Richard well said. Now, if you are a toy creator, who's also an entrepreneur and you're in this world of entrepreneurship.
[00:04:53] You may also be noticing right now how this really seems to perfectly align what's with what's going on in the entrepreneurship world with the rejection of hustle culture. Um, that's just the culture of doing what you gotta do to get everything done. No matter the toll it takes on your mind and your body and that, uh, rejection is currently happening now among many entrepreneurs, there seems to be this overall social focus on looking inward, taking time to think and not filling your life with busy-ness and work, just because so back to the wellness and comfort category or the comfort and wellness category.
[00:05:34] I want you to expect this new category to emerge with much more presence in retail and consumer awareness in 2023. If you look at Google trends, statistics, you will see that the search volume for the terms, wellness, toy, and comfort toy doubled in Q4 of 2020 and 2021, and have already shown big spikes in September of this now I want to get into how we define this category and what kinds of products we can expect to see in it, or that we're already seeing Comfort and wellness toys can provide a sense of security for kids or adults.
[00:06:13] They can help with anxiety, ease, physical tension, and reduce stress. Comfort and wellness toys are designed to give our senses a break instead of finding ways to overstimulate or overload them with features and gadgets and try MES. Comfort and wellness toys are often marketed to help us feel better, sleep better, or even boost our moods. At the top of this episode, I mentioned that this new category of products lives mainly in plush, but that's not the only place you'll find comfort toys.
[00:06:44] Now plush will most likely be the type of toy that drives this new category, simply because plush has always been known as a comforting product for kids, but in recent years, Uh, plush has started to serve that same purpose for adults. It's actually become so mainstream that adults cuddle with plush that in the latest season of the iconic show Grey's anatomy, one doctor is shown giving stuffed animals to the other intern doctors in order to help them deal with the stress that comes from being a doctor saving lives, losing lives, the character, as she is passing out the plush mentions a study out of Amsterdam that says.
[00:07:26] When people touch stuffed animals, especially if they have low self-esteem it helps reduce anxiety. Well, of course, I had to look up that study, which led me to an article by healthy place.com referencing that study and a few others on the importance of stuffed animals overall, but the resistance of adults to adopt the use of stuffed animals still exists. This article states that 10% of American stated they would actually break up with a romantic partner
[00:07:56] If they discovered that they slept with a stuffed animal, considering the benefits of anxiety reduction, you know, I see it as our job in the toy industry to figure out a way to make stuffed animals so cool that adults want to sleep with them and their romantic partners. Won't be embarrassed by it. They'll look cool for doing so now to read this full article, I've got the link for you over@thetoycoach.com forward slash 1 4 7. Gone are the days where stuffed animals only.
[00:08:24] Only function is to be cuddly with the rise of this new comfort and wellness category. These plush toys tend to now have this. I added features or creative twists that are designed to reduce our stress or make us feel let's go through some of my favorite products that are spearheading this new category. First up, there's a plush toy. Uh, called menstruation crustacean by what do you mean? And this toy is marketed for adults and serves as both a cuddly stuffed animal, but also a heating pad for women to use to comfort cramps during their time of the month.
[00:09:01] Yeah. As the name implies, it's meant to be used during your period. This plush is also scented with lavender to calm you down during stressful times. And I have to say it works. Now the next product hug animals by hug. world.com. Our weighted plush that make you feel like you are literally being hugged by your stuffed animal. The company totes the clever line, the calming hugs you've waited for and they sent me one to use. And I absolutely love it. I can't tell you how many times when I've had a stressful day of toy coaching that this plush is the most comforting thing to just snuggle up with.
[00:09:41] There's a few other products that I haven't used, but have noticed are in this category, for example, the meditation mouse by Fisher price, which is a crib toy and Sue their and then there Animals, a kid friendly screen product that brings mindfulness to life. For kids with sleep. Meditation sounds. Now I want to talk about, uh, where this category came from. Finally, if we don't analyze where this category came from, we'd be doing ourselves a disservice because in the toy industry, you're only as popular or as good as your next big hit.
[00:10:15] So we've got to know how to use lessons from the past to predict or infer the future. This is a practice I teach in my program, toy creators academy. We are actually open for enrollment. Now, if you want to join us head. Head over to toy creator's academy.com to learn how to make your toy or game ideas are real. So I like to look back at the past. Let's take a look back. It may seem that this comfort and wellness category came out of nowhere, but signs have pointed to this trend. Um, moving up for a while the wellness and comfort category can actually be tracked to none other than the fidget trend and the fidget spinner.
[00:10:53] As you may know, fidget spinners were the hottest toy in 2017 reaching peak sales in may of that year. The creators of it had no patent. So of course, by the end of the year, everyone was copying it and creating their own version of it. Though the sales of the fidget spinners decrease significantly by December of 2017 new product companies continue to release variations of fidget spinners. Now, most of these products, weren't primarily fidget spinners, but they use the word fidget in the toy, maybe to show up in keyword searches, or they would add fidget elements to toys, to hop on the fidget trend and be a little bit different.
[00:11:31] And we saw this trend pick up even more in the pandemic. But like any toy category, this trend would evolve and grow over time. From 2017, when these first came out to today, we're seeing fidget spinners. Uh, kind of integrated into other toys. It's like one plate element of other sensory toys. We're seeing spinners, uh, being combined with puppets to create like the ultimate sensory toy. Um, so it seems fitting that this busy play would evolve into something less about keeping us busy and more about keeping us present in a world where we're increasingly not.
[00:12:13] So there's my 2 cents on where this all came from before we dive into our summary of today's episode and what we learned today, I want to give a shout out to a listener who signed their name as Warmaballs uh, when they left a review for the podcast, Warmaballs says this hits the spot. I very much enjoy these sessions. They are informative and make me want to come back for more info. I can make 30 minutes to listen easily. As I learned things I'd spend entire days researching on my own. Thanks to Michelle waiting patiently for the next round.
[00:12:45] Thank you so much. And sometimes depending on the topic, I will spend hours researching. So you're welcome. And I appreciate you for appreciating me. So let's do a quick recap of what we covered today. We discovered and named the new category. That's emerging in toys, comfort, and wellness. It has many other names, but we're going to stick with comfort and wellness. For today. We talked about how comfort and wellness toys provide a sense of security for kids or adults that are using them.
[00:13:15] They are designed to help with anxiety. They can ease physical tension. They can reduce stress. They are designed to give our senses a break instead of finding ways to overstimulate or overload them with features and gadgets. They're often marketed to make us feel better and to calm us down, help us sleep. They are really health and wellness toys, but we're calling them comfort and wellness today.
[00:13:43] Toys in this category already toys that are already considered comfort and wellness toys include the menstruation crustacean by What Do You Meme, Huggmals by Huggmals World, The Meditation Mouse by Fisher Price and Zen animals. So your action item for me next week is this, if you have an idea for a comfort plush and you would like to develop that idea and potentially pitch it to retailers that might be interested in carrying it or toy companies that might be interested in licensing it, I would like to invite you to join toy creators academy.
[00:14:20] My online group coaching program that lasts for 12 weeks where you get week by week coaching. With me alive, but you also get an complete nine module program that explains the step-by-steps of developing and pitching and selling your amazing toy and game ideas. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me. I know your time is valuable and that there are a ton of podcasts out there. So it truly means the world to me that you tune into this one. Until next week. I'll see you later toy people.
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