Mattel 2014 Toy Fair
Alexandra Halky, Angela Pontillo, and Victoria Wells
Ithaca College
STCM 23000 Section 01
Meeting and Event Management
Table of Contents
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
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TARGET AUDIENCE
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OBJECTIVES
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THEMES
9
STAFFING PLAN
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BUDGET PLAN
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SCHEDULES FOR DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
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Situational Analysis
The Toy Fair 2014 is going to be held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York
City, from February 16th to the 19th. The show hours will be 10a.m. – 6p.m. on Sunday,
9a.m. – 6p.m. on both Monday and Tuesday, and 9a.m. – 4p.m. on Wednesday. It
includes more than 1,000 exhibiting manufacturers, distributors, importers, and sales
agents from around the world to showcase toys and entertainment products. There is
expected to be 250 new exhibitors. Attendees will include retailers, wholesalers,
importers, buying groups and trade agents from nearly 100 countries.
According to Yahoo Finance, Mattel’s main competitors are Hasbro Inc,
Nintendo, and JAKKS Pacific Inc. These competitors are in the toys and games industry,
and only Hasbro Inc. and JAKKS Pacific Inc. will be attending this toy fair. Hasbro is
more widely known for its board games as well as targeting toddlers and pre-teenagers
who enjoy playing with action figures and toy guns. This company is currently working
on its 2020 sustainability goals, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of its global
operations. In terms of toys, Hasbro’s Big Hugs Elmo has made the “hot toys” list for
retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us during the holiday season. Its
competitive advantages include owning iconic brands such as Monopoly, Scrabble,
Transformers, and My Little Pony plus longer existence than Mattel. Hasbro was found in
1923 and Mattel was established in 1945. It has an alliance with major studios in
Hollywood, meaning it has secured right to key brands associated with movie franchises.
In addition, Hasbro maintains a strong capital position to expand into emerging markets,
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mergers, and acquisition where desired. It can develop more innovatively such as
incorporating technology and online elements into its products.
Nintendo is a multinational consumer electronics company that was introduced in
1985. Its headquarters are in Japan, which developed popular game consoles such as
Game Boy, Wii, GameCube and Nintendo 3DS. Nintendo 3DS is the latest product
launch; released in 2011 allowing gamers to view 3D content without the using special
glasses. Unfortunately, former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi died on September
19, 2013, so there isn’t a lot of product news being spotlighted. The company’s main
competitive advantages are its simplicity and less expensive compared to Sony game
systems. The brand has captured the broader with popular games such as the Super Mario
Brothers and Donkey Kong. Another advantage is its lifetime position in the market,
making it the leading electronic game company around the world.
California competitor JAKKS Pacific Inc was founded in 1995 in Malibu, which
designs and markets toys and consumer products. Popular action figures include Dragon
Ball Z and Pokémon along with licensed brands Barney and the Cheetah Girls. Currently,
the company is struggling to remain on the same level as Mattel. According to The Los
Angeles Times September 2013 article, “Jakks Pacific is playing catch-up with toymaking rivals,” sales have been consecutively declining for five years. Retailers have
been reporting weak sales and shorter movie properties. This shows that Mattel, Hasbro,
and Nintendo have managed to do much better than Jakks.
The internal factors that may affect Mattel can be the company’s employees,
organizational direction, capital and cash flow. Mattel needs to ensure that everyone has
the same understanding for its toy fair exhibit event. The participants at the toy fair need
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to keep the communication open with the other employees at Mattel in case problems
arise. They need to be efficient when doing demo presentations as well as being articulate
and energetic to all attendees. Capital concerns deal with the available resources such as
equipment and technical services, which can enhance Mattel’s ability to compete with
Hasbro and Nintendo. For cash flow, Mattel needs to maintain a balance of its
investments through its competent management team, allocating sufficient funds for the
trade show.
The external factors can be the toys fair itself, specifically the setup at the Jacob
Javits Center. There can be legal and regulatory constraints that can prevent Mattel from
doing a specific event. Limitations on space can hinder a plan that’s very extravagant in
which high technical operations are involved. Also, competition is the most critical
factor. A strategic plan will be needed to decide which products lines will be featured,
and how they will presented. Mattel must use its strengths and efficient operations to plan
a unique event within the toy fair.
At the trade show Mattel will promote its top products, Barbie dolls, Monster
High dolls, Disney’s planes and cars, and Matchbox cars. After Disney’s movie “Planes”
came out this summer the toy airplanes have been flying off the shelves and will be an
important addition to the Disney toy cars. Matchbox cars are an old and popular favorite,
along with Barbie. Monster High Dolls are Mattel’s response to the popular “Bratz”
Dolls. They have become rather popular and will also be promoted at the Toy Fair.
The core themes that will be exhibited through these promoted products are fun,
new but familiar and popular. With these themes a message of understanding what our
consumer wants will be delivered. Those that see the exhibit will see how the products
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are paying attention to what consumers want and adaptations from current movies and
well as having our classic toys like Barbie and Matchbox, while still keeping them fresh
and fun. Though the products are new they are familiar, because they are classic and they
are popular. The popular and classic toys will translate well for the many international
trade show attendants; Barbie is so globally well known it is important to promote her.
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Target Audience
 Toy industry buyers and media searching for innovation and digital elements
 Toy Fair exhibitor staff involved with public relations, marketing, advertising, and
social media
 Press representatives
 Product testers who have and enjoy using iPads and iPhones for some product lines
 Toy Stores
o Toys ‘R Us
o Target
o Walmart
o K-Mart
o Amazon
o Disney Stores
o Children’s Place
o Sears
o Macys
o Kohl’s
o Barnes and Noble
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Objectives
 Get a lot of people to come to Mattel section in trade show
o Have more people than previous years (track attendance)
 Increase sales
o Gain new customers
o Increase sales with existing customers
 Network with other companies (face to face relationship-building)
 Keep up positive image
-Stay professional, yet fun and energetic
 Publicity (for company, new products)
o Enhance company and product visibility
o Attract attention from attendees who are unfamiliar with our company
o Gain press
 Learn more about our competitors
o Learn how to distinguish our company from others
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Theme
The theme for Mattel’s booth at the trade show will be “Real life fun!” We’ll have
real life scales of the toys. We will have remote control planes and cars flying around
from the movie planes. We will hire models that will walk around acting like Barbies or
dressed in the “monster high” costumes. We will also hire wrestlers to have a wrestling
match. This will attract attention to our booth but keep the attention on our products, by
making them big and in your face. Can play songs like “I’m a Barbie girl.” People could
even do Karaoke with Barbie or one of the monster high girls.
Event Activities
 Racetrack for cars
 Barbie doll, Monster high doll, and Disney princess models doing product demos
and fashion show
 Singing Karaoke with Barbie
 Planes flying around by using remote control
 Wrestling show
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Staffing
We are going to need to hire designers for our booth, a set up crew that can install
the booth. We are also going to need an IT professional to set up and manage any
technology. We will need to hire two people to control the remote control Disney planes
and cars. It will be required to have four employees manning the booth at all times
answering any and all questions patrons may have about Mattel and its products. We will
also need to hire at least five models to act as real life Barbie, Disney princesses and
monster high girls. They also will of course need a professional makeup artist. We will
also need a costume designer or seamstress for the princess, Barbie and wrestling
costumes. If we have five models for the dolls we will need six wrestlers, that way there
can be three matches in the wrestling ring. We would need to hire a ref for the matches.
We will also need to hire people to set up and take down the wrestling ring. We will then
need to hire a crew (possibly the same crew used for set up) to uninstall and take down
the booth.
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Mattel Exhibit Cost Summary
Cost Description
Booth
Floor Space
Furnishings
Graphic Design
Storage
Rental Island Displays (3)
Accessories
Transportation
Shipping
Drayage
Actual
Cost
$734,889.75
$1,200
$10,000
$5,000
$68,163
$2,041
Total
$821,293.75
$2,500
$761,600
$764,100
Labor
Electrician
Wardrobe Stylists
Hair & Makeup Artists
Setup Personnel
Painters
Costume Designer/Seamstress
$1,000
$450
$175
$3,000
$2,000
$400
$7,025
Promotion
Barbie House Raffles
WWE Season Tickets
Mailers
Event Services
Technical
Communications
Entertainment/Decoration
Supplies
Photography
Entertainment
Models
DJ
$27.33
$330
$1,600,000
$1,600,357.33
$119.64
$39,703.05
$104,981.50
$10,276.50
$2,821
$157,901.69
$2,700
$1,000
$3,700
Booth Staff & Participants
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Travel Expenses
Hotel Expenses
Miscellaneous
Wrestling
Costumes/Accessories
Barbie Costumes/Accessories
$200
$507
$707
$50
$50
$100
$3,355,184.77
Budget
0%
0%
0%
booth
5%
24%
transportation
labor
promotion
event services
48%
23%
entertainment
booth staff & participants
miscellaneous
0%
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