BY ALEXANDER SOULE
Hearst Connecticut Media
Over the years at innovativeKids in Norwalk, Shari Kaufman and Michael Levins nurtured a talent for predicting the toys and books children would want to open during the following year”™s holiday season.
With a new company in Sugar Lulu, Kaufman is about to find out if her crystal ball can roll with the fickle tastes of tween girls.
Kaufman created Sugar Lulu after the couple”™s tween daughter said there was little to interest her on the shelves of stores, with a gap between the girlhood-geared lines of Disney and the edgier fare from Forever 21 and other mall stores with apparel and accessories galore. The answer was obvious ”“ let her daughter brainstorm a product wish list, appeal to other tweens and put Kaufman”™s career in children”™s branding to use at a new company.
Tweens are generally considered to be children between 10 and 12 years old.
From the moment of inspiration, it took just a year to develop Sugar Lulu”™s product lineup, released last February at Toy Fair 2014 in New York City. Under the logo of a French bulldog sporting wings, a tiara and studded collar, Sugar Lulu initially released do-it-yourself jewelry design kits, pinup sets to decorate rooms, art and writing portfolios, and games packaged in tins resembling handbags.
With at least a few parents confessing to having little inkling of the latest wish list from their tween kid, it would seem a tall task to predict their tastes a month out, let alone a year. Figuring out the must-have items for the tween girls of 2016 will take place over the next eight weeks, with big retailers demanding concepts from suppliers like Sugar Lulu a year in advance so that their catalogs can be planned.
Social media toolbox
Sugar Lulu”™s success will be based on how well Kaufman leverages a market research tool she relied on little throughout her days with innovativeKids ”” social media. Sugar Lulu promises to let girls develop, test and vote on new products, promising the process will produce surprising new accessories that appeal to a broad audience.
“I like the idea,” said Levins, chairman of the American Toy Specialty Retailers Association. “Girls this age, they love it and then they hate it, so how do you stay on top of the trends? How do you figure out what they are looking for?”
Sugar Lulu hit the mark in its first go-around, landing “flagship” accounts ”” those in which its entire product line was picked up ”” with Nordstrom, Learning Express and other major retailers. Kaufman estimates Sugar Lulu secured between 30 percent and 40 percent of its placement with flagship accounts in its first year in business.
Now it is on to year two, and a new catalog featuring, among other items, collage photo frames, school supplies and beads that can be strung together to form inspirational messages.
As girls advance into their teens ”” a group her daughter passed into recently ”” Kaufman is setting up mentor programs so that Sugar Lulu “veterans” can stay involved in the business, creating a Junior Achievement-like feel to the company.
If Sugar Lulu hopes to inspire and empower girls this holiday season, the end of the calendar year adds up to ample perspiration for children”™s product designers. As Kaufman works with Sugar Lulu”™s tween advisers over the next few months, innovativeKids”™ Levins will hopscotch to gift product fairs across the country, a grueling travel schedule culminating in February at Toy Fair 2015 at Manhattan”™s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, convened by the Toy Industry Association trade group.
Kaufman is confident she has processes in place to manage the feedback from the ever-expanding army of tween girl advisers Sugar Lulu has drawn, and in her own abilities to fit their ideas into an appealing brand. And she has gotten advice in building the business from the Women”™s Business Development Council in Stamford, among others.
“We”™re not inundated yet,” Kaufman said. “I have to keep mining ways to keep the girls interested and involved.”
Kaufman gave few hints about what will be in store for Sugar Lulu going forward. But conspicuously absent from the product portfolio is a staple of youth culture today ”” digital offerings via mobile apps or other channels.
In the do-it-yourself genre where Sugar Lulu plays, a Massachusetts company called Fashion Playtes raised $12.5 million in funding between 2009 and 2012 to produce an app allowing girls to design their own clothes. That venture shut down this past May, and its founder is now attempting an app to let girls design their own jewelry, reportedly at price points between $50 and $500, far higher than Sugar Lulu”™s own line.
Kaufman expects Sugar Lulu to expand into the digital world in the coming year without providing specifics, except to hint some type of wearable technology could be in store for the brand.
“This is by girls, for girls,” Kaufman said. “You dream it, you make it.”
Hearst Connecticut Media includes four daily newspapers: Connecticut Post, Greenwich Time, The Advocate (Stamford) and The News Times (Danbury). See ctpost.com for more from this reporter.
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