Fisher Price - Final PDF

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Fisher Price - Final...

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Hannah Kim November 19, 2014 ENGN 9 – Morgan, Sydney & Jack Fisher Price Toys, Inc. Fisher Price Toys, Inc. was founded in 1930 as a children’s toy company. They operated with the intentions to meet one goal: to provide affordable, high-quality toys to children. In 1970, Fisher Price had the chance to offer the ATV explorer as a new product onto the market. The problem concerning this product was its price. The ATV’s retail price stood at $18.50, which was much more expensive than Fisher Price’s other products. The firm’s predicament was whether to produce and market the ATV, or to uphold its standard of offering products at affordable prices. There were several advantages from incorporating the ATV as a Fisher Price product. The ATV explorer had the potential to attract a more upmarket clientele who would be less concerned with the price of the product. This would create a larger consumer base for Fisher Price on the whole. Furthermore, the introduction of the ATV would diversify and enhance Fisher Price’s product collection by adding an unprecedented product. Despite these potential advantages, there were also potentially harming repercussions. There is little information to confirm whether the profits made from the ATV would exceed the price of producing and marketing it. In addition, Fisher Price is not alone in the market for the ATV toy. Playskool, a firm that is less concerned in providing as affordable products as Fisher Price, is already in the market for this new line of toys. Moreover, Fisher Price would be contradicting their ideal of selling toys below the $5 retail price if the ATV were to be listed at $18.50. Despite the sale of certain

products above this price threshold has occurred, Fisher Price has never offered a toy with a price of this magnitude. There is also the option of grouping the ATV into the family of “riding toys”—a toy genre that has experienced remarkably high demand. Despite this, Fisher Price must take into consideration their brand image when making alterations to the ATV. For example, the firm is considering removing particular aspects of the ATV in order to make it more affordable for American families. However, this would essentially rebut Fisher Price’s corporate ideology of providing safe and high quality products. Removing certain aspects of the ATV would not only diminish its quality would also decrease the safety of the children’s toy – this in itself would be potentially damaging to the country’s brand and image. When comparing the advantages and disadvantages of introducing the ATV explorer under the Fisher Price name, I have concluded that it would be too precarious to proceed. Mainly, the price is simply too high for a Fisher Price product and I do not believe that its loyal consumer base would be willing to pay so much for a toy. In order to maintain its reputation as a low-priced provider of high quality products, the safest decision would be to exclude the ATV in Fisher Price Toy collections and to continue operating as normal....