Changes & Trends in the Baby Product Marketplace
This era could be called the "Golden Age of Baby Products." Proof: the 2000 International Juvenile Products Show, held last September in Dallas' International Apparel Mart, was the largest event in JPMA's 26-year history. The show ranked 57th out of the nation's 200 largest product shows. In all, over 450 baby product exhibits covered six floors and required 600,000-plus square feet of space.
According to JPMA, 1999 baby product retail sales topped $5.39 billion, representing an 11 percent increase over 1998. At the same time, other industries in the baby world are prospering. In 1999, baby toy retail sales rose to $633 million over the previous year's figure of $595 according to the Toy Manufacturers of America. Annual estimates for the baby garment industry: $6 billion; disposable diapers, $16-plus billion; baby foods, $1.25 billion; baby formula, $5.5 billion; baby care products $410 million for the year ending May 21, 2000.
New parents are spending a remarkable estimate of $6,200 on baby-related goods and services during their baby's first 12 months. Factors encouraging product sales are the strong national birth rate of approximately 4 million babies per year (National Center for Health Statistics) and the open-pocketed spending patterns of mature, dual-income parents—especially working mothers and Baby Boomer grandparents.
Overall baby product sales are expected to continue their upswing with U.S. births predicted to rise to 4.5 million over the next few years.
The ever-changing product scene
Carseats, strollers, high chairs and mainstream crib hardware have all undergone dramatic design shifts within the past several years. Carseats continue to modify to meet emerging NHTSA and American Academy of Pediatrics standards for safety. Carseat/stroller combinations have now become mainstream with stroller-only manufacturers rushing to catch up with the market by offering their own matching carseats, or by creating mechanisms to support mainstream infant seats from other companies.
Metal, foot-release hardware for crib dropsides is now being abandoned for more functional nylon-sleeved, lift-and-press ("silent") dropside release mechanisms. Cribs now have only a single lowering side, a feature that is claimed to make frames more stable. Innovations in wood shadings, paint finishes, sculpturing and decorative features are a tribute to crib-makers' innovation in the face of stringent Federal safety demands.
Even though convertible cribs are generally twice as expensive as standard models—the trend continues for 2-in-1, 3-in-1, and even 4-in-1 cribs that later convert to toddler beds, loveseats, rockers, twin, or double beds. And one manufacturer claims convertibles currently represent approximately half of the juvenile crib market.
As in the past, high-end technology and design features formerly found only on top-of-the-line baby products are gradually migrating downward into mid-price units. For example, mid-line strollers from mainstream US companies now offer formerly innovative one-handed folding mechanisms, densely-padded handlebars, trays with cup holders (for both baby and parent), height-adjustable handlebars, thicker seat padding, deep, "Euro-look" sunshades, and larger, sometimes air-inflated, tires.
Sound players and electronic equipment are making their way into the baby world—music, vibrations, and video experiences are becoming part of the entitlement for members of the diaper set. Monitors continue to borrow high tech options from cellphone and beeper industries.
Soft goods and baby garment lines are expanding and diversifying into different "looks" and "tastes." And many molded items, such as potties, bathtubs, baby seats, babyproofing products, entertainers and walkers are maintaining similar, clone-like patterns, but continue to pile on extra "bells and whistles."
Babies as "miniature adults"
Baby product trends are shifting to appeal to the "Y" Generation with products emulating the tastes and entertainment values of today's new crop of parents. These laid-back individuals demand functionality, comfort, and technical sophistication. AND, they're willing to pay for it.
"Y"s consider their babies supremely portable, so multi-use, grow-with-baby equipment is coming on strong, as are professional and athletic lifestyle statements. Examples: big-wheel sport-utility strollers and heavy-duty backpacks for toting babies. High chairs, play yards, swings, bedding and other baby environments are shifting from traditional "baby" color schemes—pinks, blues and yellows —toward adult patterns and fabrics, and colors: leopard skin prints, muted beiges and creams, and gray stripes. For the "professional" parent with the "professional" baby: diaper bags, breastpump holders, and backpacks emulate briefcases and valises. Pricey baby toiletries are becoming laced with the same ingredients that moms seek: aloe vera, camomile and vitamin E.
Researchers are reporting a return to traditional family values for these former latchkey kids now into childrearing. One survey, for example, found that 82 percent of 20- to 24-year-old women thought motherhood was the most important job in the world as compared to 72 percent of the preceding "Gen-X" group. Breastfeeding is on the upswing. Young fathers are departing from compulsive work-centered lifestyles of their fathers. New dads are stepping into equal and involved roles in childrearing; this, even though divorce rates are expected to spike to 60 percent for all marriages in the next few years.
Marketing to the "Y's"
The overtaking of the baby retail world by the giant superstores mimics closely what's happening to the publishing industry, too. Small mom-and-pop bookstores are closing in remarkable numbers, as are small baby stores across the US Retailers are expressing dismay at the lack of "loyalty" of today's parents who come into the store, solicit advice, then walk out the door to find the recommended products somewhere else at a better price. At the same time, thanks to television, books, and magazines, today's parents are becoming more savvy and demanding when it comes to choosing goods for their babies.
There are no "magic bullets" for rescuing smaller retail operations from the ravages of giant baby product retailers who are taking over the new-parent market in startling numbers and undercutting profits of smaller competitors.
There are, however, some commonsense strategies that can help to bring customers in, and, just maybe, to bolster sagging sales and profit margins.
- Make employee training and product mastery a reality for every employee. Typically, large retail operations don't have knowledgeable (or even available) sales personnel to offer the quality of education and support smaller operations can deliver. It's their Achilles' heel. Nothing looses a sale faster than an employee who hasn't a clue about a recent recall, who doesn't know how to fold and open a particular stroller model, to lower the side on a crib model, or the relative merits of infant carseats versus upright convertible models. Don't simply rely on seasonal visits from sales reps. Be proactive across the board. Have employees continually practice their product information and their operational skills. Subscribe to "Consumer Reports." Constantly scan product information sites and recall notices on the web, including the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. At the same time, conduct reconnaissance missions to the big guy's. Observe what new parents are buying and doing. Carry on informal (non-sales) conversations with them.
- Know your target market and offer incentives. Typically, the "lazy" approach is: "if we're "nice" they're going to come." Your prime market is first-time, expectant parents. They're your window of opportunity. Purchase "hot," expectant mother mailing labels for your region and dispatch money-saving offers and educational matter immediately without even taking time to weed out duplicates.
- Discount with discretion. You don't have to discount the entire store, just "THE Carseat" that everyone wants, and the other in-demand products, such as trendy diaper bags and breast pumps that will draw parents into the store and initiate the buying process. Then experiment with advertising in a variety of media, including local "baby" publications from your city's parenting magazine. Keep altering your ads and your approaches month-by-month until you find the strategies that truly yield results.
- Become an education and referral hub. Again. The big guys don't care. You do. Maintain an on-going relationship with those having the most word-of-mouth power when it comes to expectant parents: La Leche League leaders, the International Childbirth Education Association (ICEA) coaches, obstetrician's assistants, and church and hospital parent-support efforts in your community. Create an "expectant parents' directory" of parenting services in your community. Put big ads in it and distribute it free to customers and agencies. Sponsor continuous in-store classes and expert lectures aimed at the pre-childbirth-education set. Not-for-profits can help: the Red Cross ("basic baby care"), the Health Department ("immunizations"), La Leche League and lactation consultants ("breast feeding"), local dentists ("baby teeth"), pediatricians ("baby health questions"), highway patrol ("safe carseat installation"). Keep an up-to-date name and e-mail file of your customers. Create a community kiosk for local meeting announcements and baby-oriented literature.
- Grab promotional opportunities. Keep in contact with the consumer reporters on local television and radio stations through press releases, visits and telephone calls so they'll associate you as the experts when baby product news and recalls break. Offer a free, informative column on baby products and babycare information for your local parenting newspaper that carries your face and your store's name. Offer bumper stickers and refrigerator magnets for parents; hold elegant grandmothers' teas; sponsor baby shower and baby fair events; dispatch informative monthly e-mail newsletters on baby care. Find innovative ways to take "baby registries" to a new level by offering tasteful, individualized brochures for mothers to distribute to their friends.
- Be pretty. Be bright. While most huge baby marts are dizzying and almost overwhelming in scale, sheer product volume, and "glare," many small retail baby operations err the other way. They're dismal, poorly lit, poorly designed, cluttered, and located in out-of-the-way strip malls. Strike out against the "everything big" mentality by thinking "livingroom." Encourage stopping and resting with comfortable seating areas. Vamp up your lighting. Lighten your floors (trendy, light hardwoods?)
- Simplify. De-junk displays. Work with bright pastel colors, intriguing "theme" areas. Mount huge, backlit baby portraits on the walls. Suspend clearly lettered signs to help parents negotiate your aisles. Encourage parents to take products out of boxes, out of packaging, or down from shelves to try them out. Offer product delivery and a generous return policy that's displayed throughout the store. Make sure your bathrooms are mom- and baby-friendly by installing toddler restraining, to-the-floor doors booths and sanitary, safe diapering and nursing areas. Play pleasing, gentle music. Offer ice water and simple, healthy snacks. Create a fenced off toddler play area with safe, clean toys, puzzles, or ongoing videos. Offer parenting reference books and baby magazines in browsing areas.
Instead of trying to emulate the big ball fields, your object should be to create a pleasing garden, a soothing, human-scale environment that invites young, insecure expectant parents to linger, to ask questions, to try out products, to feel at home. Be willing to negotiate to keep the customer. And realize that once your products are in a parents' hands, the battle's half won.