A Land of Misfit Toys?

As a parent and the owner of a toy company, I watch with keen interest as every new holiday toy catalog floods my mailbox. In flipping through the respective catalogs of mega-retailers Target & Walmart, I must admit that I became a bit agitated. No, it wasn't because of their aggressive "Rollback" prices or their $350 worth of coupons, it was the toys themselves.

You see, as an independent, specialty toy retailer, Fat Brain Toys sells very different toys than what I saw in these catalogs. While I know that WE stock thousands of quality toys & games, I was troubled to think that most of America will only see what is on the shelves of these prominent retailers. And that's a real shame...here's why:

1) So much of mass market retailing revolves around licensing, TV characters and movie tie-ins. It makes sense, kids identify with what they're watching on TV and seeing in the movies, so it's an easy sale. But what happens when the character fad fades? And why is Mickey Mouse playing a guitar anyway? In today's "disposable toy" mentality, maybe it's just assumed that the toy will make it's way to the trash can long before the interest in the character fades.

But we look at toys very differently at Fat Brain Toys. First, we sell toys that are inherently interesting...toys that don't need a silly character slapped on the side to make it entertaining. Second, we seek out products that are such high quality that they can be passed down from one sibling to the next, or maybe even one generation to the next!

2) I was frankly kind of disgusted to see the number of violent and provocative toys displayed throughout these retailers' catalogs. Don't get me wrong, as a kid, one of my favorite activities was dumping out a pile of army men on the floor and waging epic (though miniature, green plastic) battles. But as with so many things in life, it's all about moderation.

Rather than filling little Bobby's insatiable imagination with toys that trend towards violence, how about filling some of his time with crafts, science kits, brainteasers, or construction-based toys that encourage creativity and problem solving.

3) And what happened to variety? Each catalog is basically Barbie, Elmo, Star Wars, Cars, and Leap Frog sandwiched between a cover emblazoned with each respective company logo. While these retailers may be selling the "hot" toys, they sure aren't selling the innovative ones!

It's a little known secret that most good toys start out in the specialty market, then once proven successful are rolled out the next year as the "next big thing". If you're looking for variety and innovation, step in the door of your local specialty retailer and you'll be exposed to a toy world that you may not have known even exists!

So this year, think outside the "big box" and instead choose to "shop small"! In it's second year, American Express OPEN is sponsoring "Small Business Saturday" on Saturday, November 26th. It's an opportunity for people across the country to come out and shop to support their favorite local businesses. Click here for more details about Small Business Saturday: https://www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday

What We Learned at "The Book

Background

As part of the Big Break for Small Business contest, we had the great fortune of spending two days this past August at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California. For those of you who are not familiar with the contest, American Express OPEN and Facebook teamed up to provide five companies with a “big break”. Specifically, they wanted to give five small businesses the opportunity to grow their businesses by utilizing social media. By combining hands-on training from Facebook experts, and a cash prize by American Express OPEN, it would give these small businesses a unique opportunity to accelerate the growth of their business. 

Just 45 days since our return, I’m pleased to report that we’re making significant progress AND beginning to reap the benefits of an enhanced focus on social media.

In this blog post, we’d like to share a few of the learnings that we walked away with and give a couple examples of how we’re putting it into practice in our business. While we’re not pretending to be experts in social media, Facebook opened their doors to us and we want to do our part to “pay it forward”.

American Express OPEN will also be producing a series of videos that will document our learnings and provide even more resources for small businesses. Once those are published, they’ll be available at http://www.facebook.com/OPEN

What We Learned (for business & organizations)

While it’s impossible to encapsulate all our learnings into such a brief document as this, there were a few key concepts that made an impression on us and our outlook towards social media. Some of these learnings may sound basic on the surface, but as is often the case, it’s the mastery of fundamentals that separate the great companies from the good.

The official Facebook-for-business marketing plan is “Build, Engage, Amplify”. While the complete “Best Practice Guide” can be downloaded directly from Facebook (http://www.facebook-studio.com/fbassets/media/856/FacebookBestPracticeGuide.pdf), allow me to elaborate on what it meant to me.

Build

The basic concept here is START your social initiative. Build a Facebook page for your business or organization. Utilize one of Facebook’s many pre-built plugins. Extend your basic page with a custom app. Bottom line, get off the sidelines and into the game. There are a number of advanced steps you can take, but not until you take that important first step.

Another important concept is to “bake” social media in at the beginning - make your marketing efforts “social by design”. We are perfect examples of this...or should I say, perfect offenders of this concept. Like most small businesses, we already have a lot on our plate and sometimes that the position that “I can’t possibly add another task to my schedule”. The notion of “social by design” is more about weaving social media into everything we do versus treating it as some disparate marketing function. Baked in at the start, social media will become a natural extension of your brand and an organic component of your marketing efforts.

Engage

Once you have created the social platform, it’s time to engage your customer base. For me, the true meaning of the word “engage” had eluded me. As a marketer, I thought I had been “engaging” my customers for years, when in fact I was simply broadcasting to them. Engaging is all about creating a conversation, and by definition you need at least two parties involved to converse. There are a number of ways that a business can interact with their customers in the social web, but the key concept is to stop talking TO them and start communicating WITH them.

Some important tips when engaging your customers:

• Keep it human. One of my biggest pet peeves with e-commerce companies is when they build up a technological wall from their customers and utilize their website as if it were an order taking robot. Social media is not only your chance to bring a human touch to your company, but it’s practically a requirement. 
• Give it a voice. Having a voice is part of keeping it human, but make sure that your voice is consistent and representative of the brand you wish to project. It can be more conversational, but make sure that it’s in line with the goals and greater mission of your organization.
• Keep it timely and relevant. Make an effort to engage your customers on a frequent basis, but don’t force it on them. Make it meaningful.
• Reward your customers. Give them a tangible reason for becoming your “friend” by utilizing Facebook’s unique features or by providing exclusive offerings for friends only.
• Listen. Like any conversation, it’s important to listen (at least) as much as you speak. In the context of Facebook, carefully observe the responses you get to various posts. Are you getting a lot of likes on certain content and not others? Are your customers commenting on your videos, but not photos? What are customers saying about your business, your products, your service? Listen attentively and adjust your engagement as necessary.

Amplify

Once you’ve built something and begun to engage your customers, now it’s time to amplify! Originally on Facebook, amplification only happened organically by the nature of friends sharing with friends, who shared with more friends, who then shared with other friends, etc. Facebook now has a variety of sophisticated tools that allow you to take a more proactive role in the amplification process. 

Ads

While online sponsored ads have existed for well over a decade, the enlightened nature of the Facebook platform has taken sponsored ads to a whole new level of targeting. In the “old world” way of doing sponsored search, you would target hundreds of potential keywords, adjust their respective bids and copy in hopes of finding a favorable ROI for a small portion of those keywords. These were simply the only levers that you could pull. In contrast, thanks to the myriad of data that individuals volunteer about themselves to build their Facebook profile, it’s now possible to target an ad to a very specific set of consumers. For instance, if I owned a tuxedo shop in Omaha, I could create an ad that says “Best Prom Tuxedos in Omaha” and display this ad during the months of March and April only to male high school students in Omaha, Nebraska. Think about your own business or organization. How valuable would your online advertising be if you could tailor your marketing message to your exact demographic?

Sponsored Stories

Sponsored Stories are perhaps the purest example of amplification on Facebook. Every time someone interacts with your business, that action briefly appears as part of their News Feed. With Sponsored Stories, that action is highlighted in the right column of their friends’ Facebook page as well, amplifying the original action and accelerating the word of mouth impact for your business.

There are a number of other technologies and tactics that could be classified as Build, Engage, or Amplify depending upon where you are in your social media evolution including: Social Plugins, Graph API, Events, Places, and Deals. And it’s important to note that social media is evolving quickly. Just as the technologies that preceded it, it’s likely that social media will look very different five years from now. But that is no excuse to procrastinate another day! Social media is here to stay and can provide important benefits for your organization...now.

How We’re Applying Social Media

Since our Facebook visit, we’ve had some time to gain perspective. There were some things we were already doing well. There were a few simple things that needed to be improved. And then there were still other things things that needed serious work. But most importantly, we have begun baking social media into all facets of our business. These changes are subtle in some areas while dramatic in others. But make no mistake, we intend to use the gift we’ve been given. 

A couple examples of how we’ve baked social media into our marketing efforts:

Free Toy Tuesday & Free Game Friday

Every week we give our Facebook friends the opportunity to win one of our fantastic toys & games. A contest like this serves several purposes:

1. It gives us an opportunity to grow our fan-base and prospect list
2. It gives us the opportunity to gain goodwill by putting free toys & games into the hands of our wonderful customers
3. It creates a viral effect by friends sharing with their friends

Fat Brain Toy Awards

While we’ve been hosting the Fat Brain Toy Awards on fatbraintoys.com for the past three years, this year we made the leap to integrate Facebook into the voting mechanism. Our customers can now either vote for or “Like” a given product. This was a great example of an application that was ripe for social media - all it took was a little advance planning to bake in the social media component. Try it for yourself at: https://apps.facebook.com/fatbraintoyawards/

In the coming weeks and months, look for a Facebook “Connect” login in our order process, allowing customers quick and easy access to their shipping information. And look for several exciting social apps including a Gift Wizard, Photo Sharing and Gift Registry. 

But Does Social Media Really Work?

There is a lot of buzz around social media, but as a small business owner, should I spend time and money on an unproven marketing medium? Twelve months ago, I was asking the same question. But today, I have both a great appreciation for the value of social media, but more importantly I have cold-hard numbers that are beginning to paint a positive picture:

• On July 5th, when the Big Break voting began, we had 947 Facebook likes. By the conclusion of the contest, we had accumulated 2,488. As of this writing, we’re are in excess of 7,000. So while we worked very hard during the course of the contest, we’ve added another 4,500 since the contest ended.
• Friends are nice, but what about revenue? Year over year, we’ve seen a 281% increase in referrals and a 183% increase in revenue from Facebook visitors. 

We’re not there yet, but these are all promising signs that social media is working for us and can likely work for you too! Regardless of where you stand today, it’s time to get social!

If you have thoughts or questions for us, we encourage you to reply to this blog post.

Guest Blogger: Educator & Inventor Evelyn Christensen

School is beginning another year. It's a time of fresh starts, excitement, and high hopes. Parents are wondering, "What can we do to make this the best year yet for our kids education-wise?"

I'm an educator. I have a master's in mathematics and a doctorate in education. I've taught at lots of different levels, but my favorite is lower elementary, because the kids that age have such a sense of wonder and an eagerness to learn. My best advice to parents for the new school year, regardless of the age of your child, is to nurture that wonder, curiosity, and desire to learn. These are precious gifts, which can easily be lost in our high-speed, hurry-up-to-the-next-thing-on-our-schedule culture.

Take the time to listen to your children. Encourage them to ask questions. Share with them your own questions. "How do robins find worms hidden in the ground?" "Where do butterflies go in a storm?" "Why are children starving in the world?".... Some questions have answers. Help your child find them. Some questions don't have answers, but discussing them can still be worthwhile.

Encourage your children to view intellectual challenges as fun! I was on an internet discussion board recently where a parent posted a complaint about a math problem on her child's standardized test for identifying gifted students. The problem was something like "If the cost of an item is $3 plus half the cost, what is the cost?" (The answer, by the way, is not $4.50.) Numerous people responding to the post thought schools had no business asking such a challenging, tricky question. Most of them seemed to have a negative attitude about intellectual challenges and were probably passing that attitude on to their children.

But the fact of the matter is that our world is full of challenging problems, and we desperately need children to develop skills in using their minds to tackle them. If parents view intellectual challenges as fun and exciting, kids are likely to also. That's where Fat Brain Toys is such a wonderful resource. They offer countless products that are great for getting kids to stretch their minds, and do it in fun ways that kids will enjoy. Aba-Conundrums, which I developed, is one such example. It's an award-winning set of puzzles based on the abacus, and is a set that parents and kids can enjoy together.

Help your child find ways to make routine school assignments interesting. Let's face it--some of the things kids need to learn, like math facts and spelling words, may not seem very exciting. Try to find ways to turn the assignments into a game or fun activity for your child. Fat Brain Toys can again provide assistance. With learning math facts, for example, their Math Busters set of books can make what is sometimes an arduous task into an activity kids can look forward to.

Encourage your child's creativity. When children have an opportunity to express themselves creatively in the learning process, they're more likely to find the experience satisfying and rewarding. Writing and art are obviously great areas for creativity. But even in subjects like math, children can be creative. For example, with the Math Busters and Aba-Conundrums mentioned above, once your child has done several of the activities, you can suggest that they try creating one of the puzzles themselves. They'll exercise their brain in the process, and will love challenging you to solve their creation!

We all want the very best for our children, and education plays such an important role in their development and in who they will become. I'm praying for you as you try to help your child have the best learning experience possible this year!

About Evelyn... Evelyn Christensen has a doctorate in education and has taught at levels from kindergarten to graduate school. Her favorite level is elementary. She loves to create resources to help kids stretch their minds and to make learning fun for them. More than 45 of her educational puzzle books and math games have been published. Her two most recent ones published by Fat Brain Toy Co. received awards: Aba-Conundrums a Parents' Choice Award, and Inchimals a Teachers' Choice Award and a NAPPA Gold. She is also the author of Fat Brain Toy Co.'s Math Busters book series. Evelyn also writes stories, poems, and puzzles for children's magazines. She has four grown children and lives in Lexington, KY with her husband Ralph. You may contact Evelyn at evelynchristensen.com.

A Social Awakening for Fat Brain Toys

Mark & Erik presenting to the Big Break group

Big Break Contest Background

We recently returned from an extraordinary visit to Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California. What on earth was a toy company like Fat Brain Toys doing at “the Book”? As part of the Big Break for Small Business contest sponsored by Facebook and American Express OPEN, Fat Brain Toys had won the proverbial lottery, being chosen as one of just five companies out of 11,000 entrants to spend two days with Facebook experts.

For those of you who are not familiar with the contest, American Express OPEN and Facebook teamed up earlier this year to provide five companies with a “big break”. Specifically, they wanted to give five small businesses the opportunity to grow their businesses by utilizing social media. By combining hands-on training from Facebook experts, and a cash prize by American Express OPEN, it would give these small businesses a unique opportunity to accelerate the growth of their business. It truly would be a “big break”.

But why would Facebook and American Express OPEN bother to do this? As the lucky winner, I must admit that I didn’t fully understand myself...I was just grateful for the opportunity. It didn’t take long to realize that through this contest, we had simply been chosen as missionaries - real life case studies of how social media could impact small business.

While we intend to leverage our learnings to improve our business and the services we provide to our customers, we also want we to do our part to extend what Facebook and American Express OPEN started. We want to help other small businesses succeed too! As a follow-up to this document, we will share some of the key learnings that we walked away with and our personal pledge to help other small businesses. Of course one visit to Facebook does not make us experts in the field of social media. Then again, we are a living and evolving case study that will be in trenches - building, engaging, testing, analyzing, and learning as we go.

American Express OPEN will also be producing a series of videos that will document our learnings and provide even more resources for small businesses. Once those are published, they’ll be available at http://www.facebook.com/OPEN

The Winners

For those of you who voted in the contest, you might be curious about the other winners in the contest. I’ve had numerous friends and family already ask me, “So did you get to meet Big Daddy?”. Yes, I had the distinct pleasure of spending time with Gordon and Darquia of Big Daddy’s BBQ, but also with the owners of Distinctive Gardens, HOPELights and Spoonflower. The thing that amazed me the most was that each of the owners were exactly who they appeared to be on their videos: genuine, gracious, friendly, savvy, and absolutely passionate about their businesses. 

Big Daddy’s BBQ - each time Gordon opened his mouth, he either had us laughing or crying. His story is truly the stuff that American dreams are made of.

Distinctive Gardens - Bud is the tie-dye wearing “face” of the company, but Lisa sits quietly in the background making things happen - including an impressive social media initiative. One of the things that struck me most about Distinctive Gardens is their enduring commitment to their community, and in return, their community’s warm support of them.

HOPELights - Dawn took her own personal challenges, combined it with deep marketing expertise, and created inspirational tools that help the families of children with special needs throughout the country. Her passion for kids with special needs is undeniable...and infectious.

Spoonflower - Inspired by his wife’s simple insight, Stephen Fraser and partner Gart Davis have set out to infuse the otherwise old-school field of fabric design with personalization and high-technology. These seasoned entrepreneurs are giving artists an entirely new medium from which to create.

While we entered the contest as competitors, we all learned from each other throughout the contest and walked away with great mutual respect for each other. Keep an eye out for these companies as they continue to flourish and make an indelible impact in their respective fields.

How Fat Brain Toys Will Apply Social Media

As I write this, with my mind still buzzing with the possibilities of how social media can be deployed in our business, I’m still finalizing my social media to-do list. There were some things we were already doing well. There are a few simple things that can be improved. Still other things things that need to be seriously evolved. Most importantly, we will begin baking social media into all facets of our business. This will be subtle in some areas while dramatic in others. But make no mistake, we intend to use the gift we’ve been given. 

In the coming weeks and months, look for a Facebook “Connect” login in our order process, allowing customers quick and easy access to their shipping information. Look for several exciting social apps for our Fat Brain Toy Awards, Gift Wizard, and Gift Registry. And of course, look for a significantly improved Facebook presence.

All of this is squarely focused on one goal: To bring our unique brand of quality toys & games to even more American households. For nearly nine years now, we’ve been building a foundation for something great. We see social media as the means for accelerating that recognition in the marketplace. As always, we thank you for your support and will continue to work hard to earn your patronage.

A Referendum for Specialty Toys

It’s not every day that specialty toys and games are raised to the average consumer consciousness. But that’s precisely what has occurred thanks to a contest sponsored by Facebook and American Express OPEN.

The contest was created to give five small businesses the opportunity to win a two-day, one-on-one social media makeover at Facebook headquarters and $20,000 to help grow their business. While more than 11,000 companies entered the contest, Nebraska-based Fat Brain Toys was the only toy company to be chosen as a finalist.

Why is this significant? Backed by the media-savvy Facebook and the deep pockets of American Express, this contest has garnered national attention and drawn in hundreds of thousands of voters, many of which listened to Fat Brain Toys’ co-founder Mark Carson talk about the unique benefits of “specialty toys”. While the term is thrown around liberally in the toy industry, do consumers really know what a specialty toy is, where they can purchase one, or why it matters?

It's no mystery that the impressions of most consumers are defined by what they see and hear. With the proliferation of big box retailers, most consumers only see the toys which make it to the shelves of their nearest “big box” retailer. And driven by television ads and movie tie-ins, often times kids are telling their parents they only want the latest gadget they just saw on TV.

If you're a consumer who has been swept up in this mass market vortex, you may not even be aware of what you're missing.

Think about it this way: Specialty toys are to kids what fruit is to a healthy diet. Sure, it's fun to slam down a candy bar every now and then, but if your diet consists of nothing but junk food, what becomes of your health? So too with a child's diet of toys. To extend the analogy - YOU ARE WHAT YOU PLAY.

Specialty toys are fundamentally a different breed. Whereas most mass market toys are driven by licensed characters and movie tie-ins, specialty toys must be entertaining and intriguing at their very core to sustain a child's interest. In a nutshell, that is what defines a specialty toy. The question every consumer needs to ask themselves is: Will the toy I’m purchasing sustain my child's interest after the allure of the latest character craze fades?

Sadly, the only problem with specialty toys is that they are more difficult to find. Often, a special trip to a local neighborhood toy store or a museum gift shop is necessary to find these quality toys.

That's where it all ties back to this contest.

Fat Brain Toys is attempting something very difficult. They are trying to re-program the American consumer to rethink their choice in toys. They are trying to bring awareness to the fact that a good toy diet is every bit as important as a healthy food diet. They want to feed our children a balanced diet of wholesome toys in hopes that they are intellectually prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.

So please, support the specialty toy industry by casting a vote for Fat Brain Toys in the "Big Break for Small Business" contest today. The last day of voting is Tuesday, July 19th.

You can view Fat Brain Toys' video entry here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N4iekNP2WA

Voting for Fat Brain Toys takes place here:
http://www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday?sk=app_140670829343013