Why do children's products so "difficult"? (Last article)

Absrtact: In the past 3-4 years, the "Father of Engineers" statistics on the children's product team from the peak of nearly 200, to now active (alive) less than 30-50, indicating that this seemingly beautiful field in the reality of cruelty. Children's products and adult products

In the past 3-4 years, the children's product team from the peak of 200, the "Father of Engineers", shows that this seemingly beautiful field is brutal in reality. Children's products and adult products are really very different, looks like Jane (you) single (zhi), but in fact is more complex. In the story, Tang's monk apprentice four people experienced 9,981 difficult to get the canon, then to make a high-quality, sustainable child application products, but also need to go through a few difficult?

The first difficulty: difficult to do content

Content, in China, especially in the field of the Internet, the most not to be seen in the model. But almost all of the primary needs of children point to content (such as cartoons, stories, games)-they are like hungry wolves, who need to constantly consume all kinds of "spiritual nourishment" to feed their energetic and hungry brains, and consume them very quickly. But these "little wolves" are extremely sensitive and picky about food--it's not fun to look at once and you'll give up completely with your feet. If a child-centred market (as distinct from adult/parental focus) is inseparable from content-the majority of the more than 100 teams killed in the past 3 years are concentrated in this area. And good content, production costs are very high. Domestic current content products market and entrepreneurial environment is not ideal, users do not set up to pay for content consumption habits, and copyright protection is not very ideal.

This content refers to a variety of products can be "consumed", including but not limited to cartoons/movies, anime, stories/pictures, e-books, games, toys, digital textbooks, offline courses, music songs and so on, including brand cartoon image, are content. Content is "supplies", unless there is a brand, otherwise not exclusive; and children need are audio and video/games and other heavier, high production costs content (not like text). For children digital products, there are few "pure tools" in the market, there is no UGC can support the market-unlike the adult market, a good chat, note, social/community tools, you can maintain the user, build a business model. Even in the field of children's operations, even hardware products, such as "Pocket Story" (iOS version and Android version), "Small companion dragon" and "Chick called Smart Toys", the product provides content, or content is an important part.

Do content difficult, whether production or operating content, children's digital products entrepreneurs can not hide this first difficulty.

the second difficulty: the breakdown of children's age and rapid growth, resulting in market segmentation and user life cycle is too short.

Compared with the adult market, one of the "nightmares" of children's products is a breakdown of the age/development phase, resulting in a "narrowing" of the market segment. Adult market, age can be basically 3-5 years for a span unit, or even 10-20 years. In the premise of relative stability of the birth rate, the basic number of users per age group (n) is not large, but users of different age groups, if they can add up, must be a considerable user base/market size.

and children's products naturally to the user group for the "terrible" subdivision, granularity can be meticulous to months, six months, up to only 1-3 years-very few children's products can be "young, small" take-all, even if General Motors such as Lego le Gao. So when the adult market is 10n-20n, the market for children's products is only 1n-3n, that is to say, up to 1-3 age spans. This seems to be a large population base and market, the implementation of products, each product can only target a few children of the age group, the real target market is not so big. To cover a number of age groups to provide different products, research and development costs higher. Well, I have not yet had time to mention gender, geography, culture and other "market segments" variables, such as everyone knows that "boys like cars, dinosaurs, girls like dolls, dress up."

Compared with the adult market, the "nightmare" of children's products is the rapid growth of children, resulting in a short life cycle of users. Children's growth, whether it is the ability to upgrade, or the interest of the young, so that the product's life cycle is very short. In the 2011, there was a team shouting slogans, "The secret to doing children's products is--Come on!" "(Although the team has been dissolved). The industry also has a well-known team once a week a new product to keep the heat, that is, a product in the hands of a user's life cycle is about 1 weeks (but the team has also begun to invest in "doing fine, do brand"). The general content of children's products (games, e-books, digital interactive toys), depending on product type and quality, the average life cycle of about 1-6 weeks, can do more than 4 weeks of products are already very good. Textbook-type products, depending on the active "participation" of parents/teachers and long course content, can last longer.

Plan to do children's products, first of all must think about how to face (are not yet resolved) this "a thin, two short" problem. But the sword is always double-edged, but it is not so bad, the short cycle means that your new users will be "very quickly" ready to wait for you to "harvest." Children's products market is "cut leek" type, although this does not mean that your product once done "once and for all", because you do not know 1-2 years after the user will still like you. There's another "hard" part of it-but it's hard and hard to operate (so I'm not included)-is to build "brand/Word-of-mouth". In the "Cut leek" type of market, you have to let you get the cost of new users because of "old user" and reduce, only to have the possibility of continuing. This is not the so-called "social marketing" that can be done by gathering fans with a micro-credit or microblogging code--perhaps for adults, but not for children.

The third difficulty: planning to design a "simple, fun" children's products, it is difficult to

Internet products for adults are simple and objective (at least initially). Even the content product, the adult World education and entertainment is very clear. And for children, I think all children's products should have the right educational goals--not just a waste of time, but also other negative effects (such as making a frying pan for dad)--that's what adult society needs. And all children's products must be entertaining, which is determined by the psychological characteristics of children, otherwise, children do not like to play, to talk about education must be fun-this is the needs of children. Therefore, a child product must have "education + entertainment" two purposes, regardless of the weight.

Both educational and recreational goals derive from user needs (child play needs + parental education needs), and product design principles/principles (child hardware and software product design principles, children's educational principles, social and cultural principles, etc.), continue to derive the product form, including animation/painting story, games/interaction, toys/ Internet Tools and other elements form, for a "simple, extreme" as the credo of the Internet Product Manager, this is a greater nightmare.

First, the product system and composition elements are complex, various principles/principles, knowledge/education system intertwined. Although for the non professional, see is only a "simple childish" children's products, but in fact, that is only the tip of the iceberg, under the water is a huge complex system: the education system, the principle of child development, and products of the world Outlook background, interactive principle, visual style, incentive system, numerical system intertwined, Most of these things have to be built in the early stages of product planning (otherwise it's a bigger nightmare to change later).

Secondly, the first feature of children's digital products is "interaction", and basically "self-study mode" interaction, and Non-human communication mode. It's not easy to keep your child's short attention with a "screen", but it's even harder to keep your attention while still hoping your child will learn some knowledge. and the product form between the story and game is relatively new, there is no successful experience to learn from, need to study and explore, this is more difficult for the entrepreneurial team.

Finally, it's hard to make kids like it. Many adults would be surprised: why do children who are not able to talk are watching "garden Baby" music non-stop? Why do 3-4-year-olds find it extremely interesting to say "excrement, poop, fart" to people? Why do you play with "silly" gadgets like "Tom Cat" for over 1-2 hours? Why is it that almost every child has a favorite story (usually different from a child) that never tires of hearing? Many people think that the child's high point is low, the smile is not the same, in fact, the nature of the children of different ages of the physiological and psychological development characteristics and status decisions, but the children's performance is different, behind the law is difficult to summarize. Product design follows a number of methodological principles, so that children can use, can be used, or completely can be done, but to let children like, is very difficult. This really requires product creative team, especially planning, design, can penetrate the hearts of children.

This leads to an important but difficult definition: what is the standard for good children's products? I don't really have the answer (another article to explore), but now if I just list one standard, it's: Kids like it! If your product can do "a lot of kids continue to love", it must be a coincidence of most principles, even if you don't know those principles. All children in the world like, is a regular--50-year-old "Sesame Street", 30-year-old "Qiao Hu", 17-Year-old "Love Adventure Dora" All tell us, across time and space, region, culture, so that children like to be able to do.

Finished, we will be launched in the afternoon, "Why do children's products so" difficult? Next, continue to talk about making a high-quality children's products still need to go through which steps?

Groping for more than 3 years in the field of children and education. Although this article summed up seven "difficult" words, but in fact this is not a "pessimistic, complaining" topic, on the contrary, I think it is "sober optimism." Defining the problem clearly is a prerequisite for solving the problem.

The boulevard is as simple as a child. The analysis of 7 "difficult" words basically points to one sentence: "Make a child's product (content) that truly conforms to this age and has 10 times times the value." Create value, business can be realized value, create 10 times times the value of the product in the past, in order to reverse user behavior and change the pattern of the industry. That's the root cause of the Zebra Knight's insistence on doing boutique content.

The right to be surprisingly, like a child's creativity. The future Disney/Pixar/Pearson/Bethasman will no longer appear in old clothes. Difficulties are barriers to entrepreneurship, but also to the limits of innovation and signposts. But as long as you see the child's instinct for the screen, you know the future is there.

Adhere to the children's digital/Internet products, there are many domestic, but also a new team admission. I believe that every new entrepreneurial team that insists or joins in is fundamentally convinced that the potential and value of the child market will continue, not just because of the so-called "feelings or ideals". There is a solution to the problem, and we have seen many problems in terms of conditions, the environment is already improving, and some problems even have a very promising solution.

Welcome and industry Enterprises, organizations of all kinds of cooperation, but also welcome to agree with our philosophy, want to make first-class product managers, designers, marketing/operations, engineers, individuals to join.