Determining the age range you will be targeting for your stuffed toys is one of the most important things to consider. If you have an idea for a stuffed toy, one of the first things you’ll ask is “who is it for?”
Obviously, many of your decisions will be based on your target age range. Should you make these toys for kids? This is the road most traveled by toy inventors. Even if children don’t have money to spend, their market is parents and adults who want to give it to their children. This is because children love stuffed toys.
For example, you can make soft toys for children from 1 to 9 years old. Can you imagine the number of children from 1 to 9 years old? You can even break it down into smaller age ranges. But even so, it is still a great market. So what can you do to reach that market? The moment you think of that idea for a toy, you can customize the design with children in mind. You can make it more colorful because children love color. Even babies are attracted to colors and you can take advantage of this fact to help them develop their visual skills by providing them with something visually entertaining. Being colorful also makes your toy easily stand out among the other toys on the shelf. You can also customize how your stuffed animal feels. Children would like to touch and hug the toy. That’s the second thing they’re going to check. Once they see your stuffed toy at the toy store, they will hold it and see how it feels.
If you are going to target children, it is important to keep a few things in mind. The first concern is safety. Obviously, there are dangers like suffocation, so make sure your stuffed toy meets safety standards. Also, their toys must be very durable. At that age, children will throw things, including your stuffed toy.
It seems that children are the perfect market for your stuffed toys. Can you still target adults? Yes, definitely. Adults have the purchasing power and many adults collect toys. That said, they may be your main target: collectors. Obviously, you need to improve the quality and design of the stuffed animal to make it a collector’s item. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Beanie Babies craze of the last decade. If you have a great idea for your toys, they may be the next big thing.
There is also the option to target everyone for these toys. Yes, it is an option but it is not advisable. You don’t want a target age range that is too spread out because it can create confusion on the manufacturing end and for your customers. But keep in mind that a children’s stuffed toy can pique the interest of adults and vice versa, and that’s a good thing. Either way, you are still the winner along with your target market.
