Toy Marketing Goes Global

In toy stores from Birmingham to Boston to Beijing, a small robotic toy dog silently begs, "Buy me, buy me."

Along with aluminum scooters and the latest miniature monsters from the Pokemon line, computerized canines called Poo-chi or Teksta are expected to be the gifts of choice for youngsters around the world this holiday season.

Egged on by aggressive mass marketing, youngsters increasingly demand the same playthings. But toy sellers say that, in a global community, children also are influenced by word of mouth and the World Wide Web.

"A British kid goes to Florida in the summer, brings something back and shows it to his friends and you have the makings of a fad," said Barry Eldridge of The Entertainer, Britain's largest independent chain of toy stores.

Parents usually favor educational toys, but it is kids who "have the biggest say in what kind of toys they get," according to John Ho, editor of the Hong Kong magazine In Toys.

The British Association of Toy Retailers, which represents 75 percent of the retail trade, predicts that kids this year will be reaching first for the shiny skate-scooter now skimming along sidewalks around the globe.

Trainable robot dogs that dance and sing also are proving popular in Britain and elsewhere. Half of the 10 versions offered by Internet seller eToys are currently sold out.

A Chinese knockoff of Poo-chi also is doing well, but in Beijing's Hongqiao market, vendor Gao Zhixing is putting his money on Pokemon.

"Anything with Pokemon on it is a guaranteed seller," he said.

Pokemon has kept its grip on children's imaginations with strategies that include regular releases of fresh merchandise and aggressive marketing. Even before their release, two new Pokemon computer games have sold 700,000 copies, according to makers Bandai Co.

Apart from games, backpacks, action figures and cards, Pokemon also offers a range of small items easily affordable for those with just pocket money.

"At the moment (Pokemon) is truly and unfortunately a drug," said Rome resident Elena Fossa, whose 9-year-old son Jacopo is hooked, along with his contemporaries in Sweden, the United States and Hong Kong.

For the Pokemon-weary, there is Digimon, an upgraded range of "digital" monsters.

"It's our next horror," said Evelyn Bunzel, a saleswoman at the plush Hertie department store in Frankfurt, Germany, reflecting the pressure to rush new products onto the shelves.

The Entertainer's Eldridge said the old system of launching a product in the United States and six months later in Britain no longer works.

"This is a racing market and the customer has left manufacturers and retailers behind," he said. "The fashion industry releases a look in many places simultaneously, and we are moving toward that."

Reyne Rice of NPD Inc., a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y., said many toys are now launched simultaneously in Britan and U.S. markets, but that deliveries of some items have been slowed this year by a shortage of computer microchips created by unexpectedly high demand for consumer electronics.

The chip shortage also has cut supplies of the eagerly awaited Sony Playstation 2, causing near-riots when it hit the shelves in the United States and Japan.

Wanda Ambrosini, marketing director of Prima Toys, South Africa's largest toy wholesaler, said children there are increasingly choosing such computer and video games over more conventional toys.

But elsewhere, Teddy bears, toy cars, Lego and Barbie remain perennial favorites, particularly in Russia, where the likes of Pokemon have yet to infiltrate.

Giuseppe Marrucco, a Rome toy dealer who sells only what he calls "traditional toys" hand-carved Pinocchios, dollhouses and marionettes bemoans the dominance of high-tech offerings.

"The true toy (is) ... lively and colorful. It must be educational, while also a treasure," Marrucco said, lamenting that modern toy stores "are full of rows of illuminated plastic ... squalid, almost sad, lacking warmth."

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