'Once bitten, twice shy' might best describe the attitude of the toy giants Hasbro & Mattel toward movie-licensed products. Hasbro is still suffering from an Episode I hangover, variously estimated at $125-150 million worth of unsold product, while Mattel recently shed its license to create toys for current Disney films after several years of lackluster sales. Mattel is the master toy licensee for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the movie version of the first Harry Potter novel which is set to debut on November sixteenth of this year. Initial response to Harry Potter licensed goods has been tepid (see 'Wary of Harry'). To keep interest and demand high, Mattel is determined to limit production on certain key items like a transparent plastic Harry Potter figure (w/invisibility cloak), and Harry's Levitating Challenge playset. According to the New York Times only 3000 clear plastic Harry Potter figures will be produced.
Stock Boy's Delight
This strategy of creating 'rarity' and demand in a mass market product is hardly new, we've seen it in the card industry for years, and it is a basic marketing tool in the world of collectible card games. And it has certainly been done in the toy market before, most notably perhaps in Playmates long-running series of Star Trek figures. The results of the Playmates campaign of scarcity were decidedly mixed. Many collectors were incensed by the difficulty involved in obtaining the short-run figures, and stock boys at the major toy stores quickly figured out how to make some extra money by glomming onto the rare items and selling them for a nice profit to dealers or collectors.
Why?
Mattel is pursuing this strategy for several reasons. First of all, they are afraid that the Harry Potter readers, who have already purchased some 80 million copies of the three Harry Potter books, are past the prime toy-buying years. Secondly, Mattel only guaranteed $50 million in sales to Warner Brothers, so they don't have the pressure to create the tidal wave of toys that Hasbro's $500 million guarantee to Lucasfilm for Episode I demanded. Finally, they are hoping to have some of the 'hot' toys that consumers are seeking out for holiday gifts. You literally can't buy the kind of publicity equivalent to having Matt & Katie on the Today Show discussing how they managed to get a 'rare' toy for a special gift. Most consumers may not be able to get the rare toys, but Mattel is betting that they will be intrigued enough to buy other Harry Potter items which will be produced in much greater quantities. If specialty retailers can obtain a supply of the rarer Harry Potter items (which probably means staking out the major chain toy stores), they may be able to profit from Mattel's strategy of scarcity.
