Hasbro 2009 Annual Report Download - page 12

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role-playing games, including MAGIC: THE GATHERING, DUEL MASTERS and DUNGEONS & DRAG-
ONS. We seek to keep our game brands relevant through sustained marketing programs, such as FAMILY
GAME NIGHT, as well as by offering consumers new ways to experience these brands.
In our girls’ toys category, we seek to provide a traditional and wholesome play experience. Girls’ toy
brands include LITTLEST PET SHOP, MY LITTLE PONY, FURREAL FRIENDS, BABY ALIVE and
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. In 2010, we will seek to expand the MY LITTLE PONY brand through
television programming.
Our preschool toys category encompasses a range of products for infants and preschoolers in the various
stages of development. Our preschool products include a portfolio of core brands marketed primarily under the
PLAYSKOOL trademark. The PLAYSKOOL line includes such well-known products as MR. POTATO HEAD,
WEEBLES, SIT ’N SPIN and GLOWORM, along with a successful line of infant toys including STEP
START WALK N’ RIDE, 2-IN-1 TUMMY TIME GYM and BUSY BALL POPPER. Through our preschool
marketing programs, we seek to provide consumer friendly information that assists parents in understanding
the developmental milestones their children will encounter as well as the role each PLAYSKOOL product can
play in helping children to achieve these developmental milestones. In addition, our preschool category also
includes certain TONKA lines of trucks and interactive toys and the PLAY-DOH brand. We recently entered
into a ten-year agreement with Sesame Workshop that provides us with the licensed rights to produce products
based upon the SESAME STREET portfolio of characters, including ELMO, BIG BIRD, and COOKIE
MONSTER, among others, commencing in 2011.
Segments
Organizationally, our three principal segments are U.S. and Canada, International and Entertainment and
Licensing. The U.S. and Canada and International segments engage in the marketing and selling of various toy
and game products as listed above. Our toy, game and puzzle products are developed by a global development
group. We also have a global marketing function which establishes brand direction and assists the segments in
establishing certain local marketing programs. The costs of these groups are allocated to the principal
segments. Our U.S. and Canada segment covers the United States and Canada while the International segment
primarily includes Europe, the Asia Pacific region and Latin and South America. The Entertainment and
Licensing segment engages in the out-licensing of our trademarks, characters and other brand and intellectual
property rights to third parties for non-competing products and also conducts our movie, television and online
entertainment operations. In addition, our Global Operations segment is responsible for arranging product
manufacturing and sourcing for the U.S. and Canada and International segments. Financial information with
respect to our segments and geographic areas is included in note 17 to our consolidated financial statements,
which are included in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.
The Company’s strategy is focused around re-imagining, re-inventing, and re-igniting its brands globally
through the development and marketing of innovative toy and game products, providing immersive entertain-
ment experiences for our consumers, and expansion of our brands into other consumer products. The following
is a discussion of each segment.
U.S. and Canada
This segment engages in the marketing and sale of our product categories in the United States and
Canada. The U.S. and Canada segment’s strategy is based on promoting our brands through innovation and
reinvention of toys and games. This is accomplished through introducing new initiatives driven by consumer
and marketplace insights and leveraging opportunistic toy and game lines and licenses. This strategy leverages
off of efforts to increase consumer awareness of the Company’s core brands through entertainment experiences
such as motion pictures, television and publishing. Major 2009 brands and products included TRANSFORM-
ERS, LITTLEST PET SHOP, STAR WARS, NERF, MONOPOLY, PLAYSKOOL, PLAY-DOH, MARVEL
products, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, G.I. JOE, MY LITTLE PONY and FURREAL FRIENDS.
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