Spends liberally on the little ones - Connecting with the Customer: Baby Crazed - Baby products industry sees middle-of-the-market retailers adapt merchandising

DSN Retailing Today, Dec 16, 2002 by Mike Duff

Few industries have been as successful as the juvenile products industry in convincing consumers to increase spending. From an extra car seat for grandma's Buick to a jogging stroller for navigating potholes, the list of baby goods products now considered "necessities" has grown exponentially in the last few years.

As the mass market has captured more of the juvenile products business, middle-of-the-market retailers have adapted their merchandising to take into consideration both the success and demographic trends that have created these new sales opportunities. The juvenile products business generated $5.75 billion in sales in 2001. As tracked by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, the 2001 figure, impacted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, actually represented a 4.5% decrease over the year earlier. Still, the total is considerably better than the 1999 total, due to an 11.7% sales gain in 2000 to $6.02 billion.

Retailers over the past several years have revisited the merchandising of kids products, often developing formal or informal sections specifically devoted to layette and infant products.

Among the more recently active, Wal-Mart Canada reorganized and expanded its selection of baby and kids products a couple of years ago to give customers a better shopping experience by taking products that were diffused across several departments and locating them conveniently together. The trend arrived in Canada just about the time it was hitting full steam in the United States' mass market. Zellers also has rethought the kids department in recent years, adding play areas and parent-friendly seating in some stores to make it easier to shop children's departments. Among its other efforts to boost itself as "mum's store"--its strategic focus--was expanding assortment, adding juvenile bedding under its Truly private label in the spring of 2000.

Creating one's own brand has been important in the development of baby and toddler products at the mass market. Just weeks ago, Kmart and Martha Stewart relaunched the Martha Stewart Everyday infant and toddler collection, giving the mass market another initiative in the children's home goods arena.

Originally debuted in 1999, Martha Stewart Everyday Baby Baby program was completely reconfigured for the relaunch with new designs and products and the line is getting a fresh packaging treatment, said Nicole Dowswell, a Kmart spokesperson. Like other MSE programs, the whole line is designed with pieces that naturally match. "You can coordinate the whole nursery," she said. That element of the program may have widespread appeal, but certainly makes conscientious gift giving easier. Price points range from $3.99 for a three-pack of cotton waterproof flannel lap pads to $39.99 for a three-piece crib bedding set.

Efforts to establish themselves as destinations for layette and infant products weren't limited to broadliners, as evinced by the expansion of Kids "R" Us and Burlington Coat Factory initiatives both within the store and as part of new format developments. Yet, once established as dominant in stuff for the small step, mass-market retailers kept refining their approach. The next step in the progression was in branding. Massmarket retailers have been successful not only in developing their own labels, but in taking labels traditionally associated with department stores into their own assortments as well.

In the spring, Kohl's launched Oshkosh B'Gosh, a kids brand that had bunkered into the department store channel only to recognize the advantages of mass market distribution. Kohl's management maintains that the line has been well received. "The Oshkosh introduction has been very good," said Kohl's president Kevin Mansell. "It has exceeded some aggressive plans."

At Target, the Carter's Baby Tyke line was launched not too long ago and is merchandised at the side of the racetrack at the periphery of the kids department. The Baby Tyke display obviously invites impulse purchases and is positioned not as core goods designed to draw parents into the children's section, but as an offering set to entice anyone shopping the store. Interestingly, the more practical products are packaged and priced to give a sense of value while the more elaborate tend to push the price-point envelope as defined in the section. Thus, a set of three lap pads is at the bottom of the price range, selling for $4.99, while three-piece crib sets tagged at $39.99 are at the top.

In large measure, recent product, packaging and merchandising innovations have targeted audiences beyond the core demographic of parents. For instance, interest in children's domestics rallied a couple of years ago, with many introductions aimed at the department store channel. By targeting older consumers such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, family friends, etc., who may have more money floating around than harried parents, vendors hoped to drive new sales. Doting grandparents, aunts, uncles and even siblings and friends often have more disposable income than parents, the reasoning went, and can be coaxed into making more upscale purchases.