1. Market opportunities

Tinka Toys has avoided moving out of its traditional markets and still focuses on play-value toys designed to develop a child’s imagination and manual dexterity. Although it continues to be a major presence in the pre-school and infant market place by offering a variety of pack and price options, sales have slipped over the last fives years. Its products now appear old-fashioned when compared to competition.

The market research findings, conducted by Tinka Toys in June 2007, show clearly that when given the choice most children would rather play with toys from the competition. This is true for children from the various age groups listed (2 to 8). Indeed, there are a lot of toy companies in markets which are now global with both their own production and external production, or a combination of both. Leaders like Lego and Leap Frog are mainly active in the infant and pre-school segment, which according to the Toy Industries of Europe comes top in 2009, with 19.9%, in the European toy market (Toy Industries of Europe, 2009).
Despite the problems caused by the economic downturn, Key Note, a market research company, reported recently that ‘‘the market remains vibrant, due to an ever-increasing child population in the UK thanks to a rising birth rate. Family sizes are getting smaller and people are becoming parents later on - two factors which mean more disposable income to lavish on their children.’’ (Toy Retailing, 2009).

But what is competition doing that we are not? What are the market trends?

1.1. Electronic games

We can also see, from Tinka Toys market research, that children aged more than 5 years have got a strong preference for electronic games. This fact is corroborated by answers obtained from both parents and children. The current trend indeed in all sectors of the market is towards electronic toys and computer assisted learning with many of these designed to attract children. Moreover, the popularity of cable and