为什么这家橡皮泥品牌60年后还大受欢迎？

投资者为美国最大玩具生产商孩之宝近些年强劲销售表现与股价涨势兴奋不已，耀眼业绩的背后，其实是变形金刚和Nerf软弹枪等授权品牌，以及公司旗下漫威传奇和《星球大战》系列热门产品。

大家往往忽视了孩之宝旗下一个已有60年历史的明星品牌——培乐多，孩之宝业绩的另一大推手。

自1956年问世以来，黄色罐装的培乐多橡皮泥已经售出30多亿罐，其营业收入连续三年达到两位数增长水平，去年增速高达32%。据研究机构NPD统计，该品牌还是美国市场艺术及工艺品类的销售冠军，在一些海外市场也表现优异。

“玩培乐多成了每个孩子成长必经的仪式。”培乐多主管市场营销的副总裁格雷格·隆巴多接受《财富》采访时如是说。

培乐多的魅力之所以经久不衰，部分源于儿童玩的时候很自由，如今这样的玩具已经很难找了。培乐多的罐子摆在面前，无论孩童还是成人都不会受到任何束缚，尽情表达自我。培乐多也帮助孩之宝采取了一些创新举措，帮助老品牌紧跟潮流。虽然父母和孩子一般都很喜欢培乐多特别的气味，但仅凭怀旧是没法帮数十年的老品牌吸引新一代小朋友的。因此，孩之宝一直站在创新前沿，尤其是过去五年。

品牌升级

培乐多近年的新举措包括推出新品，例如名为Play-Doh Plus 的升级版本和艺术及工艺品系列品牌DohVinci。后者专门面向年龄稍大一点6到12岁的儿童，其中还加入了一种新材料，用玩具热胶枪就可以造出装饰性更强、寿命更长的模型。

2016年，培乐多将首次推出新的人物造型系列产品，玩具人物会置身于消防站和冰淇淋贩售车等场景。孩之宝有针对性地调整了设计决策，增加产品对男孩和女孩的吸引力。大部分玩具人物，比如其中的消防员都没有明显的性别倾向，然后孩子们可以根据自由设计外形，例如加上头发。这是孩之宝在玩具领域解决性别平等问题的又一次尝试。近几年，孩之宝还专门为女孩推出了性别中立的玩具烤箱Easy-Back Oven和Nerf玩具枪。

隆巴多认为：“培乐多应该属于所有人。”

培乐多的产品通常面向3到6岁的儿童，主要吸引对角色扮演兴趣日增的孩子。孩之宝推出这一系列的用意是要让培乐多参与3-6岁孩子最喜爱的，以讲故事为主的游戏。

隆巴多称：“我们一直在想的就是，怎样让培乐多帮助孩子玩好讲故事游戏。”以消防员玩具为例，目的就是鼓励孩子用各种道具造出红色的火场或者用来灭火的蓝色水流。

When investors get giddy about Hasbro’s strong sales and share price growth in recent years, big licensed brands from Marvel and Star Wars, as well as company-owned hits like Transformers and Nerf, get most of the credit.

One 60-year-old star often gets overlooked. Play-Doh has molded itself into a strong sales driver.

Since the yellow-canned brand debuted in 1956, Play-Doh has sold more than 3 billion cans of the compound. The brand has reported double-digit revenue growth for three consecutive years, including a 32% increase in 2015. It is also the top selling property in the arts & crafts category tracked by research firm NPD, in the U.S. as well as a handful of markets abroad.

“It becomes a rite of passage for every kid to play with Play-Doh,” Greg Lombardo, vice president of marketing for the brand, told Fortune in an interview.

Part of the enduring appeal of Play-Doh is that it is a form of free play that can rarely be found in the toy aisle these days. Place containers of Play-Doh in front of any child or adult, and they can feel free to express themselves in any form without any restrictions. But it also has helped that Hasbro has invested some new innovations for the brand to keep it current. While parents and kids often lovingly espouse the compound’s unique and distinctive smell, nostalgia isn’t enough to keep a decades-old brand like Play-Doh relevant for kids today. So Hasbro has stayed on top of innovation, especially over the past five years.

Updates to the brand

In recent years, new iterations have included a new compound called Play-Doh Plus and arts & crafts line called DohVinci, which is meant for older kids between the ages of six and 12. DohVinci also incorporates a different material that is meant more for decorative, permanent creations that can be constructed using a toy glue gun.

In 2016, Play-Doh is unveiling a new figure-based line for the first time, sets of toys that include firehouses and ice cream trucks. Hasbro made a few key purposeful design decisions to make the sets appeal to both genders. Most characters in the set, like the firefighter, are gender neutral. Kids can assign their own character by adding hair, for example. That builds on Hasbro’s other efforts to address gender equally in the toy aisle, in recent years selling a gender-neutral Easy-Back Oven and Nerf guns meant for girls.

“Play-Doh should be for everyone,” says Lombardo.

Play-Doh, generally meant for kids between the ages of 3 to 6, fights for play time with kids that are growing increasingly interested in play sets and figures. The idea behind the sets that Hasbro is now selling for the brand is to tackle that type of narrative, story-driven play that is popular for that age group.

“We thought about what Play-Doh could bring to allow a kid to play to play out a story,” Lombardo said. The firefighter play set, for example, encourages kids to use the compound to make a red fire or a blue stream of water to fight the blaze.

除了开发产品，培乐多还在社交媒体上积极打造有趣的形象。培乐多经常参与一些热门话题，如纽约地铁的披萨鼠、裙子颜色是白金色还是蓝黑色等等。孩之宝表示，会努力汲取新鲜的奇思妙想，培乐多这个老字号今后还要畅销几十年。（财富中文）

译者：Pessy

校对：夏林

Beyond product development, Play-Doh keeps it fun on social media. It has weighed in on trending topics like New York City’s Pizza Rat and the white/gold-blue/black dress controversy. That whimsy is another way Hasbro says it intends to keep Play-Doh on retail shelves for many decades to come.