Developing the Capsule Toy Gashapon That Offers Excitement When Opened | Integrated Report 2024 | IR library | IR Information

Swiftly developing products that fans want while expanding market scale

The number of capsule toy products (GASHAPON) we offer is growing alongside the rapid increase in the opening of stores specializing in such toys. We introduce over 1,200 GASHAPON a year, with products cycling out as quickly as one to two months after release. Although some popular products are re-released around six months after being cycled out, we generally replace cycled-out items with new ones. Due to such a product cycle, our development of GASHAPON products focuses heavily on how quickly we can introduce new products that fans want. Sales data collected from the point of sales, which are GASHAPON vending machines, is utilized in the development process. With the need to swiftly bring products to market, we must constantly come up with new ideas if we are to keep pace with customer demand.
Furthermore, the target customer base has grown in recent years, expanding from mostly children to people of all ages, primarily adult women. Accordingly, it is now crucial that we develop not only products using popular IPs but also non-IP products that adults can enjoy.
Overseas, trends in popular products differ by region. For this reason, we focus on introducing products that use IPs well-known by overseas audiences and products using animals or other items commonly liked across the globe, while analyzing data from capsule toy stores in the same manner as we do in Japan. Although the popularity of capsule toys has not quite taken off overseas to the extent it has in Japan, we still believe there is a great deal of potential in overseas markets. Based on such circumstances, in addition to rolling out products overseas that sold well in Japan, we are pursuing product development with a focus on simultaneous global launches.

Developing products that offer fun and excitement

RAN MATSUMOTO Creating brand-new concepts is an important theme in the development of GASHAPON. We therefore remain committed to offering not only products from established series that can expect steady sales but also products that utilize new specifications, new materials, and new IPs. Furthermore, alongside novelty appeal, it is crucial that we consider whether or not a product is exciting, fun, and eye-catching. In a market where items are introduced in large volumes each month, products that are redundant will quickly be overshadowed. Thus, the goal uniting the Planning & Development Team is to ensure that we create capsule toy products that will appeal to fans and that offer fun and excitement when opened.
Going forward, we will focus our efforts on products such as CAPCHARA, which come out of the capsule toy machine not contained in an actual capsule. These capsule-less products are often not shaped in a perfect sphere and therefore require thorough testing to ensure that they can be properly dispensed from capsule vending machines. However, being a company that also engages in the development of vending machines, we are fully able to successfully develop such products. Capsule-less products are a unique effort by Bandai Namco that helps realize sustainability. In the future, we aim to develop products that can increase the number of Gashapon fans and can capture their hearts as a lasting form of entertainment, rather than being just a temporary trend.