What is hot and what is not ?

[Rasputin]

Ok, current lines are always getting discussed as to how much we like or dislike the sets, themes or particular item from Playmobil. I do not remember if it was discussed here or on Playmoboard but it was stated that the Roman theme did not meet Playmobils sales expectations . Does anybody have more information on this subject ? What are the expectations ? How poorly did the Romans fare ? What currently does or did meet or exceed sales quotas to be considered a success ? I am not particularly interested in only the romans , it is just what triggered the question . i am more interested in all the themes and sales .

[Martin Milner]

What are the expectations? How poorly did the Romans fare?

Interesting question, though I'm not sure anyone has the statistics outside Geobra.

If they had made even a teeny-tiny marketing effort along lines I've discussed elsewhere they might have sold more units, but Playmobil seem to have the attitude that their product will sell itself, and I think they're wrong. If nobody knows the product exists, it won't sell.

I discovered the Playmobil Romans purely by chance in August 2007, when I was taking a short-cut through a local department store through the toy section. If I had taken a different route that day, I would not have subsequently filled my spare room and loft with hundreds of sets and thousands of Playmobil figures.

I would be interested to know if they have different expectations for different lines and sets, since presumably similar sized sets all cost much the same to put together as ideas and manufacture. For example, though every household might buy one Santa Claus special, not many people want to build an army of Santas.

[cachalote]

you made me wonder what is playmobil's ratio between money spent in production and money spent in advertising.
considering they don't spend any money in royalties (they should, if one looks at the new geisterpiraten / pirates of the caribbean sets) and have no franchising shops (although i would love to own one), maybe their profits should be huge.
they sold 420 000 000,00 (420 million) euros of clickies in 2007 (increasing by 12,5% their 2006 sales) but i don't know the value of its profits.
  one thing i know, and i find it amazing - the german market still guarantees 1/3 of the sales.
maybe if playmobil originated in a little country (like lego) the "what's hot and cold" question could be managed in a more "wordly" (instead of back-yard-dely) way.
  anyway, i hope the pirates will never run cold...

[macgayver]

Hi Rasputin

It was on PMB and I wrote that
I sadly cannot give away my source or get deeper into your question

[highlandcattle]

  one thing i know, and i find it amazing - the german market still guarantees 1/3 of the sales.
maybe if playmobil originated in a little country (like lego) the "what's hot and cold" question could be managed in a more "wordly" (instead of back-yard-dely) way.

Funny thing,I third of the sales from LEGO also come from germany. And of those 20% comes from adults who built things like this
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/lar/shows/Lan-RailsOnWh-2008/dscn2940.jpg.

[cachalote]

the lego town is really amazing highlandcattle.
you are right in correcting me in one thing: the problem with playmobil doesn't come from its regional sale ratio - and i was, at least, very stupid to think that way.
the fact that they sell well in germany can't be considered a cause for they "narrow-minded" designs.
maybe, as someone said, the fact that the company headquarters are located in a very small town can be responsible for that.
but then again, lamborghini (in a way, they also produce toys) is based on an even smaller town (sant'agata bolognese).
they get anually more or less the same ammount of money as playmobil and 20% of their sales are made in germany.
they are not an example of good management but their designs don't look that much "regional".

the romans (to get back to the subject) seemed to me a step in the right direction.
they were designed with care and they looked really sharp (a little bit like a lamborghini) and i am surprised to know that it was a commercial flop.
is the same thing happening with the egyptians? 

[Timotheos]

the lego town is really amazing highlandcattle.
they [lambourghini] are not an example of good management but their designs don't look that much "regional".

the romans (to get back to the subject) seemed to me a step in the right direction.
they were designed with care and they looked really sharp (a little bit like a lamborghini) and i am surprised to know that it was a commercial flop.
is the same thing happening with the egyptians? 

Hi Cachalote, you use a lot of strong terminology that may overstate the situation.

The Romans weren't a commercial "flop" they just apparently weren't a smashing success.
And Lambourghini doesn't have to deal with cars of varying ethnicity.

The familiar usually sells best.  We adults were likely more turned onto the Romans due to their historical associations.  There isn't a whole lot of coverage for Romans in pop culture (except Asterix) and they don't carry the visceral thrill that little boys get from "knights in shining armor."  "Romans in shining laminate" isn't exactly a buzzword.

As for Playmobil's narrow-mindedness: they are reaching out to a customer base.  Customers respond best to the familiar.  But, regardless, PM sets are including more brown-skinned figures, and likely 90% of PM's customer base is white-skinned (Japanese and Chinese come in the same skin-tones as Europeans, tan in the south, white in the north).
 
What you call "narrow-mindedness" may just amount to Playmobil's lack of agenda.  Lego, which you cite as an example of worldliness, produces uniformly yellow-figures (except for the franchise characters).  So Lego merely dodged the whole matter.

-Tim

[Rasputin]

Hi Rasputin

It was on PMB and I wrote that
I sadly cannot give away my source or get deeper into your question

Yes any info you can get is appreciated. I was just wanting to get an understanding into what Playmobil expects for a Theme and what is a successful theme or set ? Does Playmobil only re-release items from smashing success themes or could we reasonably wish for more Romans now or in the future ? There are a lot of  themes i was not around to collect and am hoping even though they may have not been flying off the shelves Playmobil may re-test the market and re-release some " not so hot " themes .

Playmobil must have sales quotas for a given set and or theme . How many Romans do Martin, Timotheos , Justin, ( just to name a few ) have to buy for Playmobil to be happy ?

I am not intending this to only be about the Roman theme it is just that it is surprising to a lot of us here it is not considered a success.

[Bill Blackhurst]

Yes any info you can get is appreciated. I was just wanting to get an understanding into what Playmobil expects for a Theme and what is a successful theme or set ? Does Playmobil only re-release items from smashing success themes or could we reasonably wish for more Romans now or in the future ? There are a lot of  themes i was not around to collect and am hoping even though they may have not been flying off the shelves Playmobil may re-test the market and re-release some " not so hot " themes .
Playmobil must have sales quotas for a given set and or theme . How many Romans do Martin, Timotheos , Justin, ( just to name a few ) have to buy for Playmobil to be happy ?
I am not intending this to only be about the Roman theme it is just that it is surprising to a lot of us here it is not considered a success.

I have to agree with you Rasputin! It would seem if the much discussed molds that are considered so expensive to design, these investments would not come close to breaking even if a larger production of them is not manufactured. There are some major collectors concerning the historical themes, & I think the if Playmobil would just put an effort into advertising, it may open a whole new dimension of marketing, It seems strange that there are only certain themes, & items that do not survive a longer production. But beware everyone, there would be more competition for the blister sets of the sought after Romans, & Egyptian theme  !

[cachalote]

timotheos made me think about the skin color problem.
  maybe it is not so much a question of 90% of playmobil costumers having light-pink skins.
if this was so playmobil, like any other big company, would simply add other skin colors to its clickies to conquer new markets.

  i have a theory - maybe plastic color other than light-pink is much more expensive.
maybe there would be no advertising at all if playmobil were to produce more clickies with light brown or brown skin color.

  i decided to do a survey in the playmobil.de site using only the available sets (not the archive ones) and the results concerning the skin color are the following.

light-pink skin color:
all the romans;
all the knights;
all the victorian figures;
all the firemen;
all the police officers;
all the doctors, nurses, medics and patients;
all the veterinarians and pet-owners (although the pets themselves vary their fur colors);
all the farmers, horse-riders and hunters;
all the visitors and all the zoo and waterpark workers;
all the audience, artists and clowns at the circus;
all divers, submarine and boat crews;
all the fairies;
all the merchant-port workers;
all the train passengers and train crews;
all the construction workers;
everyone that is getting married or attending the wedding;
noah;
jesus and his family.


exceptions:
there is only 1 brown clicky in the 123 theme;
all the "modern living" clickies are light-pink (although playmobil decided to create "special" independent families - the kivus, the costas and the wongs);
some of the clickies on vacation are light-brown (i guess from the sun);
there are only 2 light-brown football players (the spanish and the portuguese one);
there is only 1 brown explorer and 2 light-brown (all the others with the dinos, on the swamps or in the jungle are light-pink);
only the dwarfs in the fantasy world are light-brown;
only 2 passengers in the airport are light-brown (all the pilots, crew members and ground workers are light-pink);
only 1 of the specials has brown skin (the massai);

one of the big exceptions is the pirate theme, with a lot of light-brown figures. playmobil really invested in this theme creating even a light-brown pirate captain (all the other pirate captains are light-pink, of course).

this being the case - pink plastic is cheaper - one has to recognize the enormous effort playmobil has made in not taking the easy way in its production - besides easy historically-correct-pink themes they ventured on an entire range of light brown clickies: the egyptians (although the archaeologist is light pink).

  ... but, come to think of it, if the pink plastic is cheaper, all the large parts in all the sets should be pink (boats, islands, airplanes, buildings).

  maybe the problem is only with brown and light brown plastic being more expensive.
this being so, playmobil's effort in adding light brown and brown trees, huts and boat hulls to their enormous quantity of non-light-pink clickies is incredible.

i am sorry, raputin, if i "travelled" a bit out of your original idea for this thread but maybe we should consider that the success of a set should also be analized on its relative production cost.
if my pink-brown theory is right, the moulds are not the only cost playmobil has to consider when making the final balance on each set's profits.
if the oil prices rise again, i bet we will see a lot of new sets with pink pigs, or maybe a lot less with brown trees and brown cabins...