Scented markers, crayons, stationery and toys are on store shelves everywhere and Alita Friedman of Alita’s Brand Bar is totally ‘in’ on all the delicious smelly action.
Alita is an expert in the toy business and toy licensing business. She’s your gal if you need ‘toy’ industry advice. She’s a business gal pal and was one of my very early ‘on air’ champions for my fun ‘style’ of broadcasting.
Alita Friedman initially marketed a toy brand and turned it into an animated feature film. Then she started working on other brands to make them bigger and working with manufacturers of great products to add their brands to licensing deals, and bring them to life in the toy industry, in the gift industry, in the art industry, music industry, you name it.
Now Alita’s Brand Bar is working with Kangaru Toys, who Alita says is really the only toy company out there that has the ‘secret sauce’ for putting scent into toys and other things, everything from stuffed animals to markers to stationery.
On behalf of Kangaru, Alita decided it would be cool to start getting them ‘smelling licenses’. Over the last two years, actually since COVID started, they’ve been securing licenses from brands like Hershey’s, Jolly Rancher, Peeps, and Mentos.
“We’re able to make stationery markers, toys, and all these things that smell really good. And they’re actually marketed not really to kids, but they’re really marketed more towards adults, like cool stationery for your desk, and marketed to college students, for back to college type of things”, said Alita. She added, “The idea has been very successful and you can find the products on the shelves of stores like Five Below and Walmart and online at Amazon and the Kangaru Toys website.
The ‘smell licensing’ partners (actually brand licensing but smell licensing sounds more fun) are very happy because their brands get expanded into a whole new direction they had not explored before – through stationery and toys.
Personally speaking, when I first saw scented markers and products in the stores I stopped in my tracks amused and confused. I thought about buying them for some kids, but then I thought, I cannot buy these for kids, what if they think it’s food and eat it?
When I told that to Alita her response was, “In a certain way, you know, you’re not going to find them in the little kids section. You might find them where you’re buying other stationery items. They become collectibles for adults. And it kind of goes back to that whole, whole adult toy buying trend right now.”
It’s very obvious to me that, in terms of genius marketing, if I’ve got a pack of markers in front of me that smell like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups I’m going to want to run out and buy Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups! So it makes perfect sense that food brands would find this ‘smell licensing’ space with toys and gifts appealing. My advice to all good smelling brands …Risk It or Regret It!
Meanwhile, I was trying to imagine how ‘smell’ might physically be added to markers and toys. Do they spray it on? Dip it in it? Alita said there’s something called ‘micro-encapsulation’ which is a process the factories use. Alita was clear, if you sell anything in the toy industry, it has to be tested to the highest consumer product safety standards, and there are all kinds of toy industry laws.”
Adults buying toys for themselves came out as big trend this year. ‘Kidult’ is the term the toy industry has given to adult toy buyers who are buying toys for themselves. Call it nostalgia or call it fun but whatever you call it the trend is now responsible for 1/4 of all toy sales annually and set to grow bigger. They’re buying superheroes and collectibles that remind them of of their childhood. I myself might be inclined to fork over a few bucks for a new Easy Bake Oven! Lol. What about you?
And so what does Alita see ‘trending’ in toys next?
“When COVID happened, going back to basics and playing games became huge. So you’re starting to see licenses now on games. Think of a game that you grew up playing, now, you’ll see a lot of versions of it that might have a license on it. You’re also seeing a ton of collectible toys. So if you think of all the comic cons and all the comic books and video games that come out, it’s adults and their kids enjoying them together. And there are plenty of, like, people collecting toys many of which are sitting on adults desks and home or in the office. desks or the offices of Some take them out of the box to play with them. And some just keep them in the box as a valuable collection. There’s always some kind of a great stuffed animal or squishy type of toy that becomes really popular. And outside things like, you know, the scooters and bikes.
If this topic smells good to you please enjoy this fun interview conversation with Alita Friedman recorded live on The Debbie Nigro Show.
