sized digital tablets designed for families to engage in
digital games; crafts; jigsaw puzzles; card games;
STEAM play formats like flash cards and workbooks
and soft toys like Nerf products. order. They are impatient if they don’t get their food in
minutes.
Smart toy and play companies will insert themselves
into the car interior creative process in order to help
them develop modular toys and storage options so that
play can smoothly move from home to car and back.
Even smarter play companies will seek out exclusive
relationships with car companies and co-branding. Also in the area of the production of goods we can
assume that companies will rethink: Chinese toy and
play compan ies, much like Japanese automobile
companies did with cars, will open assembly centers
in North America and Europe.
3. ACT GLOBAL, PRODUCE LOCAL
2. THE COMING COLLAPSE IN TIME TO MARKET
Drone delivers package
Remember the “New York Minute”? This New York
phenomenon of doing or getting something instantly
has been globalized. In fact some commentators are
making the case that getting it there the quickest is
replacing getting it there the cheapest as a major
value to consumers.
As a result, we are predicting that manufacturers are
going to face a collapse in the time that retailers will
allow for goods to reach their destinations. We already
can see that consumers who purchase online now
expect to receive products in one day. In fact, some
companies are planning to get that time down to
minutes. Amazon is currently working on a delivery
system that will, through the use of drones get you
your order in 30 minutes. Uber is working on a system
that will utilize their drivers to get you a food order in
less than ten minutes.
As I wrote in the “Toy and Play Futurist Letter”:
This is not the first time in history we have experienced a
rise in speed to market expectations. In the age of
steamships, passengers were prepared to take a week
or two to cross the Atlantic. You may have noticed that
air travel, promising hours rather than days to Europe,
has supplanted passenger ship travel.
Similarly, McDonalds, which introduced “fast food” in
the 1950’s, created an entire industry by changing the
time expectation. Just watch people twitch, look
around, and glance ahead while waiting in line for their
In fact, some Chinese companies may choose to
move the production of products that lend them-
selves to automated plants to their customers’ home
countries.
Manufacturers are going to make some hard calcula-
tions on how gross profit can be impacted by the
length of time and the uncertainties that come with
overly long supply chains.
Richard Gottlieb is a globally recognized
consultant and commentator on the
business of toys and play. He is the
founder of Global Toy Experts; the
Publisher of Global Toy News and the
author of the Toys & Play Futurist Letter.
He is a voting member of the Toy Hall of
Fame and the author of the book, “Ambassador to the
Kingdom of Wal-Mart”. If you would like to let him
know what you think about his ideas of the future of
play, please feel free to contact him directly at
[email protected].
www.globaltoyexperts.com & www.globaltoynews.com
Kids India Mag Issue: July 2017 | Page 03