Design and Market Positioning of Featured Toy Packaging

With the rapid development of China’s economic level, people’s requirements for entertainment and leisure beyond clothing, food, housing and transportation are getting higher and higher. Some western-oriented specialty toys for adults have begun to appear in the market and have begun to take root and grow up in China. The toy manufacturers are also actively participating in the competition in the specialty toy market. When our country begins to try and compete in the characteristic toy field, it is a new research topic to explore a characteristic toy packaging design that suits our national conditions and can effectively attract young consumers. Packaging is the most direct value-added and promotional method for products, and it is the same for toy products. There are many differences between toy design oriented to young people and children's toys. The latter's puzzle, durability, and ability to cultivate hands-on skills are not in line with the target objects of featured toys. Features and personalities, collectability, and the exquisiteness of the toys themselves are Adults buy toys that are pursued. Therefore, packaging design should also meet the young people's values ​​and aesthetics, and echo the characteristics of the toy itself in order to achieve the best market sales.

Japan's EMI company re-launched a model toy that it had produced 20 years ago and set off another sales climax. This shows the importance of packaging design in the toy market. The main purpose of packaging design is to attract consumers, so that toy products can fully attract young consumers, in addition to sales channels, advertising positioning should be independent of children's toys, but more importantly should be integrated in the design of packaging features, personality, open The gap with other similar products, especially with children's toys, highlights their sense of quality. To achieve these points, we must start from the popular culture of young people and learn from young people's favorite fashion, cartoon, music, and television culture. , so that the positioning of packaging design is correct.

1 Characteristic Toy Market Status

In a mature toy market, the market positioning of toys is mainly divided into two categories: children's toys and specialty toys for adults. In China, the toy market is not yet mature, especially the understanding of toys is immature; the ingrained concept of “the toy is a child’s play” has bound the domestic toy industry; according to the statistics of the Japan Toy Association, it is the second largest toy in the world of Japan. In the market, with the market size of 900 billion yen, characteristic toys for adults occupy more than 65% of the total, and at least 84% of adult Japaneses over 18 have toys. In the United States, the world’s largest toy market, about US$10 billion can be generated each year, and toy-oriented adult toys account for more than 40% of them. In China, the world’s largest toy production base, the adult toy market is almost empty. Domestic manufacturers blindly put their eyes on children's toys, leading to the domestic huge and rapidly growing characteristic toy market that is almost completely occupied by foreign brands. However, due to the higher profits of the specialty toy industry for adults at this stage, it is a general trend for domestic manufacturers to join the specialty toy market. In the case of brand awareness and production scale lagging behind those of foreign manufacturers, China's featured toys need to pay particular attention to the important role of packaging design itself.

2 Characteristic toy market positioning analysis

Positioning design is a very important new concept in modern packaging design. According to the different psychological demands of different consumer groups on the goods, the corresponding features are emphasized in the packaging design in order to maximize the basic functions of the packaging.

2. Target Market Positioning of Featured Toys

Children love to play, many adults in fact have the same love of playing nature, the popularity of television computer games and cartoon film and television works in the adult group is an example. The emergence of featured toys meets the needs of adults for toys; adult consumers of different levels have different needs for adult toys. For example, grown-up women like high-end decorative toys such as dolls, plush dolls and small animals, etc. Middle-aged people will choose recreational and collectible toys such as cars and military models, while adult toys market The main force of consumption - young people, most of them like the collection of dolls with characteristics and personality.

2. 2 Design Positioning of Featured Toys

The main consumers of specialty toys are young people aged 20 to 30 years. Young people buy toys that are directed at their individuality, quality, and collectable value, rather than traditional toy products that are mainly played. Therefore, they are durable and beneficial. The design requirements for children's toys such as smart, colorful, etc., can be abandoned in the design of specialty toys, and the individual, fashion, material and styling are unique and the quality is the main factor.

2. 3 packaging design positioning of featured toys

The consumer groups of featured toys are mostly people with stable economic income. There are even many high-income earners. Of course, they should also have sufficient sense of quality for their toy series; the source of the sense of quality should not be high prices. It is embodied in packaging design. Adult-oriented toys are purchased as a collectible. Intuitive packaging should be separated from pure play goods. The function of protecting the product is placed on the featured toy packaging. Secondary, and the function of adding value and promotion to the product should be considered first. At the same time, the main consumers of featured toys are young people who are unconventional people. The design of individual fashion can be widely accepted among them. The characteristics of featured toys themselves are continuous innovation, and they should also echo with this in packaging design, and cannot be too systematic. And the use of a too-fixed model, free innovation, and constant change are the key to making packaging design more attractive.

2.4 Positioning of Sales Channels for Featured Toys

Because of the design of the toy itself and the unique style of packaging design, the sales of specialty toys also need a corresponding environment and atmosphere, so that consumers are not confused with children's toys. Adults buy toys not only value the toy packaging itself, but also value purchases. The atmosphere and grade of the environment, so its sales environment and display design should also have a sense of quality, maturity and characteristics. At present, many shopping malls in China have set up special adult toy counters. Many domestic cities have also opened specialty toy stores for adults. Although there are still a little elementary in sales and display design, separate sales channels for specialty toys are isolated. It has already taken an important step. Therefore, counter display effect should be considered in the packaging design of featured toys.

3 The basic characteristics of characteristic toy packaging design

3. 1 Graphic Features

The popular street culture in recent years has added new vitality to the young people's culture circle. The creative and expressive desires of young people have been vented in all kinds of powerful graphic designs, and novel graphics that constantly appear in clothing, accessories and graffiti. , is the best reference for attracting young people's product packaging, this style of graphics can also be extended to the flat display of the package, so that it has young people's visual language elements. The attraction of specialty toys lies in their uniqueness and individuality. They don't need to show the appearance of the product itself on the outer packaging, a graphic that makes people associate, a rough outline enough to attract the attention of young people. Young consumers already have a basic worldview, a view of life, and the necessary discernment skills. Therefore, young people's toy packaging design should not have as many restricted areas as children's toys, just as the main force of consumption is also young people's products. - Music CD, its use of visual elements in the packaging design is very diverse, and some bold and innovative applications make the product outstanding personality and sales. The packaging design of Japan's hot toy "Violence Bear" highlights the "blood" element of art processing, which is used properly and closely linked to the product name, so that the packaging is not only vulgar, but also prominent The brand characteristics and unconventional style of work effectively promoted sales and did not bring any negative impact. Another point that cannot be ignored is that contemporary young people are basically growing up under the influence of cartoon pop culture. People who love cartoon works have a large proportion among young consumers, and toys have always been closely related to cartoons. The segmented industry, focusing on the cartoon features in the featured toy packaging design, is of course an important means to narrow the distance with and interact with young consumers; it is different from the cartoon image highlighted by children's toys, and the cartoon elements used in the packaging of featured toys are different. It should also be full of characteristics, can not be too modeled, can not be dragged down by too much educational significance, an exaggerated, full of personality, can make young people feel the heart of the cartoon image can make the charm of the toy itself greatly increased, of course, also on the packaging Can be echoed with the content, highlight the characteristics of the cartoon, increase the attractiveness of the package.

3. 2 color features

Color is one of the most important form factors in packaging design, and often attracts consumers' attention before other factors. In order to achieve the goal of widening the gap with the traditional sense of toy product image, the use of a large number of dark colors in the packaging design of distinctive toys is not a taboo. Too bright and harmonious colors not only make consumers have the impression of children's toys, but also Does not meet the aesthetic tastes of young people. Dark-colored or red and black and other contrasting packaging colors can make the image of toy packaging significantly different from other lively toy packaging styles. It also helps to establish a series of packaging images and brand color impressions, and enhance the sense of quality of the toy itself. .

3. 3 Material and Appearance Features

Glass bottles, tin cans, cloth bags and other packaging products seem to have little to do with toy products. Common toys are mostly packed in cartons or transparent plastic packaging. This has become a common practice, but since it is a specialty toy, The form of packaging should also be full of features; closed opaque packaging is a good choice, and there is no need to worry about young consumers complaining about not seeing the toy itself. It is just a child’s request for a toy, a unique graphic expression on the packaging, and a cartoon image. And pre-sales advertising is enough to convey the information that consumers need. Under the premise of highlighting the basic attributes of “toys”, a fresh packaging form not only makes the product stand out in the counter, is full of novelty, but also can maintain a certain degree of The sense of mystery fully caters to the curious and curious young consumers. In Japan, selling “gasp eggs”—a person packed in a spherical package, the toy series is a good example. Their packaging is almost the same and opaque. The dolls of different styles are purely The buyer's luck, this characteristic toy set off a boom in sales in Japan, has not subsided.

4 Conclusion

China's domestic specialty toy market is in its infancy and has great potential for development. Although there are mature toy markets in Hong Kong and Taiwan regions and some developed countries as examples and references, they should not be blindly imitated. Domestically, China has its own national conditions, toy market, and The corresponding consumers, of course, have their own characteristics. How to use the accurate positioning of packaging design to win this emerging huge market is an area that design workers need to continuously explore and study. Based on the design theory and existing examples, the article puts forward some of the viewpoints we have summarized. It also needs continuous improvement and improvement after market practice tests.