Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Hanung Toys : Bringing Smile to the World

Corporate Brand : Hanung Toys & Textiles
Agency : Oxygen

Brand Analysis Count : 345


Hanung is a less celebrated brand in India. This company is India's largest soft toy manufacturer and a preferred supplier to some of the well known global retailers like IKEA.

Hanung Toys & Textiles came into existence in 1991. Conceived by Mr Ashok Kumar Bansal, Hanung became a leader in the soft toy market in India within a span of ten years. The company started with a modest order of Rs 6 lakh from IKEA. From there on, Hanung was on the growth path becoming the largest exporter of soft toys and then later diversifying into soft furnishing products during the early 2005.

The company has collaboration with a South Korean company.It adopted the Korean name. Hanung which means - Stem of Tree. The logic is simple, to get the international look., you need an international name Even in India Hanung is perceived to be an International brand rather than an Indian one.

Hanung now manufacturers about 11,000,000 pieces of soft toys and about 1,250,000 furnishing sets per year. The company supplies to retailers across Europe, US , Latin America and Middle East. The highlight of the company history is the Rs 600 crore order it received from IKEA in 2007 which catapulted Hanung to the big league . Till 2007, Hanung was a licensee for Walt Disney in India.


But how many of us know about this company. Although Hanung is an exporter, the company has strong domestic presence too. Infact its the market leader in the soft toy category in India .
Indian toy market is estimated to be around Rs 2500 crore and the organised soft toy market is around Rs 200 crore. The market is in utter mess because of cheap Chinese toys.

With regard to the Hanung brand in India, the company have two domestic brands . Hanung has launched a chain of toy store under the brand Play-n-Pets which is a more upmarket brand. It also have another brand Muskan which is a more affordable range of toys.

What I feel about Hanung is that it is not utilizing its potential in Indian market . I have bought a couple of Hanung Toys ( thinking its a foreign brand ) and is absolutely satisfied with the products. The product has quality and affordable price.

The brands from Hanung gets a good retailer support but on the promotional front, Hanung is almost silent in the media. It could have made these products a rage in the Indian market. But I think they are more focusing on the export market which is more lucrative.

Both the domestic brands Muskan and Play-n-Pets are nice brand names and can catch the fancy of Indian consumers. As a parent, I am now concerned about the quality of toys which my child plays with. I think Indian consumers are slowly waking up to the quality issues in Toys.
Now I check the toys and the manufacturer before buying it and Chinese toys are now out of my shopping list. So there is a growing market for quality brands like Hanung.

Competition is also in the offing. Reports say that Reliance Retail is planning a category killer in the toy retail space. Hanung will only benefit out of these since they can supply to these retail giants .

As a consumer I accidentally discovered this brand and now become a loyal customer .There will be many customers who need such a brand but unaware of its existence.Its a marketing mistake to under utilize the potential of such a wonderful brand.

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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4:04 PM

    Super blog on marketing. Excellent content

    ReplyDelete

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