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Wham-O CEO Talks Toy Fads

By on June 14, 2010 in Ideas

When a toy fad goes cold, make sure you’ve already explored the next big trend, says Wham-O CEO Kyle Aguilar.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek recently sat down with Aguilar and asked him about toy fads.

What is the life span of a hot toy?

It can last decades or just a season. Sometimes a product has its wave and then comes back. Last year a picture was snapped of the President’s wife using a Hula Hoop. We’ve always had a hoop for exercise, but it became a big trend. We have to make sure we fill the demand when the trend hits. This will probably last about six months to a year. Then the big excitement will be over.

What happens when a product goes cold?

It doesn’t necessarily disappear. Before you were making 1 million a month, now you’re making 10,000 a month. What you should do is build your brand off of that. When we made a new toy, at the end of the commercial, in a big strong voice, we’d say “made by Wham-O!”

Any words of wisdom for the makers of Silly Bandz?

They’ve already built a brand for themselves, but I can see in the next few months that it’s going to start to die off. They can sell to a bigger toy company, or they can take the profits and build a solid development and creative team and start to explore what the next great trend will be. They need to be ahead of the market.

Photo by Comedy Central.

advice fad kids toys

Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

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  • http://wahm.business-opportunities.biz Angela Shupe

    Makes me think of all the fad toys from my time as a kid. I owned more than a few furby’s and I had a big pile of digital pets that I would care for. I don’t know what brings on a fad but it’s interesting to see what comes out of them. Lately I noticed the toys that all kids seem to want have been reasonably priced. Like that hamster thing and those silly bandz. While I think the toys are weird I have to admit it is refreshing to see a fad that is reasonably enough priced that people can afford to buy them.

  • Mary

    Mr. Aguilar should be scrutinized for his lack of honor in dealing with his firms commitments to its agreements with inventors.

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