Cartoon Network's Bucchki for kids

The enterprise tries out new strategies like roping in Bollywood to promote the new toy.

After selling a million beyblades, 700,000 blazing yo-yos and close to 50,000 units of Pogo Wheels, Cartoon Network Enterprises (CNE) is gearing to launch its new toy called bucchki.

A high-speed spinning toy, bucchki is expected to sell a million units by 2008, says Jiggy George, CNE director, India and South Asia.

The specialised licensing and merchandising division of Cartoon Network is also looking to maximise its merchandising profits through licensing tie-ups with apparel brands like Lilliput, homeware brands like Portico and also with publishing houses.

Character licensing for children's products is estimated to be a Rs 3.5 billion market. It is estimated to be growing at 25 per cent year-on-year. An estimated 12 per cent to 15 per cent of the retail price is charged as the merchandise license fee by CNE for its characters.

While apparels and other merchandise comprise around 20-30 per cent of revenues for CNE, it is the low-priced toys that account for bulk of the sales.

Bucchki, which is priced at Rs 149 per piece, has already hit the retail outlets and the company is hopeful of reaching out to the consumers in the small towns along with metros. "In order to ensure that we don't lose money to the gray market, our retail distributor "" Cybershop Marketing "" will be tapping the tier 2 and 3 cities aggressively and since the price point is not elitist, we are hopeful that we will hit the jackpot ," added George.

The toy also finds a place in the forthcoming BR Films' Bhootnath, featuring Amitabh Bachchan. According to George, kids and adults follow Bollywood and cricket very closely.

"So, we have focused on the Bollywood market which is a big challenge when it comes to licensing and merchandising business as product lifecycles are very short."

The company is yet to add an iconic toy like Barbie in its portfolio Its portfolio consists of yo-yos and small cars.

"We have realised that shorter product cycles mean that every three months, CNE needs to add a new toy to boost its sales volumes, and we would continue the in-film merchandising to grow our share," admitted George.

In the Rs 220 crore organised toy market, CNE is still a small player with 10 per cent market share. With the festive season approaching, Bucchki would be competing with Pogo and Cartoon Network Enterprises' popular toy, Blazing Yo-Yo.