Irina Senchenko: Giraffiki®: brand sensitive to customer sentiment
Nasha Igrushka has launched a number of own brands over 25 years of business experience; however, it is Giraffiki® brand that became a recognizable face of the company. The brand has a well-thought-out product range, a modern stylish packaging, and a clear slogan “While the baby is playing, the mother is relaxing”. We talked with Irina Senchenko, Head of Branding & New Products Department of Nasha Igrushka, about the main components of success, and discussed how the brand had been doing under today’s uneasy economic conditions.
– Irina, would you tell us please, how long has your brand been working?
– We established Giraffiki® brand in 2012, although our real work started only in 2016 when we carried out rebranding, choosing a unique and very relevant for our consumers positioning “While the baby is playing, the mother is relaxing®”. We have replaced the visual concept, reworked the entire product range structure, and we presented the new image of the brand to the market, the image, which is now recognizable for all.
– What is the product range of the brand today?
– The product range includes toys for newborn babies, among which there is the largest collection of fluffy toys, rattles and pendants, rugs, arcs, and one of the most favorite kinds of toys of the buyers - the mobiles. By the way, the Giraffiki® mobile became the best toy of 2017. Besides, the brand presents educational toys for babies from six months with light, sound, and learning modes. We want underline our own inventions, which conquered the hearts of mothers and children, such as "Smart Giraffe", an educational toy with cards, with Russian songs about animals and transport, which teaches to count, to differentiate the colors and numbers. There are also exciting educational tables, as well as Multicube, one of the most famous toys in the market.
– What sales channels do you use? Retail, wholesale, online? Which Channel is the most effective one today, in your opinion?
– We use all open sales channels: wholesale, and retail, and Internet. An effective sales channel means the products of the brand are available nearby when the customers need them, it means the toys are available and they do not need to be searched for; therefore, it is important to cover all the sales channels. Of course, retail has always been, and it is, and it will be the largest sales channel. At the same time, Giraffiki® online are selling off like hot cakes, and online we can provide the full information about the toys, so this sales channel is one of the most promising.
– How did you feel the sales decrease? What is your strategy for the near future? Will you expand the product range or switch to another product category?
– Even before the sales decrease in the market the goods for newborn babies, in our work with the product range, we shifted the main emphasis from toys and products for the newborn babies to the segment of educational toys for children up to 3 years of age.
From the very beginning, when we started designing Giraffiki® toys, we planned these products to be affordable for the vast majority of the population, keeping at the same time a decent level of quality and functionality. The task was not an easy one, although realistic and cost-effective, as our practice had proved. We are convinced that it is necessary to forecast such trends and to be vigilant planning in advance, because it might be too late to introduce changes later.