Infant Industry: The Battle of the Brands
Boon and Munchkin fight it out in the Target baby aisle.
by Greg Allen
March 20, 2007
Boon, Inc., is a rarity in the baby industry: a parent-run start-up
whose Great Idea actually clicked. Boon's very first product, the Frog
Pod Bath Toy Scoop & Organizer, won the Innovation Award at the 2005
Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association convention in Orlando.
Within a few months, the Boon brand was buzzing, and the
founders, Ryan Fernandez and Rebecca Finell — who'd met at church in Phoenix — introduced
a training potty and footstool, a faucet fountain adapter and a host of other
innovations. Soon, they had laid claim to something far more
coveted than a trade show award: shelf space at Target.
While Target may be in every baby-product inventor's business plan,
the store rarely stocks products that come from outside the Baby Industrial
Complex — the Gracos and Kolcrafts and Fisher-Prices. If anything, Target
will knock off an innovating product in-house, like they did with Robeez stay-on
baby shoes, and Like-A-Bike, the $279 wooden toddler scooter
from Germany (Target version: $49.99).
My friends and I try to use our baby gear dollars to support independent, parent-run
businesses whenever possible. When we saw the Bath
Toy Turtle Scoop from Munchkin on Target's shelf next to the Frog, we were sure it was yet another instance of The
Man ripping off the
home-spun
entrepreneur. At
$12.99 vs. $24.99, the Turtle smokes the Frog on price.
"Isn't Munchkin a 'made for Target' brand?" "Talk
about ripping off start-ups!" said one mother I know.one mother I know, Stephanie, asked. "Talk
about ripping off start-ups!"
Setting aside for a moment the fact that her cry of indie injustice
was coming from the toy aisle at Target, the answer to Stephanie's
question is instructive for parents of conscience. In fact, Munchkin is far more like Boon than unlike it.
Despite its near-inseparable associations with Target, Munchkin is not
an in-store brand. If you don't count Bamboo, their pet products
division, Munchkin is not a complex, or even a conglomerate.
It's still privately held by the founders, L.A.-based Steve and Laura
Dunn — and Steve's dad, David, who ran money for the Bass brothers and
fronted his son $500,000 to start the business in 1992. (So this is
how hedge fund managers show their love: by valuing their son's
yet-to-be-launched business at $2.5 million?)
Dunn founded Munchkin, the story goes, "to rid the world of tired and
mundane products by developing clever, innovative products that excite
and delight parents and children, making parenting and life safer,
easier and more enjoyable." Boon's own mission, meanwhile, sounds
remarkably similar: to "create innovative products in response to the
needs of modern parents."
©2007 Greg Allen and Nerve Media
About the Author
|
|
Related Articles
|
 |
Greg Allen's films have screened at MoMA's Documentary Fortnight, and at the DoubleTake, Berlinale, and Palm Springs film festivals. Greg began publishing Daddy Types, the weblog for new dads in early 2004, right before his daughter was born. He lives in New York City and Washington, DC. |
|
|
-
by Kristin Gangwer
How to make your child multi-lingual (ixnay ora-Day).
-
by Lynn Harris
Mutton busting: sport of the future?
-
by Greg Allen
Boon and Munchkin fight it out in the Target baby aisle.
|
