Our Major Focus Is To Understand Skill That Adds Value To Learning Process: Moiz Gabajiwala, Zephyr
Early learning through fun and entertainment has given a boost to the toy market. As most of the parents want a game that cannot involve any gadgets.
By keeping the above-mentioned points in mind, manufacturers have increased the investment of such products that helped in early learning. They are investing in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) toys and other products that are designed to enhance cognitive development in children at a young age.
According to a report, the market is expected to cross $3.3 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 13.3 per cent during 2019-2024. It was worth $1.5 billion in 2018, registering a CAGR of 15.9 per cent during the year 2011-2018.
The market has a large variety of toys to experiment. It has included traditional plush toys, construction and building toys, dolls, board games and puzzles to high-end electronic toys, educational toys, ride-ons, and many more. Moiz Gabajiwala, CEO, Zephyr Toymakers, shared an in-depth knowledge about the industry and the company.
Founded by Zaheer Gabajiwala along with his wife Samina Gabajiwala, Zephyr, is one of the indigenous toy manufacturer parents to the most well-known toy brands Mechanix and Blix
In an interview with BW Businessworld, Gabajiwala, talked about the company and its presence among children.
How do you create product awareness among consumers?
Zephyr has been in the industry for almost 30 years now. But for most of these years, the company has flourished only through its easy access in the market and the positive word of mouth by our consumers. Now in recent years, with the rise in digitalization, we are stepping up our game using social media platforms, influencer marketing and expanding our reach by indulging into various online avenues. Besides this, we also have collaborated with brands and companies for certain events. For example, last year we had partnered with Hindustan Times for the Hindustan Times Scholarship Awards, where Zephyr had launched its Zephyr - Smart Kids awards.
Are you planning any tie-ups with educational theme parks?
At this moment we don’t have any plans to collaborate with any educational theme parks, but we'd love to partner with one in future. We do have some other exciting collaboration and events lined up this year on which we are working.
How many distributors are on the panned in India?
We have around 76 distributors from Jammu & Kashmir to Kerla.
Which places of selling toys will be most convenient?
The key is to cover all the avenues for the easy accessibility of the products. All our toys are available on our company website i.e. zephyrtoys.com and on various other e-commerce websites as well. Other than this toy stores proves to be consumer appealing places for us. Also, the emergence of pop-ups and exhibitions have helped us reach to a larger audience.
Who all do you consider as competitions?
I believe there are 2 types of competition, competition to closet space and competition of wallet spend. When it comes to closet space, we are in competition with majorly Chinese toys that are being imported in India via all channels. Considering the Indian market structure there are very few companies who manufacture and market educative yet fun toys like us. So, it’s a close space we all are working in. Though we do face competition with products of other categories like smartphones, gaming consoles and video games.
Do you have digital videos channel? Have you seen an impact on sales you can attribute to your digital video efforts?
Since we have recently entered the digital and social media marketing space, we are planning to promote kids who have curated some amazing models using Mechanix and BLIX. We already have a few amazing videos uploaded by the users of their innovations on various social media platforms. We intend to encourage these intelligent and innovative brains to share their experience and showcase what they have created.
How do you plan for a new toy? Do you have any R&D centre?
Yes, we do have an R&D team led by Abbas Gabajiwala the younger son of Zaheer and Smaina Gabajiwala who is in charge of all new products development. Since we are in the consumer business our R&D is not limited to the core product. It extends to the Presentation and Packaging design as well. Our R&D team consist of people from Product ideation & Design to Tool Design and Technology Experts as well as Packaging Design and Experts.
Overall, we have around 8 members in our R&D team. But all these are involved in the execution process. When it comes to ideation we keep our ears and minds open to all. We've employees who had suggested some amazing ideas and we’ve adapted them to curate our products. We have our users as young as 12 years old who have shared their mind-blowing innovations and we've adapted a few elements from there to create our products.
While creating a new product, our major focus is to understand the skill that adds value to the learning process. There’s a continuous process of research and experiments until we identify the best way and the best tools to help children develop that skill. That's our starting point and we go on from there.
Are you working on any major project in the coming years?
With reference to the motto of our company i.e. “Make your kids future ready”, this is the most exciting part of our business. Forecasting what is needed before it becomes a need.
There are 2 types of people, ‘Technology creators’ and ‘Technology Consumers’. 90%-95% of today’s population of young adults fall under the latter category, where they consume technology created by others for making their lives easier or to simplify the chores. We are now working on how to develop logical thinking skills as well as teaching children as young as 10 years how to program. Our focus is to curate products that help the child to learn the fundamentals of how a machine works as well as to develop curiosity and problem-solving skill. In simple terms give the children the skill sets to adapt to the future and make the most of this fast-changing scenario and forever changing the world.
Prices of Zephyr toys are quite reasonable? How do you manage such good quality in a less amount?
Prices of Zephyr toys are reasonable, as every aspect of our business is been managed in house from product designing to manufacturing as well as distribution. Which cuts off the cost that may have incurred if outsourced. We try to manage costs well and keep unnecessary spending to the bare minimum, all to make the products more affordable and accessible to most children of the country. Our focus is on creating innovative products and experiences for children at minimal rates. Would also like to mention our team at Zephyr that consist of extremely dedicated people who share the same vision that we have. Today we have labourers who have become product developers as well as storekeepers/clerks who have grown to become national sales head. We notice talent amongst our employees which may be from the most mundane or bottom level jobs and nurture this talent to bring them up.
