• First, change the focus from toys (their products) to families with young kids (their customers). I’ve often said that the best retailers define themselves not by the products they sell, but by the shoppers they sell to.
• Create a section reserved for birthday parties (who doesn’t enjoy a pit of colored balls?). We spend a fortune on these types of parties for our kids.
• Hire more moms willing to work from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm. Thousands of well-educated moms would sacrifice big salaries to work around their kids’ school schedules.
• Connect with Hispanic families. Nielsen’s Homescan panel consistently shows how Hispanic Americans index highest with baby-oriented products like baby food and diapers.
• Continue to expand food sections with private label supplied by supermarkets. Supermarkets bend over backward to attract young families. Why not introduce a grocer’s brand to shoppers in a completely separate retail channel?
• Offer in-store focus groups for marketers trying to reach kids and moms. Each store has the potential to become a laboratory for understanding how kids and their parents shop, play, and interact with products.
• Conduct midnight release events for DVDs, video games, books, (and new toys?) Toys “R” Us is a player in each of these categories. Book stores and electronics stores do a great job of creating excitement around midnight releases. This could also be a way to attract a new shopper demographic.
• How about… Movie Night at Toys “R” Us?
• Whole Foods has done a great job of developing their brand around healthy living. By co-branding with Toys “R” Us, they have the opportunity to reach new shoppers while Toys “R” Us can benefit from products (not just food) focused on healthy eating, exercise, and environmental sustainability.
• Get vendors to sponsor video game tournaments with gift cards as prizes for winners.
• Offer In-Store pediatrician clinics. Alright, this may be a stretch, but if Walgreens can be successful with their Take Care clinics, why not Toys “R” Us with a specialist focused on kids?
• Offer In-Store Seminar Events for parents on college savings, healthy babies, child-proofing, and have local supermarkets sponsor healthy eating demonstrations.
• Book Signings from children’s book authors.

Feedback? tom.pirovano@nielsen.com

Top Game Consoles January 2009

Top  10 PC Game Titles January 2009

The term “webkinz” topped the list of product searches in August, according to Nielsen Online. The web-linked stuffed animals were searched for more than 5.5 million times online. The Toys and Games categories dominated product searches for the month.

Below are the top 10 retailer and product Web searches for August 2008, according to Nielsen Online.

But while mobile media use has grown rapidly in recent years, mobile advertising has been slow to take hold, Nielsen Mobile reported in a white paper released Tuesday.

In the U.S., some 76.8 million mobile users recall seeing advertising on their phones, according to Nielsen, but 63% report encountering mobile ads only infrequently — once a month or less.  Meanwhile, less than two-thirds of website homepage page views feature mobile advertising.

Lack of awareness of the size of the U.S. mobile audience, the complexity of the mobile marketing ecosystem, and advertisers’ reluctance to invest in mobile advertising are among the key factors restricting mobile ad growth, Nielsen’s analysts note.

View the full white paper.

Read MediaPost’s coverage of Nielsen’s findings.

Learn more about the outlook for mobile advertising – check out VentureBeat’s Q&A with Nielsen’s Senior Vice President of Mobile Media, Jesse Goranson