The best way to display BRUDER toys for maximum impact

Have you or your kids ever played with BRUDER toys? Because, in the company’s own words, they’re just like the real thing. Extraordinary attention to detail and the various functioning parts of BRUDER toys help children recreate remarkably realistic worlds of play. In this article, we’ll be looking at the best way to display BRUDER toys for maximum impact. Good retail performance doesn’t happen by accident so, with these tips from our in-house retail experts, you’ll discover how to increase sales of these collectible toys. 

The importance of planning retail displays for toys 
The customers arriving in your dealership aren’t visiting in order to buy scale model toys for their children – or even themselves. They may be looking for a new machine or attachment, bringing a tractor in for service or simply buying spare parts. A toy is usually the last thing on their mind. Encouraging your customers to buy a toy, then, is something of a challenge.  

For most customers, these are purchases that will be made with purpose: for Christmas, a birthday, a reward for particular achievements. Which makes them valuable, emotion-driven and enjoyable purchases.  

With good strategic planning, BRUDER toys can be an invaluable aid to turnover, increase customer loyalty and emotional buy-in and, if you have the safe space to introduce interactive play areas, even lead to extra customer footfall.  

What makes a good retail display for kids’ toys? 
The principles are visibility and playability. Now, most of the time, children don’t accompany their parents into dealers’ showrooms and service areas. Your primary audience is the parent: the purchaser, the decision-maker. Your objectives are to draw attention, create interest and allow the quality of the products to complete the emotional connection and encourage the transaction. 

BRUDER’s product range across agriculture, forest & grasscare and construction is impressive, highly collectible and highly sought after. And because the toys are so beautifully made, with multiple working parts and the chance to replicate real machines and implements found back on any given customer’s farm, they’re a great educational resource to teach their children about the way they work. And children love to play at doing their parents’ jobs. With BRUDER toys, the emotional connection is pretty much built in. 

Let’s look at straightforward retail displays first. 

Our experience selling the BRUDER range, both online and in Kramp retail, is that the toys sell all year round, but with a peak in November and December: the inevitable Christmas holiday season surge. With that in mind – and depending on the retail space you have available – you may decide that giving retail space over to toys is only worthwhile at the times of year when toys are in demand. Some dealers find that maintaining a physical display in May and June is also worthwhile, because with the warmer summer months arriving, kids want to play outside.  

For all but the larger showrooms, then, our advice is to seasonally flex your space, with the emphasis on autumn to Christmas. Start drawing attention to your toy selection by setting up display areas in October. This puts toys into customers’ consciousness in good time before Christmas, giving them an extra reason to return to your shop. Typically, dealers’ customer footfalls drop during the end of November and through December, so a good toy display, particularly an interactive one, is a good opportunity to increase traffic and turnover during these quieter months, perhaps leading to other, more practical purchases. 

Have a couple of metres’ worth of particularly appealing and relevant toys in a high footfall area:  

• by the counter 
• near the entrance  
• along a main walkway 

Even if this doesn’t result in a purchase on a first visit, you’re planting the subconscious seeds and the result may be a return visit specifically to purchase. 

Your display areas 
There’s a saying in retail that eyeline is buy-line. That what is right in the customer’s line of sight is what they will purchase. It’s a little more complicated than that. Customers read shelves almost like a book – left to right and then downwards – until they lose interest. That means that if you place the high-demand items all at immediate eye level, it’s possible that the buyer sees what they want, picks it up, and buys it without browsing for other items. A mixed display provides variation and interest and a reason to keep browsing, which can lead to additional purchases and certainly greater understanding and awareness of the range. Three-quarters of the shelves available from eyeline down will get the greatest interest; anything below that may get overlooked. 

Please find below some of our other recommendations. 

• BRUDER toys are extremely attractively packaged. The vehicles and larger attachments come with cut-outs in the cardboard but no plastic screen. 
• We recommend a secondary message, too, that if the item the customer wants isn’t in your in-store stock range, you can order it in for them specifically. You can check real-time stock levels on the Kramp web shop at any time. 
• Adding extra lighting, in the form of spotlights, can be extremely effective. It is worth noting, though, that as well as highlighting the beauty of the products, directed light also highlights dust and debris! The open cut-outs in BRUDER packaging are a very effective trap for dust, while not being very easy to clean.  
• We also advise against putting price stickers directly on the product packaging – they can be difficult to remove and damage and devalue the product packaging. Either generate your own price list or display a price tag without attaching it directly to products. 
• If your showroom or waiting area has digital screens, it’s a great way to draw attention to toy ranges and highlight any promotional offers or discounts. Your Kramp representative may be able to help you with push marketing campaigns. 

Interactive displays 
Interactivity is the key to even greater sales volume. It’s the proof a parent needs that this toy, will be loved, played with and treasured and thus making it a good purchase.  

It’s important to remember, first, that with kids, safety comes first. If you want to create an interactive play area, where children can test out the toys, you’ll want a safe space with no risk of accidents. Seating/waiting areas are perfect for this, especially if you can screen them off at a low level – so you can see everything easily, but toddlers can’t run around in the shop. 

If you’ve got space, a brand-aligned BRUDER vehicle on the counter – where you can nudge it out of the way right in front of the customer – is a good conversation-starter and a subtle way to draw attention to the possibilities of play. 

Choosing your toy stock 
Whatever you choose to stock, it’s important to let your customers know that the range is wider than what’s available in-store. 

There is a trend towards attachments, trailers, ploughs etc being purchased either alongside a main tractor or at a later date as an extra toy. Our research revealed that having a tractor or harvester or truck was the focal point, but having multiple attachments is where the fun really begins. Growing the farm or construction fleet expands the universe of play and opens up all sorts of possibilities – which gives toys their longevity. 

We recommend you stock a select number of machines which align with your dealer brand or with popular brands in the local area, and heavily stock the attachments and accessories. The reality is that the game lasts a lot longer if you’ve got different attachments to hook up. Marrying up brands to what parents have out on the farm allows children to precisely mimic what their parents are doing. 

The key retail display tips 
We tell all our dealers the same thing: choose your range carefully, buy enough of it, and buy it early. If a customer asks for something else which you chose not to carry, but which is in stock with Kramp – and you can check this on the web shop in real time – then agree the purchase with the customer and place your order. 

If you’d like particular advice about promoting BRUDER toy ranges or planning your retail displays generally, don’t hesitate to contact your Kramp representative. We’re here to make your life easier.