The toy industry should shout louder about new product launches in order to reap greater rewards, says Gary Grant.
The owner of the UK's biggest independent toy chain The Entertainer says it works more closely with suppliers and licensors nowadays for launches, including character visits in-store, special window displays and more.
"With Moshi Monsters Moshlings Series 4 we opened our shops early to launch [the range]," he told ToyNews. "It’s trying to create excitement and some of the razzmatazz around something, rather than just putting it on the shelf.
"Other industries make a big deal about their launches and as an industry we just put things out.
"We’ve got to start competing. We’ve got to learn from other industries and make the toy industry just as good as them.
'If Nintendo was launching a new game, you wouldn' t stroll into the market and just find it – you would know about it. The toy industry needs to be the same.
Grant added: "It's not just about the TV advertising, the promotion, whatever it might be, has got to drop through to retail. Because if they spend all that money doing those things and then people wander in the shop and [the product’s] not out or it’s on the top shelf, then the industry collectively is not getting the rewards from the investment that’s being made in marketing."