LeapFrog Product positioning
Posted on Wednesday, February 13, 2008by Kevin Schulman
In only the rarest of cases does one successful product make a successful company.
LeapFrog, once an industry darling is now trading 90% off its highs. Its blockbuster LeapPad product, once over 60% of revenue, is no longer meeting the often fickle needs of consumers in the edutainment space. Their strategy going forward, as articulated by the current CEO, is heavily centered around getting back to their core demographic, children age 3 to 5, (their marketers will stretch both ends of that demo) with an instructional reading product that includes a real web component. The NY Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/technology/28leapfrog.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=leapfrog&st=nyt&oref=slogin describes the core product, Tag, designed to be the centerpiece of this strategy as,
“…a thick, white and green plastic stylus that turns paper books into interactive playthings…Parents who purchase additional titles, which will cost $14 each, have to connect to the company’s Web site to download the digital versions of those books into the Tag’s memory. At the Web site, parents will be encouraged to create a profile page for their child. Every time they connect the Tag to the computer, a record of the child’s activities will be uploaded to that profile, giving parents a detailed look at what the child read, learned and struggled with…”
Well, one thing is clear, it’s a really good thing the NY Times isn’t in charge of writing the ad copy for Tag. What else is clear? Well, we know none of these edutainment products have any solid research demonstrating efficacy as reported by a Kaiser Family Foundation study but perhaps, none need it if they all maintain a “détente” on real proof. And who knows, maybe such a claim isn’t a primary driver of consumer choice. We also know there are parents who spend significant dollars because they believe (or hope) it will provide educational advantage. And let’s not forget the other benefit of the child being able to entertain themselves for a few minutes of the day.
With that, here are a few questions to consider as Tag hits the shelves,
-How straightforward is the online process and how much time commitment on the part of the parent is required? In an age where 4 clicks is at least 1 click too many this could be the weak link.
-Is this product truly entertaining for children? LeapFrog was and past history and anecdotal evidence about Tag suggest they’ll probably deliver here.
-Is there any incentive, for the child to have an online relationship beyond downloading new titles? The CEO references NeoPets and WebKinz a lot when describing the goal of the online component. Based on the NY Times description, this is an incentive model with the parent as the beneficiary (resource, updates, reading diagnostics) versus the child (e.g. games, point accrual, virtual shopping).
The product does appear to be simpler than some “smart-pen” predecessors, it is probably ingenious and probably deserving of design awards but this is praise from the few. Answering these questions and others in the “right” way will dictate if they receive the only praise that really counts, sales.
