The Toy Industry’s Best Salesman!

G.I. Joe Motorized Battle Tank

The early 1980’s in the toy business was a vibrant and dynamic time.  Toys were just becoming a real part of pop culture with new brands and new concepts capturing the imaginations  of kids and generating enormous media attention every year.  Toy companies like Hasbro and Mattel competed for public attention each year at Toy Fair with spectacular displays and truly innovative ideas for toys.

As an emerging toy giant, Hasbro lacked an experienced senior salesman. Someone who could teach and guide a young sales force. Through the doors walked a burly seasoned veteran of the toy wars, Lou S.

Lou was brash, bold, and spoke with a thick Scottish brogue.  He knew everyone in the toy industry and everyone knew him. Lou taught a young sales force to never take “no” for an answer from any customer. One day on a sales trip to a top retailer, Lou and his young salesman sat in the toy buyer’s office and pulled toy after toy out of their sales bags. Lou demonstrated each toy and carefully described in great detail every feature in his charming Scottish brogue. Lou had a way of making even the lamest toy come to life in his hands. 

At the end of his hour-long presentation, the toy buyer leaned back in his chair and said, “Lou, you just spent an hour presenting all these toys to me. Not every one of them is a winner!  Be honest, tell me which ones suck!”

Lou looked the buyer straight in the eye and said, “Bill, you’re right. Some of our toys do suck. I left those back in my office!”

Lou wrote the biggest order in company history.

Knowledge is POWER!

The effective use of knowledge is what this Blog is all about.  My mission is to provide marketing students and young marketing managers with tips, tricks, and secrets to help you advance your studies, your business, and your career. Check back often to find information on subjects like marketing, media, advertising, creativity, study techniques, communicating, careers, books, management, and more. Let me hear from you. Comment on my posts so we can learn together. 

Who is Kirk Bozigian?

I’m a veteran marketing expert who helped create, develop and market a wide range of popular toys and some of the biggest brand names in the toy industry! Brands like: G.I.Joe, Transformers, Tonka Trucks, Play-Doh, Playskool Baby, WWF Wrestlers, Little Kids No-Spill Bubbles, Junk Ball, and my own lines of action figures. . .  Real Heroes and Almighty Heroes. I was a technical adviser on Marvel Comics G.I. Joe comic book and Marvel Productions animated G.I.Joe TV series. I worked with Hasbro’s advertising agency to supervise over 150 TV Commercials. I’ve worked with licensors like Marvel Comics, Nickelodeon, NASCAR, Universal, Warner Brothers, and MLB. I am most proud of building and training dynamic young marketing teams.    Many of these team members are now leaders of their own toy and consumer goods companies.  I’ve also taught Marketing at several colleges and I currently teach MBA Level courses at my alma-mater Providence College.

Enough about me! Come back often to be entertained, educated, and enlightened!