What’s fun?
Understanding how to connect to children in meaningful ways
Fast-moving Consumer goods | Future Brief
Situation
Playing isn’t what it used to be. What children do for fun has undergone dramatic changes over the last two decades and, as a consequence, the toy industry is suffering. Competition is fierce from, among others, communications technology providers, and many attempts at reversing this trend through product innovation have failed because of a lack of understanding of the nature of play.
A global toy producer wanted to investigate these changes and regain relevance through a deeper understanding of the needs and desires of children.
Approach
In two key markets, Germany and the US, the team conducted research into the world of children’s play. We studied 90 children through a variety of ethnographic methods, including participatory observation, context research and shadowing. Observation was supplemented with analysis of the children’s own photos, drawings and use of other participatory methods, including having the children apply stickers defining various key terms like “fun”, “boring”, “spooky” and “cool” to overcome the semantic difficulties involved when working with young children.
Outcome
The research uncovered some truly surprising insights into the needs of children: needs with a huge business potential but also needs which, if addressed, could truly improve the quality of children’s lives through meaningful and relevant play. The insights had impact on two levels. First of all the insights inspired the leadership of the company to revisit their vision and rethink how they could connect to kids. Secondly the insight was used in early concept development of radically new toy concepts. One of these concepts will be launched in 2009.
Playing isn’t what it used to be. What children do for fun has undergone dramatic changes over the last two decades and, as a consequence, the toy industry is suffering. Competition is fierce from, among others, communications technology providers, and many attempts at reversing this trend through product innovation have failed because of a lack of understanding of the nature of play.
A global toy producer wanted to investigate these changes and regain relevance through a deeper understanding of the needs and desires of children.
Approach
In two key markets, Germany and the US, the team conducted research into the world of children’s play. We studied 90 children through a variety of ethnographic methods, including participatory observation, context research and shadowing. Observation was supplemented with analysis of the children’s own photos, drawings and use of other participatory methods, including having the children apply stickers defining various key terms like “fun”, “boring”, “spooky” and “cool” to overcome the semantic difficulties involved when working with young children.
Outcome
The research uncovered some truly surprising insights into the needs of children: needs with a huge business potential but also needs which, if addressed, could truly improve the quality of children’s lives through meaningful and relevant play. The insights had impact on two levels. First of all the insights inspired the leadership of the company to revisit their vision and rethink how they could connect to kids. Secondly the insight was used in early concept development of radically new toy concepts. One of these concepts will be launched in 2009.
