In its long history of development, the humankind used to pay little to no attention to what children do when playing. However, as soon as people realized that the games which children play have great impact on the further development of a child and shape the social behavior of the latter, defining his/her gender role and setting certain behavioral patterns and expectations for the future life of an adult, things changed.
hus, the toy-making industry has been born, spawning numerous branches from developing games to talking baby dolls and transformers. One of the “monsters” in this field, Hasbro has been overwhelmingly popular with its products all over the USA, which makes it worth considering four elements of the company’s marketing mix, namely, place, price, product and promotion.
Once realizing how each of the elements interact with another one and how they work together, one can possibly learn more about the peculiarities of marketing and the significance of its elements.
Like any other company of just as great impact, Hasbro has its four elements of marketing mix perfectly organized and tied close to the company’s strategies and tactics; with the influence the four have on the company income, it could not be any other way. According to the analysis conducted by Augustine et al. (n.d.),
Hasbro’s specific implementation of product, place, price and promotion should allow the company to create diverse products that are targeted towards a specific market and designed with features that make them competitive in the toys and games industry. (Augustine et al., n.d., 24)
Speaking of the first element, namely, the product, one must mention that it affects both the strategy and the tactics of the company immensely, since the product targets a specific audience, namely, children and their parents. Since Hasbro’s key product is toys of all sorts for both girls and boys, games and toys for both entertainment and for children’s development, the company obviously depends on the product considerably.
The dependence of such kind can be easily tracked in the way the company behaves in the market and plans its further actions. For instance, Hasbro has been known for offering not only a certain toy for the children of a certain age, but also for suggesting a million of accessories to the given toy, which raises the purchase rates incredibly.
For example, buying a single Barbie doll would not be enough – a child had also to have a car for the doll to ride in, a baby for the doll to raise, a house for the doll to live in, etc. Since each of the accessories cost a rather insignificant amount of money, adults bought then without any concern, which brought incredible revenues to Hasbro. As Augustine et al. (n.d.) explains, “Reinventing and creating accessories for already existing products has been a successful aspect of Hasbro’s strategy” (19).
It must be admitted that such element of Hasbro’s marketing mix as a place also shapes the strategy and tactics of the company greatly. Despite the fact that the company operates mostly in the United States and is known in the USA better than anywhere else in the world, the company can reach success practically in any part of the world, since the products which the company offers are demanded anywhere in the world where parents care about how their children develop. As Augustine et al. (n.d.) clarifies,
Hasbro needs to continue selling its products to its current retailers and develop new customers where possible. Hasbro needs to capitalize on JAKKS acquisition by developing working relationships with JAKKS’s current customers, such as Walgreens. By placing their products in more stores, Hasbro will be able to enhance the visibility of their products and strengthen the popularity of their core banks. (25)
As for the company’s price policy and the way it affects the strategy and tactics of Hasbro, one must admit that it influences the above-mentioned elements of the company directly. Speaking of the Hasbro price policy, it is necessary to mention that it presupposes surviving in the environment of rather tough competition and, therefore, involves great discounts for customers and relatively the same prices as the ones major toy producing companies offer.
Together with flexible price policy, the company also features unique toy modifications, which altogether makes the company take the first prize in the market competition and benefit greatly. According to Augustine et al. (n.d.),
Hasbro currently has a very effective pricing strategy which provides it with a strong operating margin. Extensions based off of existing products should be priced comparably to their predecessors with slight increases based on the functionality of their features. Completely new products would warrant a significant markup to capitalize on the initially high demand and then decrease as time passes and demand goes on. (25)
The last, but definitely not the least, such important element as promotion must also be discussed thoroughly. Compared to the rest of the elements of the marketing mix discussed above, this one must be the most interesting in terms of the company strategy and by far the most controversial one.
Known widely for its promotion skills and the ability to raise the stakes of literally any product, the company is most likely to face certain issues in case the question of morality is raised in terms of the Hasbro’s promotion practice. As Augustine et al. (n.d.) commented on the issue, “Increasing awareness of the moral questionability of marketing to the young children could lead to official regulations which would interfere with the Hasbro’s marketing strategy” (20).
Therefore, it can be concluded that promotion makes the company’s strategy more elaborate and sophisticated, while the company’s tactics becomes increasingly more unprincipled.
However, the fact that Hasbro is interested rather in spin-offs of its most famous projects than in the development of any new sorts of games and toys is also worth looking at. Although the existing marketing strategy mix seems rather legit and has been time-tested enough to prove its efficiency, one must check if the gimmick has finally wore out its welcome and Hasbro should move on developing new strategies and considering another way of handing the 4Ps of the marketing mix.
As the recent researches claim, the state of the company’s affairs can possibly require certain changes, since the tricks which t Hasbro is trying to pull off are widely recognized and therefore possibly less efficient than they used to be. According to the assumptions made by Tinsman (2011), the company has been dealing with reimagining products for too long and requires further development instead of doing the same thing all over again:
The problem is Hasbro doesn’t have the ability to launch innovative new products. They don’t have the patience to let a new concept take off. It takes time to create a big hit and they want to see big dollars immediately. (Tinsman, 2012, 87)
Therefore, Hasbro’s key problem is that with the current policy and the politics of the marketing mix implementation, the company fails to respond to people’s changing needs, which is why Hasbro definitely needs certain changes in its marketing strategy. At present, Hasbro aims at quick success and quick money, making efficient use of the old, time-tested products which are going to boom anyway.
This is where Hasbro’s obsession with producing the characters from famous Transformers comes from; indeed, if considering the revenues which the company has obtained owing to the recent movie of the same name, it becomes obvious that Hasbro’s key goal at present is to make money out of as many well-marketed labels as possible instead of creating new ones:
Transformers toy sales this year are currently trending to come in between the company’s results for the past two Transformers movie years – $482 million in 2007 and $592 million in 2009 – after a somewhat slower start due to a lower benefit from collector purchases, Hasbro president and CEO Brian Goldner said on a conference call Monday. He added that the brand has been “a major contributor” to revenue growth and that shipments are up more than 100 percent in some markets. (Szalai, 2011)
Therefore, it can be suggested that the current marketing mix helps Hasbro make quick money, yet does not allow the company develop any further. For the enterprise not to be pushed out of its current market position, the strategy has to change, and, therefore, the marketing mix must be reconsidered.
The company can possibly launch a series of completely new toys which embrace a considerably large group of children, say, aged 6-15, and not to tie the newly developed toy to any commonly known brand, since the Hasbro label is already impressive enough. Then, a TV series or a video game based on the toy can be offered. A renewed marketing strategy can start a new era of Hasbro Company and make it even more successful than ever.
Nevertheless, it is clear that Hasbro has become an empire in its field, filling a specific niche and developing the four elements of the marketing mix to fit this niche perfectly well.
With each of the elements efficiently integrated into the system, Hasbro makes a perfect example of a company which knows exactly what the customer wants, thus, creating a perfect product, promotes the product to the right target audience and in the most appropriate way, places the product in the right way and assigns the corresponding price to it, both reasonable and allowing the company benefit considerably.
It cannot be denied that Hasbro is an example of brilliant marketing and nearly ideal management of the four elements of the marketing mix. Offering a perfect example of how the four elements should be organized and how they must interact to bring great revenues, Hasbro still manages to stay one of the USA most influential toy manufacturing companies ever.
Reference List
Augustine et al. (n.d.). Market and Industry analysis: Hasbro. Web.
Szalai, G. (2011). Hasbro third-quarter profit rises 10% helped by ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ business. Web.
Tinsman, B. (2011). Game inventor’s guidebook: How to invent and sell board games, role-play games, and everything in between. Iola, WI: Krauser Publications.