Brand Awareness

And now some thoughts on the Toy Hall of Fame situation.

As I explained before, it doesn’t surprise me that Breyer didn’t make the Hall of Fame finalist list, again. That didn’t annoy me so much, but the fact that Care Bears – the very definition of a manufacturer-created fad – did, did.

My Little Pony or He-Man have similar origins, but they don’t bother me as much: aside from cultural relevancy, their fandoms exist somewhat independent of the companies that created them. They are also played with in ways not dreamed of by their manufacturers: for me, this is a key component in determining whether or not a toy truly fosters imaginative play.

One thing that these three properties do have that Breyers do not – and is probably the key factor in Breyer Horses continuing failure to make the ballot – is brand awareness. Just how many people know of the product, directly or indirectly?

Ask an average random person in the United States what My Little Pony, He-Man, or Care Bears are, and virtually everyone will know what you are talking about.

Breyers… don’t quite have that same level of recognition. But that will take a bit of explanation.

There are basically three levels when it comes to awareness of something – be it a thing or an idea.

First: there are people who are very familiar with the thing or idea.

Second: there are people who know nothing of the thing or idea.

Third: there are people who are vaguely familiar with the thing or idea – basically they know that it exists out there, but they don't know many particulars about it.

When it comes to Breyers in particular, and model horses in general, about 20% of people I know/meet in a day fall into the first category, those who immediately know what I am talking about. That's about one in five. (At the flea market, it's more like 80-90%)

About 20% of people know nothing about model horses, and will look at me like I am a crazy person when I go on about the topic. If they acknowledge the existence of toy horses, they immediately think either “My Little Pony” or “Barbie's Horse Dallas”.

Everybody else falls into the gray zone; conversations with these people usually start with something along the lines of “My sister/cousin/aunt/crazy Uncle Ned collected horses....” and end with “...and they threw them out/gave them to the neighbor's kids/sold them at a yard sale.”

Think about the Toy Story movies: Breyers were clearly implied in the second film when Jessie sings about her former life, but they were not mentioned by name:

I think that sums up the level of awareness that most people have about model horses in general, and Breyers in particular. Oh yeah, I remember those. What were they called, again?

But how do you go about fixing this problem?

I don’t think the availability of the product – or the lack thereof – is necessarily a big factor in the recognition issue. The horse-crazy kids know what Breyers are, even if they don’t necessarily have access to them financially or logistically.

The concept of “toy horses” is not difficult to sell to a larger public, either: that many (if not most) young girls go through a “horse phase” is practically a cliché.

I like to use the “dollar store” analogy: of you can get a knock-off of it at a dollar store, it’s something that has a fairly broad appeal. And you can get model horses – not very good ones, but “horses” nonetheless – at most dollar stores.

As far as the availability issue goes, Breyers as a brand can be tough to market, but that’s also because the retail market is a lot tougher these days: the stores that do have the shelf space would rather dedicate it to products that have a higher brand awareness – like My Little Pony.

My Little Pony managed to achieve this awareness – in part – by going small, creating a self-contained fantasy universe/playground much the way Star Wars did. 

Breyer has that to some degree, but the difference here is twofold. First, Breyer’s “playground” – the model horse hobby – is largely unknown outside of dedicated hobbyists: even among people who know or collect, many are either unfamiliar with it or intimidated by it.

Second, our “playground” is not a self-contained fantasy universe in the same way MLP, He-Man or Star Wars is: it’s basically Live-Action Role Playing (LARPing) of real horses – except where it isn’t (or can’t be). 

So how you go about fixing Breyer’s brand awareness problem?

Aside from encouraging horse-crazy kids to “buy Breyer”, you have to tell the people who were former horse-crazy kids that Breyers are here for them, too. After all, it’s right there in their mission statement:

Delivering the promise of a horse to everyone who dreams of one.

Everyone.

The new management at Reeves has been working on that mission statement, most visibly with last year’s New York Times article, the Imagine Entertainment deal announced a couple month back.

But these efforts so far have been targeted towards kids. That’s great (and necessary, obviously!) but ultimately a brand awareness solution needs to include a plan to engage those who were horse-crazy kids “once upon a time”, but may still harbor deep-seated fantasies of horse ownership.

Letting them know that they can have the horse of their dreams and “play” with them like the real thing? That could be huge. If think the horse-crazy kids who attend BreyerFest for the first time are a joy to behold, seeing the ones who discover (or rediscover) it as adults is downright revelatory.

In short: while “brand awareness” alone should never be enough for inclusion in the Toy Hall of Fame, I think it is one of the primary things holding Breyer Horses back from even being nominated. I think that can be overcome by not just marketing to current horse-crazy kids, but also former (now vintage?) horse-crazy kids.