Hamleys Marketing Strategy & Marketing Mix (4Ps)

Published in Services category by MBA Skool Team

Marketing Strategy of Hamleys analyzes the brand with the marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). These business strategies, based on Hamleys marketing mix, help the brand succeed in the market. Let us start the Hamleys Marketing Strategy & Mix to understand its product, pricing, advertising & distribution strategies:

Hamleys Product Strategy:

The product strategy and mix in Hamleys marketing strategy can be explained as follows:

Hamleys is one of the most popular toys retail stores having multi-brand toys at their outlets. The flagship store of Hamleys is set over seven floors, with more than 50,000 lines of toys on sale. Some of the major product offerings in its marketing mix include –

• Preschool – Baby, Bath Toys, Learning Toys, Playsets, Traditional & Wooden, Trains & Vehicles

• Soft Toys - Animal Soft Toys, Bears, Character Soft Toys, Interactive Soft Toys

• Arts & Crafts – Books, Drawing & Painting, Make & Create, Models, Science Kits

• Dolls – Collectables, Dolls, Luvley Boutique, Roleplay & Dress Up

• Build It – Lego, Playmobil

• Action Toys - Action Figures, Dress Up & Roleplay, Playsets

• Games - Childrens Games, Family Games, Puzzles Jigsaws & Magic, Traditional Games

• Outdoor - Bubbles & Water Toys, Playcenters, Playhouses, Games and Go Karts

• Vehicles - Die Cast Cars & Tractors, Radio Control, Train Sets

Hamleys products are of premium quality and one can see the care taken in making them. They include various types of toys. Children like their favourite cartoon characters as stuffed animals. Other toys include board games, talking aliens, puppies wagging their tail.

They also sell key chains, magic markers and crayons. Hamleys provide with beautiful packaging options if the customers want to gift it to someone. Most of the toys use bright vibrant colours to attract the young children. Children simply love to spend their time in the shop and play the displayed games.


Image: Wikimedia


Hamleys Price/Pricing Strategy:

Below is the pricing strategy in Hamleys marketing strategy:

Hamleys are a premium brand and they mainly target towards affluent urban families and tier-1,2 cities. The price varies between Rs.500 – Rs.4000.

They sell through Hamleys outlets in major malls, speciality stores and through online players like Amazon, Flipkart and FirstCry. They charge a premium rate due to the brand name and quality of products. They offer price discounts on special occasions like Black Friday in the range of upto 20%. The stuffed animals and smaller toys are available at relatively reasonable prices.

Hamleys Place & Distribution Strategy:

Following is the distribution strategy in the Hamleys marketing mix:

Hamleys have their brand shops in all major cities throughout India and outlets in different malls. Customers can purchase toys online from Amazon, Flipkart and FirstCry. The chain has ten other outlets apart from the main store at Regent Street, London in the United Kingdom and also has more than 60 franchises worldwide.

Hamleys is now present in 19 cities with 39 stores across India.


Hamleys Promotion & Advertising Strategy:

The promotional and advertising strategy in the Hamleys marketing strategy is as follows:

The Hamleys Ad campaigns mostly showcase kids and parents having fun at their world class toy shops. The atmosphere is colourful and vibrant showing their friendly employees demonstrating various toys to kids. They clearly mention that they are the finest toy makers in the world. The commercial not only shows them as toy seller but it also showcases their flagship shop as a tourist destination where kids and parents could have fun. This leads to a high footfall throughout the year and good business in terms of sales. They also organise toy hunts at their London store which attracts a lot of kids. They also promote London Hamleys as the biggest toy store in the world which adds premium to their brand image.


Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of Hamleys.


People:

The sales team at Hamleys is very young and they are trained on how to interact with the kids and their parents. They are very jovial and friendly and talk to kids really well. They are well versed with various toys and demonstrate them to the kids as well as to their parents in a fashion that generates intrigue and captures interest. Hamleys are not very pushy but they just make the kids aware of various fun things to do like magic markers, talking aliens and cute puppies walking which helps in selling the product.


Process:

Hamleys have their specialised shops at various locations throughout the world and sell their toys online too. The products are of excellent quality and attractive to the young and teens alike. The service at the shops is very helpful and friendly and guide the customers through the entire purchase cycle.


Physical Evidence:

The design of Hamleys store is done such that there are bright red and yellow colours everywhere which catches the attention of the children. The dolls and games are on display and available for kids to try out which adds to the appeal of the toys and helps in increasing impulse purchases. Hence this concludes the Hamleys marketing mix.


About Hamleys:

Hamleys was started by William Hamleys in 1760. He had a dream to open the best toy shop in the world and he worked hard to turn that dream into a reality. He filled his toy shop with all kinds of toy starting from tin soldiers to different kinds of dolls. The shop became a landmark in London and children flocked in large numbers and loved the toy store. Hamleys gradually expanded and added new floors full of all kinds of toys. There were toy trains, pedal cars, puppets etc. To keep up with the growing demand they opened another shop at Regent Street. Their shop was bombed five times during the World War 2 but they rose from the ashes each time stronger. Queen Elizabeth 2 gave her children Hamleys toys. Presently the Hamleys store in London attracts a lot of tourists and young children. One can hear the laughing of the children amalgamated with various kinds of squeaking toy noises around that area.

They have created an environment where it’s fun and enjoyable for the employees to work and customers could see their passion when they enter the store. They greet the customers with a smile and show the children wonderful new toys and other fun activities that are around.

This article has been researched & authored by the Content & Research Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse marketing strategy and 4Ps analysis of more brands similar to Hamleys. The Marketing Strategy & Mix section covers 4Ps and 7Ps of more than 800 brands in 2 categories.

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The names and other brand information used in the Marketing Strategy & Mix section are properties of their respective companies. The companies are not associated with MBA Skool in any way.

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