Market analysis, strategy diagnosis and opportunity recognition in toy industry

The Iranian toy market has been identified as a niche market with lots of unexploited opportunities. Nonetheless, the Iranian toy industry has shown inefficiency in exploiting those opportunities and to meet market demands. This exploratory research aims at understanding the reasons of such poor performance. The research made use of two phases of survey with samples from customers, influencers and in-depth interview with industry practitioners. The survey identified and prioritised existing opportunities that satisfy the purchasers’ demands. The interview analysis revealed the key point that the firms are highly focused on manufacturing, whereas the industry has a substantial competitive advantage in design and marketing. The major reasons for this misdirection were that the Iranian toy industry lacked a traditional structure, a strategic perspective and also absence of international cooperation. This research suggests that the Iranian toy industries need to move its focus from manufacturing, where the country has no competitive advantage, toward toy design and marketing channels.