The Amazing Difference in Toys for Boys and Girls
Parents who grew up in the middle of the last century get baffled today when they see what the modern marketers have done. They’ve wisely created two segments out of one by launching a variety of games and toys that are either meant to be for boys or girls.
The media industry changed it all during the last fifty years or so. It changed how toys for children were perceived to be unisex in the first half of the last century. But once it was realized that the kids are a very lucrative demographic, even the most gender-neutral toys like blocks were introduced in boy and girl versions that had colour and packaging differences.
Here in this article, I will talk about how these two segments among kids have become popular within the toy industry and what kinds of toys have made the variety diverse according to the gender.
Photo by Tanaphong Toochinda on Unsplash
The Beginning of This Trend
Two of the most famous toy companies in the world, Disney and LEGO, not only were the early adopters of this trend in the 80s, but also still continue to produce toys on the same ideology. In fact, Disney’s Princess brand happens to be the second most popular brand among the girls today.
After the success of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, the company made and released additional princess movies frequently. This made Disney the most reputable brand in the girl market. Similarly, LEGO in 1988 introduced its “Zack the LEGO Maniac” which was an attempt to position the company as the boys’ brand. Then later on, LEGO introduced new characters in its gender neutral LEGO family that had features like lipstick and facial hair. This created a separate LEGO variety for both girls and boys.
The Continuing Trend in Toys
This gender based variety in toys continues even today. You can see that most of the famous toys like Radio Flyer wagons, Mega Bloks, Tinkertoys, Fisher-Price stacking rings and many others are also available in pink colours that are especially made for girls. This is a genius effort by the marketers which makes the families with both boys and girls buy two versions of each toy. You can check out the variety of trending toys for girls at goodtoplay.com.
The Popularity of This Segmentation
Most of the toys in demand are either available for both the genders or specifically for one gender. This is because it’s a common perception that girls like to sit when they play and boys like to stand. Girls are naturally caretakers and boys like to build. Girls like pretty things and boys like to fight. That’s why toys today are made keeping the general traits of both the genders in mind. This is also the main reason that you won’t find a boy being advertised playing with a Barbie, or a girl playing with Meccano.
Serving boys and girls with toys that match their personalities and their mindset is a trend that these toy companies have introduced. It’s surely meant to make their profits double, but you can’t deny that this classification of toys has resulted in more innovative designs and variety.
This is a collaborative post.
