Reasons for Buying Toys

Reasons for Buying Toys and Games

Two third of adults buy toys and games for Christmas – hence the occasion accounting for around half of the year’s sales – and two thirds for a birthday.

Any smoothing out of this bunching of sales benefits the trade, and gives a greater opportunity to highlight products in a less crowded retail environment.

One such new opportunity has developed with the trend of buying a toy for a new baby – up from 13% in 2003 to 26% now.

On average consumers give around three reasons to buy, and more reasons directly translate into more sales. These may be specific occasions such as children’s parties, or to appeal to the traditional image of a happy family all playing a game together.

This section of the report examines the results of further research conducted by BMRB on behalf of Mintel into occasions/reasons for buying toys and games. The following question was asked:

“For which of these occasions/reasons do you buy toys and games, if ever?”

The response data are presented in the following sub-sections and in Appendix – Reasons for Buying Toys and Games, analysed by various demographic breaks and other lifestyle characteristics.
 
It’s not only the big events
Figure 23: Reasons for buying toys and games, September 2008
Base: 990 adults aged 15+

%
Child's birthday    68
Christmas    67
Present for a newborn child    26
A present for my child to take to a birthday party    17
As a reward (eg doing well at school/being brave at the dentist etc)    17
For the summer – beach or garden    17
To have something for the whole family to play together    15
Adult's birthday    14
To take on a holiday/on a long journey    14
To cheer children up if they have been ill etc    12
To play at a party (adults and/or children)    9
Easter/Other religious festivals    8
Giving in to nagging/pleading from my child/children    4