Hasbro's CEO Chris Cocks Looking At Adult Collectors To Help Boost Revenue

[JayC]

It's no secret that Hasbro has struggled a bit over the course of the last year as the companies revenue reportedly fell 9% in 2022 and they laid off 1k people earlier this year.

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks indicated that he seems to feel that adult collectors will be key in turning things around for them. He stated that 40% of his companies annual revenue now comes from 18 and older adult collectors, and that he expects that to grow to 50% in the next 5 years.
 

 

 

"As they are becoming adults, a lot of people become more intense in their loyalties toward brands nurtured when they were kids,"

Now it should be noted that this not only includes adult's who collect action figures, but also those who play their role-play games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering which seemed to have helped boost their earnings for the first quarter of 2023. This is where a lot of Hasbro's focus seems to be going right now with things like a recently announced 24-hour streaming channel dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons.

While I don't focus that much on the game side of things in my coverage here at TNI, in my 20+ years of covering the adult action figure market, I can tell you that many adult collectors I come into contact with seem to be growing in frustration with Hasbro over things like rising prices, slow distribution and a seemingly decline in overall quality with many of their action figure lines. Like I say I have covered this hobby for 20+ years long before anyone in the mainstream media was even aware of it or started creating annoying marketing terms like "Kidult" to describe it, which I guarantee no adult collector has ever refereed to themselves as. So in my opinion if Cocks is expecting adult collectors to pull his proverbial fat out of the fire, he better start doing a better job at improving his companies public relations with them, because it is at one of the lowest points I have ever seen it.

I will note that Hasbro's recent announcement about ditching the plastic free windowless packaging which is something many collectors have been very unhappy about is seemingly a step in the right direction to improving those relations.

[15thWarlock]

Can't say any other company has done more to harm their relationship with adult collectors than Hasbro.

From the aforementioned windowless packaging that basically killed off any incentive to collect boxed figures (saving the planet by "using less plastic" while their products are entirely made of plastic? Give me a break), to retailer exclusives that shipped in mailer envelopes with zero regard for destroying their contents, or even worse, cancelled or unfulfilled pre orders placed months in advance while the exclusive figures were scooped by scalpers from stores way before their release dates, to their outrageous price hikes that have far outpaced inflation, just to increase their profit margins year after year, this company has basically pushed away many of their loyal costumers.

I have lost my faith in Hasbro, and my number of orders for their products in general has diminished greatly due to their anti costumer policies.

I doubt this effort to bring back adult collectors after the damage they did will make much of a difference to their bottom line.

[Satam]

2 hours ago, JayC said:

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks indicated that he seems to feel that adult collectors will be key in turning things around for them. He stated that 40% of his companies annual revenue now comes from 18 and older adult collectors, and that he expects that to grow to 50% in the next 5 years.

Then they should do better by us. I have my doubts they will, but they should.

[memocromatico]

Wow, they expect US to increase THEIR income 50%? That’s not sounding the way they want it to. That’s my main problem with the people that deal with money and not product. They see numbers not people, trends not wants, and just ways to increase profit without increasing investment. I understand that’s how the world works, but it’s broken. We’re loyal and willing to spend as much as we can as long as it’s worth spending.

I for one can acknowledge I have a toy buying addiction, everytime I cut back on a black series or marvel legend I’m looking for a different brand to spend my hard earned money on. I shouldn’t, what I should is just cut back and that’s it, but that’s a different topic. Thing is, the main thing that’s starting to chain me down is what it costs to get figures. It’s not just the price that rises, it’s the hunt that’s more expensive too. Even online, with how they’re handling distribution and all that, we have to spend more time trying to get the product too. I have a friend that preorders from 3 different places when possible, he cancels once the first one arrives, but why would we even need to do that?

On top of that, the differences between lines in Hasbro is staggering. First Black Series with their ridiculous deluxe figures, then ML cutting back more and more with accessories and paint apps, Overwatch crashed, Fortnite never got to Jazwares level (granted, the figures looked better and the plastic felt better… but the amount of figures Jazwares is ridiculous.) They didn’t even make it to 10 waves. It’s messed up. 

TL;DR If they want us to up their income, they must do better for us.

[MagnaPrime]

Yeah, hasbro has really hurt their image with the fans lately.  Frankly, this CEO has had so many missteps that I'm surprised he's still there.  This is a good time to decide not to rock the boats and also to decide to try and focus on giving fans what they want as a way to grow revenue instead of trying to squeeze every penny from us you can.

[jwheeler0805]

1 hour ago, memocromatico said:

Wow, they expect US to increase THEIR income 50%? That’s not sounding the way they want it to.....

It says they expect to see the percent of their revenue that comes from adult collectors to increase by 50%. They say that right now, the amount that comes from that demographic (us) is 40% of their sales. a 50% increase would mean that number would reach 60% in the time frame stated.  

[80sboy4]

Well it's about time they acknowledged the adult collector portion of the overall picture. Getting rid of the awful windowless packaging is a start but also the actual products themselves need improvement, such as Marvel Legends figures being on old body molds like Bucky Cap, Pizza Spider-Man, etc. need to stop also adding sculpting as well as painting to their figures. A good step forward is the recently released Movie Spider-Man 3 pack. Those figures are real good and am real happy with those. I mean for the prices they are asking I think that is not too much to ask. 

Communication is also key to keep the fan bases of Hasbro's franchises happy. Make retailer exclusives more readily available as well as convention exclusives. 

[boatafce]

13 hours ago, memocromatico said:

“Wow, they expect US to increase THEIR income 50%? That’s not sounding the way they want it to. That’s my main problem with the people that deal with money and not product. They see numbers not people, trends not wants, and just ways to increase profit without increasing investment. I understand that’s how the world works, but it’s broken. We’re loyal and willing to spend as much as we can as long as it’s worth spending.”

.

They didn’t say that they expect to increase their income%50. They said that currently adult collectors account for 40% of their total sales and that they expect collectors to account for up to 50% of their income next year or the near future… big difference. It’s not about whether their income goes up or down it’s about who is buying the product.

[Admiralty_Entertainment]

This had better not be a precursor to *another* round of price increases to see how much more they can squeeze out of the adult collector before we bail...

[kILLMonger]

13 hours ago, Admiralty_Entertainment said:

This had better not be a precursor to *another* round of price increases to see how much more they can squeeze out of the adult collector before we bail...

This right here.  I chuckle that they are pricing people out of the hobby.  With inflation at such a crazy rate....they think making me pay almost three times what I was paying in the early 2000s is going to inspire loyalty?

I don't know why they miss that making people pay more means they will often buy less.

And let's not get into the problem of distribution....especially for highly desired exclusives that store don't stock/sell out of