Tapping Into After-School Specials

"We help in running YuGiOh! tournaments at various after-school programs." —Claudine Ricanor, Upper Deck Company

Tick-tick-tick … just one more minute until school is over. Brrrrrrring! There’s the bell, it’s time to play! After-school programs have become a profitable distribution channel for many toy manufacturers. According to recent studies, over 10 million children take part in some structured play after school, and that’s in America alone. But how does a manufacturer get in touch with this demographic? What sort of products are caregivers and parents looking for? TDmonthly Magazine contacted over 35 manufacturers to find out the whys and hows of after-school specials.

So what makes certain products attractive to the after-school market?

Ann Shade, sales manager of Dimensions/ Perler, has found that designing products with “groups” in mind, with larger packs, helps. “It’s spelled out on our website: ‘For people with large group activities.’” Also, being reusable helps. “Our Ocean Friends bucket of beads is good for after school programs because once they have the pegboards, they just need a supply of beads in the future. The pegboards can be reused again and again.”

Esther Novis, president of the The Young Scientists Club, also markets with groups in mind: “We always check to see if our kits work well in bigger groups. We do school packs for them. Stores sell them for after-school activities, all pre-packaged.”

President and CEO of Karmel Games Inc. (Gift Guide), Dennis Klein, has found that even a little thing like the wording of a logo can help. “They came to us, the educational market, home-schooling, etc. It’s a little more free-form, after school. One of the things that attracted them was the logo: Intelligent Fun.”

Having a focus for the play pattern of the product works, too. Betty Morris, president of

K&B Innovations, Inc. (ToyDirectory), has seen the Shrinky Dinks used in after-school programs all across America. “Maybe they’re studying or working on birds. They might decide a mobile would be fun. Each kid does a different bird from a book, traces the bird, then colors it in from the picture. Then they punch a hole, put it in a toaster oven and watch the project shrink into a hardened piece of plastic. Kids get a kick out of watching them shrink. After they cool, they build the mobile.”

Having a product that fits is only half the battle. Where does a manufacturer go to get noticed?

Barbara Goldman, president of Newsline Publications, Inc. (ToyDirectory), which produces It’s News To Me Newsflash! Cards, has found that “the potential is huge.” Goldman cites the National League of Cities, the Department of Education and The After School Corporation as a few of the potential organizations involved in this market.

Lee Ann Dichtel, retail sales manager for Ideals Publications, looks to the Cub Scouts and the Girl Scouts as well as anything that gets kids together in a group. Some use supervision, some don’t. “The School Library Journal is good; most of our buyers are teachers, so we use the catalogues and go to teacher shows,” Dichtel said.

Lawrence Whalen Jr., vice-president of Face 2 Face Games, has found teachers to be the answer: “Some teachers tried the game in the store, they’re always asking for games they could use in the classroom.”

Barbara Jerome, the Mom who created NAMiTS of NAMiTS, LLC, tested her toy in schools and the next thing she knew, the teachers were ordering it for their classes and after-school programs.

Art Schoendorff, co-owner of Applied Physics LLC (ToyShow), has even taken his product, the Newton Car, to where the “big” kids spend their afternoons: the colleges.

Sam Reich-Dagnen, co-founder of BrainCandy, has gone one step further: she’s touring the West Coast — talking to local parenting groups and schools. “We’re getting out there.”

“Getting out there” has worked for Garry Kvistad, co-founder and CEO of Woodstock Percussion (ToyShow), as well. “We work with a number of groups, adult groups, higher adult educators, cater to parents with kids’ groups, music lessons, sales reps that work in that area,” he listed. “Lots of funding has been cut from the public schools, so they’re going privatized.”

Some manufacturers, like the Upper Deck Company, help the after-school groups directly. Claudine Ricanor, senior public relations specialist, explained, “We help in running YuGiOh! tournaments at various after-school programs. Teachers had called and bought the cards because it helped with math.”

And one of the best ways to get the buyers involved: Test the product with them.

Juleen Murray Shaw, creator of the Nursery Tap Hip To Toe DVD, tested it in the Northwest, giving it to people with kids that are enrolled in, and schools that provide, after-school programs. “Because it is active, engaging and encourages play, kids want to watch it again and again,” she said.

Nancy Poffenberger, owner of Fun Publishing (ToyDirectory), said, “I’ve tested with 35 schools, am endorsed by teachers. Been around since 1975. It works.”