toys 'R' us teardown: from childhood memories to modern makeovers

hey marketer! 

today, another deep-dive on one brand’s marketing.

brand in the hot seat: 🎁 toys ‘r’ us

toys r us is near and dear to my heart because I worked there while I was still in college – the first job I had for longer than a summer.

no, I wasn’t in marketing – I was building kids’ bicycles and selling legos.

this is what I’m exploring:

today's treasure trove

• the rise and fall of toys r us

• target demographics

• content strategy

• in-store experiences

the rise and fall of toys r us

🎉 let's take a trip down memory lane with toys r us! 🎉

once upon a time, a baby-furniture store decided to switch things up and, voilà, toys r us was born in 1957 in maryland. this toy wonderland was the brainchild of charles lazarus (seriously, how epic is that name?!).

he even designed the iconic backward “R” that became a childhood staple.

fast forward a bit, and toys r us was having a tough time battling the giants like wal-mart and target. in 2005, they were scooped up by private equity – a real plot twist in the toy saga.

but, the struggle was real, and by 2018, they had to say buh-bye to all their stores. It was like the end of an era.

hold up, though! their lenders weren't ready to auction off all that nostalgia. instead, they decided to give the brand another shot. enter tru kids brands, the new heroes (villains?) of our story, who began the slow climb back to relevance.

talk about bad timing, though 😣 just as they were gearing up to reopen stores in 2019, the pandemic hit, putting a major wrench in their plans.

today, the few toys r us locations we have are smaller and more humble, but the magic lives on. it’s a work in progress, but hey, I’m rooting for them! 🧸✨

target demographics

here’s what’s up. 

the target demo is obviously kids – but why stop there?

with brand-name recognition and a healthy dose of nostalgia✨ toys r us can (read: should) market to parents & adults just as much as kids.

“kidults” (yes, it’s a term) are driving the most growth for the toy industry. think star wars and legos – just don’t google “adult toys” ahem

so, how can the retailer split their audience focus? – meet each audience in their own channels. 

create kid-centric content on youtube shorts and partner with video game streamers and unboxing creators for the youngest audiences. even going as far as rebranding the name and logo to a more updated version called “toys r us kids.” stock retail items from well-known creators and games (like lankybox and fortnite).

but, for millennials like me 🙇, they can create nostalgia to the max with content under the moniker “toys r us classic” featuring adults getting to live out their childhood dream of running through the store and grabbing everything off the shelves, supermarket sweep-style, but with their own children. 

here, the play is promoting items like barbie, legos, and train sets that encourage parents to build things with their kids.

content strategy

oh wow, where to start 🙄

the messaging for the new stores is essentially the same as the old: come visit our store.

there’s a bit of a trend happening with geoffrey on youtube shorts and tiktok – you know, that costumed giraffe playing with toys in the store 🦒

but, here's the kicker: their tagline is “I’m a toys r us kid!” – and yet, there are NO KIDS in any of these videos 🤷

honestly, I dig that tagline because it creates a cool identity vibe, but the execution? not so much. the whole retail experience still looks like it did when I was stocking shelves.

kids and adults don’t want to watch a giraffe wandering through store aisles – it screams “commercial” in the most boring way.

what they really want is to be entertained by creators or characters they already know and love. with a tagline like “I’m a toys r us kid!”, user-generated content (UGC) seems like a no-brainer, so where is it?!

also – toys r us is not running ANY facebook or insta ads.

this is where the millennial parents are – meet them there!

content ideas: 

• unboxing videos

• nerds talking about the lore behind action figures

• my fave movies being re-enacted with toys stop-motion style

• families cosplaying through the store together

last content idea: turn geoffrey into mr. beast.

show geoffrey selecting a kid in the store to be a “toys r us kid” and they can have anything they want in the store, but they have 45 seconds to grab it.

the only interesting content they currently produce is this brand-story doc made with sora AI. but, like, what?

I feel like there could be a biopic in toys r us’s future, but this ain’t it…

in-store experiences

they are diligently churning out content on youtube shorts and tiktok, but the push should be on in-store ~experiences~ not just getting folks into the store.

instead of the drab, traditional retail experience of items on shelves, imagine that toys r us is a toys-only version of ikea. the store is a showroom with play areas and toys for both kids and adults. VERY tactile.

the store is arranged in “environments” – like a life-size barbie dream house or room built with giant lego blocks. these environments have play areas in the center, with walls lined with boxes that parents can grab right off the shelf while little timmy is playing.

even better – parents could use the toys r us app to scan and identify the toy their kid is playing with (using AI, so no searching on shelves), then check out in-app, while their order is picked and packed for them when they leave.

conclusion

that’s what I got to say about toys r us. 

honestly, they have a golden opportunity to cash in big on nostalgia but the strategy has to be there. 

so far, looks like they’re trying to run the same playbook that put them in this predicament back in the 2000s.

as for babies r us, well, that’s a whole other story for another time.

thanks for reading and I’d love to hear what thoughts you have about toys r us and this teardown. (and read the other deep dives here)

✌️,

tom from marketer gems