These days everyone and every company is trying to make a buck, so the market for almost anything that makes money is highly competitive. The children’s toy market, and especially the doll market, is no exception. There is one innovative new company that has not been afraid to tackle the highly competitive toy market. In fact they have been rather successful at it. I’m talking about SpinMaster. This is the company that has brought us Bakugan, TechDecks, and the Liv Fashion Dolls.

Today we are going to focus on some smart moves they made, when marketing the new liv dolls. First thing they did, was take a business model that already worked. Girls enjoy dressing up and playing with fashion dolls. Plan A, take a proven business model and make it a little better. The liv dolls are like normal fashion dolls with outfits and accessories. But they took it up a notch by trying to make them more life like.

Some things that make the liv girls more realistic are their pose able limbs. Their arms and legs can move and bend in a realistic way. Their eyes are made of glass, which gives them a little edge on the normal plastic or painted doll eyes. An innovation that is unique to these toys is the use of the interchangeable wigs. Girls can have as many hairstyles and colors as they want without messing up their new toy. They can even cut the hair, because if it doesn’t turn out right, the doll won’t be ruined.

Another smart innovation is the use of Liv World, which is an online virtual world, where doll owners can visit by entering a secret code that comes with each liv toy. This virtual world, has games and music and videos, which give background info on each individual character and also points out their likes and interests and even their flaws. Which is a selling point when making the dolls more life like.

Next they started introducing accessories in waves. The first wave just introduced the new dolls. The second wave included a puppy with each doll. Girls love puppies and by adding the liv puppies, a whole new dimension is added to the world of liv. But the minds at SpinMaster aren’t stopping there. They also have big plans for this fall, with a collection just in time for the Christmas shopping season. The fall collection will include an brand new doll named Hayden who comes with a pet bunny. It will also include some much wanted accessories, such as a horse, a drum set, a bmx bike, a mall kiosk, a karaoke machine, and more.

By making sure that the original product is something that already sells, and then improving on it, a new doll line was able to infiltrate the already saturated market. By slowly adding accessories and new components in waves, kids and parents aren’t overwhelmed with all of the choices. Yet, a study stream of new purchases will trickle in. Liv dolls are a smart toy introduced by a smart company.

By: Elle Marshall