• 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

These households also outspent average households by 88% on purchases of ice, and by 75%, 72%, and 64%, respectively, on purchases of baby food, baby needs, and disposable diapers.

Acculturated Hispanic-American households — those that speak at least some English at home – account for 10.8% of all U.S. households.  These households represented 20.5% of dried vegetables and grains product dollar sales and 20.3% of ice product dollar sales.  Hispanic-American households also accounted for 18.9% of baby food product dollar sales, 18.6% of baby needs product dollar sales, and 17.7% of disposable diapers product dollar sales.

Other categories skewing to Hispanic-American households include hair care, family planning, women’s fragrances, grooming aids, and juices and drinks.

Nielsen’s Marketing Tip:
Retailers targeting Hispanic-American households may want to promote these categories (above) with feature ads, displays, and product assortments. Manufacturers should consider cross-promoting and cross-couponing items in these categories.

Nielsen’s Dollar Volume Index identifies demographic groups that account for above or below average dollar volume purchases for a given product category.

Data for the index was collected via Nielsen’s Homescan consumer panel, a nationally representative sample of U.S. households that provides a stratified, proportionate, non-biased representation of the U.S. population. Homescan panelists scan all of their UPC coded purchases after every shopping trip, allowing Nielsen to capture their complete shopping and buying behavior.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Brandweek and Food Product Design.

That lack of Spanish-language online content has left many Hispanics out of online consumer discussions, Blackshaw argues.

“If you survey the landscape of brand websites, mini-sites and Facebook brand pages, you’ll be struck by the surprising absence or marginalization (intentional or not) of Spanish-language content,” Blackshaw writes.  “I wonder why, even for brands where Hispanics and Latinos dominate the buyer or emerging buyer set, Spanish-language content is so sparse or even nonexistent.”

Advertising and enabling feedback in Spanish — and eventually, other languages — are two immediate ways companies can bring Spanish-speaking consumers into their online fold, according to Blackshaw. 

That advice is pragmatic, but the real goal, according to Blackshaw, is much bigger.

“What’s most important is that we dignify all consumers with whom we have a loyalty or advocacy-driving opportunity,” he writes.  “We’re not even close, but the potential is huge — nay, gigante.”

Read the September installment of Pete Blackshaw’s regular Ad Age column.