|
 
 |
Toy Story
Sharon P. John's toy company is relaunching the Dawn doll, first manufactured in the 1970s. Ms. John also would like to expand the line.
November 13, 2000
By Barbara B. Buchholz
The holiday shopping season has shifted into high gear, but not all dolls purchased by adults are destined for children. Many are buying for themselves.
|
Sharon P. John is banking on that.
The Oak Park resident founded Checkerboard Toys Inc. last year, after purchasing the rights to Dawn, a doll introduced at the 1970 New York Toy Fair. Dawn's creator, Topper Toys, which also produced Johnnie Lightning cars, filed for bankruptcy protection in 1973.
"Dawn was one of my favorite dolls," Ms. John says. "She was possibly the most popular 'fashion' doll in the U.S. after Barbie, selling more than 60 million dolls between 1970 and 1973."
At the height of her popularity, Dawn had 30 doll friends, 100 fashion outfits, more than 20 accessories (such as telephones and cars) and a host of licensed products.
"In 1971, Dawn, who then sold for between 69 cents and $1.99, brought in revenue of $25 million," says Ms. John, who spent six years in the toy business before founding Checkerboard Toys.
While on maternity leave after the birth of her daughter Rachael, now 2, she brainstormed with her husband, Russell E. John, a management consultant at Keystone Group, about starting a toy company. They decided the easiest route was to bring back a brand that had been unavailable recently.
Ms. John knew the doll had strength as a collector's item but was surprised at the extent of her popularity. Women collectors 34 to 42 remembered Dawn from their youth.
"The adults were interested in everything about her ---; books, clubs, an annual convention and 25 Web sites. Before her relaunch, she was the fifth most traded doll on eBay," Ms. John says.
As part of her research, she hired an intellectual property lawyer, who found the doll was owned by a Chicago design firm. She and her husband, who serves as her consultant, bought the brand, funding the purchase from personal savings.
From her former jobs, Ms. John had good connections in the toy business. She decided to work with a development company, Corporate Marketing Partners in Rolling Hills, Calif. That company contacted a manufacturer in China and helped develop the doll for its relaunch, initially for collectors rather than little girls.
"We talked about everything, even her size ---; 6½ inches vs. 11½ inches (for a typical doll)," Ms. John says. "Throughout history, small dolls have been popular. We also talked about her blond hair, clothing, packaging. We wanted her to look very much the same, with her short skirt, halter top, heels and teenage body shape, rather than the twentysomething Barbie."
The Johns created a collector display box touting Dawn's 30th anniversary and telling her story, plus a certificate of authenticity. They premiered her on the Home Shopping Network on Sept. 22.
Because Ms. John had a limited marketing budget, which would not go far toward buying national advertising, she used 95% of her budget to hire a public relations firm. The firm and Ms. John decided to play on 1970s nostalgia.
Priced at $24.99, about 700 dolls were sold on the Home Shopping Network in less than 15 minutes. Beginning Oct. 6, the company started selling the doll through its Web site, www.dawnandherworld.com, and by the end of October, it had received 5,000 orders for dolls.
Orders have also flowed in for three of Dawn's long-lost friends, Glori, Angie and Dale, who are slated to join her come spring.
The profit margin for dolls generally is slim, Ms. John says. She expects this calendar year's revenue to hit $300,000, noting that this is just for one quarter. She projects revenue for next year to climb to $2.5 million and, if all goes according to plan, to be $10 million by 2002.
Ms. John's office is still in the sunroom of her home, but she plans to move to a traditional office by Jan. 1, 2001.
Her firm faces these challenges:
- Obtain funding for the next stage of growth. Ms. John and her husband are putting together a package to seek private investment funds as they take the company to the next level of development.
"Many companies seek funding too early or too late, and the result is these companies miss a key opportunity and never reach their full potential," Ms. John explains. "It's particularly true in toys, since you have to hit a trend hard and ride it. Dawn's at the perfect time now, because of the increase in interest in vintage Dawn."
The couple thinks that $500,000 would allow Ms. John to establish a pipeline of collector products such as vintage reproduction fashions. They've begun to approach people they know "who know people with cash," and they plan to talk to venture capitalists.
- Re-establish the brand for collectors and young girls. They plan to continue producing the collectors' line but also hope to retool Dawn to appeal to 5-to-10-year-old girls, who represent a strong segment of the doll market.
The hard part, Ms. John says, is to ensure that the company has more than a "one-trick pony." Her ideas include other dolls, accessories and licensed products.
She reasons that she needs more goods to build brand equity to appeal to consumers. This helps decrease the power of mass merchandisers to make all the decisions. But Ms. John also wants to appeal to the merchandisers, and to do so, she must increase her inventory many times over.
"Mass merchants offer the potential of high rewards, but also high risks," she says. "They demand inventory and sell-through, and if you don't satisfy them, they can take you under in a year."
Ms. John also needs other products as a cushion, given the ups and downs of the toy market. Doll category sales are fairly flat, according to the Toy Manufacturers of America in New York.
Manufacturers' shipments to retailers for the entire doll category for 1999 were $2.8 billion. For fashion dolls, which have interchangeable outfits, 1999 sales were $1.5 billion, says the public information manager for the trade association.
- Add staff. So far, Ms. John has been able to handle much of the work herself, with the help of the development company and through seven independent representatives who cover 75% of the U.S., plus Canada and Australia.
But she knows she needs an advertising expert and a vice-president of sales to work with manufacturers as she begins to extend her product line.
- Develop an exit strategy. Even though she began selling Dawn only recently, she and her husband have thought about an exit strategy.
"It would have to be the right offer," she says. "We're still in the process of creating value for Dawn, and many companies would want more of a track record."
Another hitch, she says, is that any company that might want Dawn also might want Ms. John to serve as a consultant, which might require relocation.
(c)2000 by Crain Communications Inc.
For news headlines throughout the business day, go to:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com
|
|
