Interview by Jason Coulston

I was recently put in touch with one of Kenner's regional sales employees and had the chance to ask some questions I've always wanted the answers to. Coming from a sales background myself, I've always been intrigued by what process Kenner had in place during the vintage era. There has certainly been no shortage of time and research spent looking into the engineering, sculpting, design and packaging processes Kenner used during the late 1970s and through the 1980s, and we've all been lucky enough to have dedicated collectors unearthing some pretty amazing pieces that give us a great look into the entire lifecycle of Vintage Star Wars toys. Information is readily available at sites like The Star Wars Collectors Archive for example.

But while plenty of information and a slew of prototypes and pre-production samples have been turned up, there hasn’t been very much information presented from the other side of the equation. I haven’t heard that much from those that were involved in delivering these great products we all cherish to the marketplace. So with that, I thought it might be time to turn some attention towards the sales/marketing efforts of Kenner. I took the opportunity when I had it to discuss with one of Kenner's sales employees what it was like to work for arguably the greatest toy company of the era. He has decided to keep his identity private, but what follows is an interesting look into Kenner’s history:

What was your position with Kenner?

I started with Kenner in 1978 as a Sales Representative in Northern California. I was promoted to Senior Sales Representative for the Mountain States in 1979. In Northern California I covered Fresno to the California-Oregon border. I called on King Norman, American Sales, Macy’s, Emporium/Capwells, along with several wholesalers that serviced pharmacies, grocers, and toy stores. In the Mountain States, I covered Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico. Key accounts were May Co., Labelle’s, Grand Central, Border Wholesale, Skaggs Drugs, Hilb Co., General Novelty (Three Wishes Toy Co.), Gibsons, JC Penny, Sears, Popular, and lots of independent toy stores.

How long did you work with the company?

I started in 1978 and worked at Kenner until December 1981.

What was it like working for Kenner, as Star Wars was becoming a phenomenon? Was there a lot of excitement around the product line?

When I started with Kenner, I answered an ad in the newspaper that read: “Small growing toy company seeks sales rep for Northern California”. Kenner was known for Playdoh, SSP cars, and the Easy Bake Oven. They just landed the Star Wars license, and were just finishing the sales on the coupon offer for the early bird figures. Nobody knew the explosion that was to take place in the next three months! It was fast and furious when it hit; Kenner became a household name overnight, as did Star Wars! We became celebrities everywhere we went, you almost didn’t want people to know who you worked for. The product line was fabulous, always exciting and really captured the excitement from the movies. The product was like gold.

Was it easy to sell Star Wars because all the retailers knew they had to stock the product?

I personally do not believe there was a lot of selling on Star Wars. It was always on allocation when I worked for the company, so the challenge was to allocate your territory quantities within your customer base to try and please everyone. We never had enough product, which was okay. Demand never stopped.

I was in stores sometimes unloading product from the cartons, and consumers would grab it right out of my hands to buy it, never letting it hit the shelf. This could occur any day of the week, anytime! Consumers and retailers were always asking questions about availability, new products, new figures, just about anything to get the inside scoop so they could gobble up the new items. The marketing staff did not make public very often their plans until they had to. This added to the build-up and excitement.

On one of my first sales calls after I started with Kenner, my boss took me into a three-store chain in the Bay Area to present the Star Wars line. After showing the owner/buyer the figures, my boss said that these are strictly on sales allocation, and that we can only give you 5000 of these. The buyer was drinking a cup of coffee and choked at that number, spitting his coffee all over the order form we had out. He was laughing uncontrollably (the most he had ever sold of a boys action figure line was about 2000), and told us we were nuts. He ordered 864 to see how they would sell. Within two weeks of him getting the inventory in he came back to me and wanted 5000, plus another 5000 to follow. Of course we could only give him the 5000 he was allocated, for the year! I saw this account over the years at Toy Fair until he retired; we were good friends and still always had a good laugh at this story. So it went for Star Wars in the beginning. Not all people were believers until that first shipment arrived, and then they were hooked for life. Never had there been a boy’s category like this in the toy industry.

Were there sales contests with Kenner?

They always gave us sales goals, most of them focused on other lines like Easy Bake, Preschool, SSP, Strawberry Shortcake, Alien, Darci, Fast 111’s, Playdoh. Star Wars was always on allocation, and that was it. Sometimes some extra quantities would become available from other regions, but not often.

Did you work strictly out of the office in Cincinnati, or did you travel a lot?

I was based in California, then Denver. I traveled in the territory and then back to Cincinnati for sales meeting usually two or three times per year

Did Kenner pay for travel expenses while you were on the road?

They always picked up all expenses, and always sent plenty of samples if you requested them

How did you get your sales leads?

Sales leads were by: Existing territory, Trade Shows, Knowledge of territory, cold calling, references or referrals from Kenner, other reps in the industry, etc.

Were territories set, or did retailer split the sales team up?

The head of sales by region assigned sales territories. There were four regional managers, who reported to a VP of Sales, who reported to the Executive VP Of Sales. There was also a Special Markets Manager (grocery/drug), and two National Accounts Managers (Wal-Mart/K-Mart/Sears/Penney's/TRU). At the regional level there was a Regional Manager, District Sales Manager, Senior Sales Representative, Sales Representative.

Was it competitive in the sales team, and did you try to land the bigger accounts like Sears, TG&Y, Best, Toys R Us and Toy City?

We all wanted to work the big accounts, but only the seasoned professionals got those jobs. I was only 21 when I was hired and still in college, so I had to “pay my dues” and learn the industry before getting the big accounts. After one year I was promoted to a territory that was 4-5 times the size of the one I started with. That is how Kenner brought people along, kind of like going A-AA-AAA-Majors in baseball. As far as competition, yes, all the young guns were trying to impress the management team to get promoted when those opportunities came up, and they did quite often. Kenner was excellent on promoting from within. The real challenge was to show you could sell all of the non-Star Wars lines, anyone could sell Star Wars when it became as hot as it did.

Did you work the trade shows, such as ToyFair in New York?

I worked Toy Fair every year for about 7-10 days. We also had a pre-show in Chicago every year the first two weeks of January. We were showing the line for next year to the top accounts only, and we had to present parts (A, B or C) in these turntable presentations. They would mix in us young guys with the veterans in the presentations. My first year I had part A, which was the whole Playdoh line. I would stand up in a small room with the customer sitting at a table, the turntable would spin around while I was introducing Playdoh, and there would be the first item to present. We would have TV commercials, print ads, and marketing graphs to show about all of our products. After presenting 15-20 products, my part would be done, I would go in the back of the turntable room and load products on to the turntable, while another guy would come out to present product. We learned a lot at these meetings, heard all of the key customer feedback, etc., which helped us mentally prepare for going out to see our customers. We also learned how to present all of the items.

We would then mingle with customers in the evening at dinner and cocktail parties, etc. My first presentation ever I was in the Eastern Group. A large wholesaler came in for the meeting at 8 am. After pleasantries were exchanged, the intro given, I was introduced to begin the presentation. I presented an overview of Playdoh (just the logo was up on the turntable-not one product yet) and one of the buyers asked a question about delivery from last year. That led to one discussion after another, from Playdoh to SSP car pricing, to Star Wars positioning to their mothers and families!

[Three hours] went buy and I had still not presented the Playdoh four-pack, the first item in the line! Finally they decided to go to lunch, but we had not even started! They asked me to come with them, I politely declined, and went into the back room and laughed with the guys in the back who could hear all of this, while we had sandwiches. Finally after lunch, we ran through the products - in record time since we were four hours behind!

At the pre-show in Chicago, we also had Fundimensions and Parker Bros. which were also owned at the time by General Mills. We had each customer meet with each company for their presentation over an eight-hour period (in one day).

Was Kenner the biggest fish in the pond at the trade shows during the 1980s?

We were a must see at any trade show between ’78 – ‘85 time frame.

Everyone came and saw; accounts, media, inventors, competing toy companies, and friends even! Mattel was still the biggest and then Coleco hit it big with Cabbage Patch Dolls. They were both must-sees.

We did regional shows; I would even do a May Co. show (Fall preview show) for the consumer. One year we arranged costumes to have Darth Vader, and Chewy appear. Five minutes before the opening of the weekend event, my buyer advised me that the person hired to play Darth Vader did not show up. I called my wife who worked at one of my customer's retail stores, had her come down and "man" my Kenner booth, I put the costume on (I am 6'5''-perfect height for the costume) and played Darth Vader for the weekend. Chicks dig the suit!

It was a lot of fun posing for hundreds of pictures, and playing Darth. My wife knew the Kenner line inside out-she handled all of the consumer inquiries! I always went to shows, used the power of Star Wars to get additional exposure on other Kenner brands like Easy Bake, Darci, Sea Wees, Preschool, Playdoh, SSP, Kenner Games, etc.

Did you sell a lot straight out of the booth at trade events, or were those primarily to showcase and market upcoming product lines?

We did not sell anything out of the booths. We did write lots of orders for those products we presented at the shows.

Did you conduct follow-up sales calls after generating leads at trade events?

With any new accounts or existing ones, follow-up meetings would occur after the shows. The sales programs usually gave the customer dating or other benefits for writing during a pre-set time frame. We would work on four programs per year, about one per quarter. The big customers you would see all the time, the smaller ones at least 3-4 times per year face-to-face, and then whatever it would take on the phone.

Were there some product lines that as a sales person with Kenner you simply couldn’t sell? Product lines, for example, that the public didn’t get excited about?

There were always products that for a variety of different reasons, we could not sell. One big controversial one was Breezy and Babe. Kenner was bringing to life (in toy form) the natural process of birth, through a horse called Breezy. By stroking underneath the chin/neck, a trap door would open in the horse's rear and a foal would pop out. It was a tough presentation for the guys. It had to be done with a soft, or feminine touch. We would all take turns at different stations to present product to customers at Toy Fair. You would get assigned to work a station for half-day shifts. We all cringed the year Breezy and Babe was in the line, trying to figure out the soft sell approach. Kenner had a soft sell commercial, which was done quite well, but the buyers were totally turned off by the whole concept. The presenter was our Hawaii Representative, and in one of my presentations, he popped the foal out with the blanket already on her.

We could not stop laughing as he was fumbling to recover! The item was dropped not more than a week after Toy Fair.

Another great item that never saw the light of day was Flying Finnegan. This was a carnival style contraption that you rolled the ball and gravity took over from there. One thing would drop into another which would fall into another, the domino effect. At the end something would bounce on a platform, send the Finnegan character in the air performing flips and into a waiting basket. The End.

That year Kenner made it a big point to stress “child interaction” in their products. Well in this "game" all the child did was drop the ball and watch for about 45 seconds all of the activity. The commercial was fun. The ending of the commercial was, "your parents put it together". A total flop item for about $20.

Then there were the sleepers. Most people laughed at SeaWees. They were little dolls (mermaids) that came with a foam lily pad for water/bathtub play. It was a tough sell just to get listed, several months after they appeared at retail they were on Toy and Hobby Magazine best seller list. Went on for years with many knockoffs over time by other vendors

When Kenner was developing an entirely new line, or new product within an existing line, did you take retailer samples and early packaging mock-ups to show the retailers?

Most of the time for my customers, I would not be involved in early prototypes or previews. They did do this to the major customers. I would get them in production form.

When we introduced Yoda we were in a huge hurry to capitalize on the popularity of the character. In one day, I started in Denver at 8:00am presenting at the JC Penny Manager’s Meeting. It was a 5-minute presentation to explain how this was going to be the biggest character in the Star Wars universe, and that we would be shipping solid packs of this figure. I urged them to place orders before I left the presentation. From Denver, I flew to Colorado Springs (67 miles) for my 10:30am presentation, then to Albuquerque, New Mexico for my 2:00pm presentation, and finally to El Paso, Texas for the last presentation of the day. I got all my orders from all the groups, then flew to Cincinnati, Ohio for our summer meeting the very next day.

The highlight of that meeting, by the way, was to present to us a newly acquired license . . . Alien! They took us to the preview of the movie, then gave us the product line to sell. Cool product if I may add.

What happened if a product line you sold to a retailer was a flop, but they were interested in another toy line? Did Kenner do buy-backs or credit retailers toward future orders?

It is always tough when a product line does not sell. I always believed in working through the problems if the customer was supporting the rest of the line. With Star Wars as a ''hammer'' this was usually the case, so if we had problems we would be creative and solve them.

Did you ever conduct customer service surveys with your retailers?

Not on an official basis, but I would ask lots of questions about retailer and consumer satisfaction, then funnel that information back to my regional manager. The field reps saw many things and knew who to speak with, so we always gathered a lot of valuable information for Kenner.

How were orders placed? Did you leave forms behind with retailers or were orders phoned/faxed in?

Orders were placed several ways:
Working with the customer in person
Faxing Orders In
Telephone conversations
At trade shows

Do you believe Store Displays were important to product sales?

Store displays attracted the consumer to the product and were very communicative to help sell the toys. These POP materials were a great way to tie up valuable floor space, most often in feature locations. Besides Star Wars, other notable display pieces included Darci Bubble Display, Strawberry Shortcake, Playdoh, Discovery Time Preschool, Redline Drag Race Game, and Star Wars Battle Command Game (I still have Redline and Battle Command displays). We did have end cap sales contests. We would build end caps in our stores with these POP Materials and win cash, I believe. I remember shooting 70-80 pictures one fall season with different end caps in all sorts of stores

Was there a lot of buzz about Star Wars toys when a new movie was getting ready to be released? Say just before Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi?

Retailers, consumers, criends, family, everyone I knew got excited and the "buzz" was huge months and months before a new Star Wars movie came out. Retailers were always angling for a way to get product first, or run ads first. Kenner had enough new product staggered to come out between each movie; there never was a shortage of excitement with Star Wars.

Were you given early examples or prototype toys to use as product samples to show upcoming toys?

We had samples and/or pictures of new product. It really was dependent on when an item was available. If it was February and the item was available in March through April, we would get samples. Any later than April and we were given photographs. I did not get a lot of prototypes to work with.

Any closing thoughts or particularly fond memories of your days working at Kenner?

It was a great, fun company to work for and begin my toy career. I will never forget my District and Regional Managers who hired me and gave a green, college kid a chance to sell toys (of all things). I would have never thought that 26 years later, I would still be in this business, and have made some wonderful lifetime friends. I shared a few of my memories with you already. There are so many more, but that may have to wait for the book...