Old-line model kit company rebuilds with market changes

Revell is in the same business today as it was 60-plus years ago -- only different. That makes the Elk Grove Village model kit maker's adjustment to a marketplace where robots and radio-controlled models generate the buzz something of a guiding light for other small companies facing changed markets.

First, some background:

• Revell and long-time competitor Monogram were born in 1945. Revell made plastic toys, Monogram balsa wood modeling kits. Following similar paths that included remarkable successes, seas of red ink and various big-name owners, the two companies merged in 1986.

• Currently, Revell is what marketing Vice President Mike Brezette calls "a free-standing division" of Hobbico Inc., a Champaign company big in radio controlled models that purchased Revell Monogram from private investors last May.

• Even though Revell Inc. is the division's name, the Monogram brand remains alive; many older hobbyists identify with the Monogram label.

It's no secret, says Brezette, that "Kids don't build models like they used to." The good news is that they still build models. So do their grandparents, giving Revell a customer base that ranges in age from 8 to 80.

Scattered throughout that age range are serious hobbyists willing to shell out, for example, $199 for Revell's latest, a VEXplorer robot that comes with all-terrain wheels, a gripping claw and a camera that transmits a live image to your TV screen.

That's cool, but kids still matter. In corporate-speak, Revell's models "teach kids craftsmanship and fine motor skills," Brezette says. On the selling side, Revell's kits acknowledge the fact that kids growing up with video games and iPods "won't wait for the model they've glued together to dry."

Accordingly, Revell's kits come at three levels: 40- to 80-piece snap together models; kits with the same number of pieces that require glue; and, for the hobbyist, models with hundreds of pieces.

Licensing agreements -- the Star Wars brand and Mattel's Hot Wheels, for example -- give the company's models a name recognition advantage.

Although Revell introduces two new products a week, including reintroductions of old favorites, Brezette notes that "Robotics are a significant emerging market." The company's approach to what Brezette says is "Our first toe in the market" is enlightening:

• VEXplorer, aimed at children 10 and older, comes partially pre-assembled. "We want them to be able to have the robotic experience in about an hour, not open a box and (be overwhelmed by) 300 separate pieces," Brezette explains.

• Marketing includes a challenge competition for 25 modelers, selected from "hundreds" who initially submitted ideas, to build their own VEXplorers from free Revell kits. Deadline is June 1.

• The finalists, competing for a $5,000 college scholarship, will upload videos of their creations to YouTube, where Discovery Channel Mythbuster Grant Imahara, a one-time model maker and animatronics engineer at George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic, and editors of "Robot" magazine will select winners.

© 2008, 121 Marketing Resources Inc.