Milton Bradley 01: Visual Strategy Guide

01 VISUAL STRATEGY GUIDE

WEI-HSIN(ANNIE) LO NATURE OF IDENTITY 2017 FALL

Vol. 1 Visual Strategy Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER CHAPTER CHAPTER

01 02 03

OUR HISTORY

NEW VISION

OUR COMPETITORS

Milton Bradley Company

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History Highlights

12

Our Past

14

Our New Mission

20

New Horizons

22

Our Future

24

Audience Spectrum

26

Current Competitors

40

Adjacent Competitors

42

Aspirational Competitors

44

01 OUR HISTORY 1-1

Milton Bradley Company

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History Highlights

1-3

Our Past

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Milton Bradley

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Milton Bradley Company

Who We Are

Milton Bradley Company is best known for the board game company and is one of the great 19th-century American inventor-industrialists.

Its iconic games, such as Candy Land, Chutes and ladders, Mouse Trap and Game of Life, had a lasting influence on American culture in the 20th century.

Although Milton Bradley’s game invention seems to be a great accomplishment, gaining a lot of profit or fame from it was not Bradley’s actual motivation nor his end goal. In fact, Milton Bradley didn’t set out to be a game maker. He trained as a drafts-man, drawing plans for railroad cars, they went on to open a lithography business. He also had many non-game inventions in Zoetrope and the color wheel.

His first design of the board game, The Checkered Game of Life, was profoundly different from gambling or competition game. Instead, it demonstrates its value as an educational tool, in promoting linear thinking, and concepts of sequence.

It inspired players to achieve “Happy Old Age,” as well as help them cooperate with others, creating a vision of happy life and fulfillment.

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Moreover, Bradley was more than just a successful entrepreneur. He was an early advocate of the emerging kindergarten movement started by Friedrich Fröbel in Germany.

Based on Fröbel ’s theory, Bradley embraced the idea of inspiring children, and supplied blossoming kindergartens with educational toys.

He produced many games aimed primarily at children, often depicting animals and sometimes based on popular folk stories. He sold a wide line of school supplies and optical toys in addition to educational games for youngsters and their families.

To sum up, Bradley’s game was not only designed for fun, but for enlightening. He sparked the imagination of young children. He reinforced the connection between individuals and the community, bring people up to the higher level of happiness and amusement.

Milton Bradley’s game was not only designed for fun, but for enlightening.

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What We Do

Who We Do It For

Why We Do It

Invent creative and simple

For youngsters, children over

1. To enhance children’s

coneceptul board games

9 year old and their families.

learning experience, and

and provide a wide range of

promote their cognitive

school supplies and toys.

skills.

2. To satisfy player’s collaborative urges and enhance their social interaction.

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Milton Bradley

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“ PLAY IS AS MUCH

A WAY OF BEING ENTERTAINED AS A WAY TO WORK OUT HOW WE INTERACT AND NEGOTIATE WITH THE WORLD. — Doug Bierend, Medium editor

”

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Milton Bradley

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History Highlights Milton Bradley Company was producing dozens of different games and puzzles including rebus-based

Bradley started to produce a small kit

games, word games, games of

of games for soldiers to play during

knowledge, biblical games, traditional

their long hours of inaction. They were

games (marketed under the title “My

1860

Outbreak of Civil War

sold for one dollar a piece to soldiers

Grandfather’s Games”), and a game

and charitable organizations that

entitled “The Way to Make Money”

bought them in bulk to distribute.

1869

1861

1870s

1.

1.

At the age of 24, Milton Bradley formed

Milton Bradley was inspired by a lecture

the Milton Bradley Company to produce

about the kindergarten movement

lithographs for Springfield businesses.

by early education pioneer, Elizabeth

His most famous lithograph was of a

Peabody, and started manufacturing

young presidential candidate named

educational

Abraham Lincoln. It was a best seller—

materials for children.

until Lincoln decided to grow a beard.

2.

2.

Published America’s first book for kin-

Invented a board game called “The

dergartens, “Paradise of Childhood” by

Checkered game of life”.

Friedrich Froebel. Bradley then decided to devote his entire business to children’s needs, including writing four children’s books himself.

15

In 1984, Hasbro, ending 124

Milton Bradley’s board of directors, scrambling to avoid bankruptcy, persuaded a well-known Springfield businessman, James J. Shea, to take over the presidency of the company.

“Twister,” which involved the physical manipulation of a player’s whole body. Twister became an icon of the liberated 1960s.

1911

years of family ownership,

Releasing new game,

1941

1960

1966

bought out Milton Bradley.

Wholly owned by Hasbro, Milton Bradley continued to turn out games that capitalized on current trends.

1977 1984

2017

When Milton Bradley died in

The company’s centennial was

Releasing new game, “Simon”, an

1911, the company was passed

celebrated in 1960 with the reissue

electronic game which players

to Robert Ellis, who passed it

of a modernized three dimensional

tried to imitate the electronically

to Bradley’s son-in-law Robert

version of Bradley’s original “Check-

generated pattern of tones and

Ingersoll, who eventually

ered Game of Life.” Called simply

lights of a table top unit.

passed it to George Tapley’s

“The Game of Life,” the goal of the

son, William.

20th century version of the game was no longer to reach “Happy Old Age.” Now players were aiming to become millionaires.

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Milton Bradley

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Our Past

The old Milton Bradley conveys the feeling of warm and happiness, centering around family time, friend relationship and kid activities. Through board game, people can have fun getting together with family and friends.

Before

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02 NEW VISION 2-1

Our New Mission

2-2

New Horizons

2-3

Our Future

2-4

Audience Spectrum

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Milton Bradley

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Our New Mission

Rebranding Objective Milton Bradley will go far beyond inventing fun games.

Through fun and entertaining approach, Milton Bradley aims to promote collaboration and contribution which are essential to building a strong community. Collaborating with other people sparks innovation and knowledge. It benefits not only individuals but also huge companies and even the whole world. Together, we can do more.

In light of this, the new Milton Bradley will provides services, environment, experience, products and education to promote collaboration, and at the same time to motivate people to grow, change and thrive.

Mission Our mission is to motivate people to develop the abilities of collaboration and encourage them build a better community.

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Our mission is to motivate people to develop the abilities of collaboration and encourage them to build a better community.

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Milton Bradley

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New Horizons

We define ourself by three keywords which essentially reflect our new identity. Those simple words build our characteristic and advantage, and drive us to a new horizons.

Teamwork

Drawing people together in one of the core values of Milton Bradley. People work together toward a common and big-picture goal. Collaboration can make a better result.

Growth

Milton Bradley is very educational and inspirational. From innocent children to professional manager, we aim to help people of all ages grow and change in many ways.

Community

Communities can come in different scales, industries, background or interest. It is a physical form of a group of people.

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Milton Bradley

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Our Future

The new visual look of Milton Bradley is going to shift to the energized atmosphere.

Based on three keywords, the overall visual look features the sense of united community, collaboration and aspiration. It also appears more attractive and outgoing that optimize its core value.

After

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Milton Bradley

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Audience Spectrum

There will be shift in audience from people of all ages to people who needs build collaboration or who is passionate about cooperate with others and the community.

Persona in the following shows the possibilities how the brand would reach its target audience, also highlight the value of the brand. The purpose of researching and modelling persona is to help us gain a deeper understanding of our target audiences and their attitude toward life learning.

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PERSONA _01

Dreamer Andrew Smith A technology-based start-up founder 58 years old Live in Cupertino Married Has two children

1. An ambitious men who eagers for creating innovative ideas by working with people from different background.

2. Always get up early and make self reflection a part of his productive daily schedule.

3. He has two children, one is 7 year-old girl and the other is 11 year-old boy. No matter how busy he is, he will definitely spend time playing with their kids.

4. He also loves to be a mentor to enlighten young people go further.

5. He believes connecting to the society is essential to boost his social skills. So after work, he likes to hang out with friends or join meetup to meet new people.

6. Believing cooperation is a best way to help people live a better life.

7. Tends to think outside the box and doesn’t like follow the rules.

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Milton Bradley

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PERSONA _02

Young Creator Rory Moore Elementry school studnet 11 years old Live in LA Had an order brother

1. She likes participate in any kind of hand-on activities or team-work projects.

2. Sometime she is shy and doesn’t know how to communicate with her peers when they have argument.

3. She like do homework with her best friends and exhange their notes so both of them can learn fast.

4. She loves do houseworks with her mother and brother because she knows that she, as a part of the family, is resposible for cleaning.

5. On the weekend, she loves to go hinking because she likes to take photos and collect the leaves and flowers.

6. Likes to play basketball even though she is not good enough she trys her best to win and team up with her friends.

7. She likes reading fiction novles, such as “The Chronicles of Narnia ”and is drawn into those characters who are ambitious and cooperative.

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PERSONA _03

Volunteer SofĂ­a Martinez Senior High school student

18 years old Live in Massachusetts Only child

1. She is a social advocators.

2. She likes to devote her time to do volunteering and help her community because she loves working with many people.

3. She cares about social issue and believes individul can have profound impact in the society if everyone collaborate each other.

4. She aims to study Sociology in colledge because it’s the subject that help her connect to the world and those people in need.

5. Sometimes she will lead her team when planing new volunteer activity.

6. She likes to talk to elderly and get inspired from their personal stories.

7. As a part of the team, she needs to learn how to effectivly work with other people especially those older than her.

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Milton Bradley

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PERSONA _04

TechGeek Ali Raza Google Software engineer 32 years old Live in San Francisco Single Come from India

1. Passionate about coding and love to learn everything about technology.

2. He likes taking challenges and push his limit to a higher level.

3. He loves join hackathon, which always give him energy and new skill to go further.

4. Coding lover. He believes building is fun and rewarding.

5. When it comes to coding or solving problem, he always has so much to talk and share.

6. Sometimes he will got frustrated when encounter the problem that he never met and need to find a professional person to talk to.

7. His social life is simple and most of his friends from the industry similar to him, so he may probably need to meet more people from different background.

8. He believes working in a group and cooperation can help him learn more and effectivly achieve their goals.

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PERSONA _05

Explorer Morgan Lane Health care researcher

36 years old Live in Boston Married

1. She loves working whole day in labtory to get her research done because her coworks are very easy to work with.

2. She always have to conducting global-scale research which take years to get the result.

3. She is used to cooperate with other professional.

4. Digging out the unknown knowledge is the most interstig part for her.

5. She believes her finding can benefit to the people she care and the whole community.

6. In the weekend, she likes to go to bookstore to get the latest news and knowledge.

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Milton Bradley

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PERSONA _06

Hockey Mom Sara Walsh Housewife

40 years old Live in New York Married Has a 7 year-old boy and a 12 year-old girl

1. She contributes her time to transport her lovely children to school.

2. Sometimes she will hang out with nighbors in a coffee shop and have a casual talk.

3. Even though she already have two kids, she still struggle for communiting with her children about right and worng thing.

4. She has a large trunk that can fit 6 people and she is very good at driving.

5. She cares about educational issues and wants to learn more about how to motivate children in an engaging way.

6. Sometimes she will carry the kids from nighbors so they can help with each other.

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PERSONA _07

Freshman Colin Kim Marketing assistant

21 years old Live in New York Has a girl friend

1. He has just graduated from colledge and got a job as a marketing assistant at a technology company.

2. He has no working experience and trys to learn how to well cooperate with other coworks.

3. His work need to do brainstorming which is the interesting part for him because he likes to dig out other people’s creative ideas.

4. He likes to having lunch with his teammates who from different culture and get inspired from their fun stories.

5. He uses many collaborative apps that help him manage the projects and track his progress.

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Milton Bradley

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PERSONA _08

Couch Surfer James Norman Photographer

28 years old Live in Washington Single

1. He loves traveling and have been many places around the world.

2. He likes to lives with local people’s home instead of hotel in order to connect and interactive with people from different culture.

3. He think airbnb is an successful enterprise because the platform build a strong commuity of travelers and local resident so they can easily access to the whole world.

4. He also provide his living and loves to share other travelers once in a while.

5. When he off work, he will hang out with friends or plan small trip to explore the world.

6. He aims to create a trust relation between host and taveler in order to build a storng and friendly social community.

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When we create a persona, we are crafting the lens through which we will see the world.

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Milton Bradley

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03 OUR COMPETITORS 3-1

Current Competitors

3-2

Adjacent Competitors

3-3

Aspirational Competitors

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Milton Bradley

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Current Competitors

Current competitors for Milton Bradley would be in the category of board games and children’s toys. What makes Milton Bradley different from competitors is that its games are not designed to be win, but to teach and communicate through experience.

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Far from winning, strategy-oriented, and role-playing game, Milton Bradley’s games are easy to paly and favorable to everyone.

1. Asmodee (Since 1955) A French publisher of board games, card games and roleplaying games. it is also developing video games based on their board game properties for personal computers and mobile gaming.

2. Spin Master A global children’s entertainment company that creates, designs, manufactures, and markets a diversified portfolio of innovative toys, games, products and entertainment properties.

3. Hasbro(Since 1923) An American multinational toy and board game company.

Hasbro is the third largest toy maker in the world. Its well-known board game is Monopoly.

4. Fantasy Flight Games(Since 1995) A game publisher focusing on hobby games industry, aiming to be a marketplace leader in board games and maintain strong businesses in the card game, roleplaying game, and miniature game categories 5. Alderac Entertainment Group (Since 1993) A publisher of role-playing game and collectible card game products. Prior to getting into their current markets, AEG was involved in hobby gaming magazines, with their first product the magazine Shadis.

6. Melissa & Doug(Since 1988) An American manufacturer and purveyor of children’s toys which aims to help develop children’s cognitive and hand-eye coordination.

7. Cardinal Industries (Since 1945) A game publisher who offers consumers a wide range of classic games, innovative puzzles and contemporary and evergreen licensed products for game and puzzle lovers of all-ages.

8. Z-MAN GAMES(Since 1999) A game publisher. New Yorker Zev Shlasinger created the company for the sole purpose of bringing back Shadowfist, one of the best multiplayer Collectable Card Games ever made.

9. Days Of Wonder (Since 2002) It specializes in German-style board games and have branched out to include some online games. Family-oriented 10. Play Monster(Since 1985) PlayMonster is a toy and game company, championing the power of play by creating quality toys and games for children, adults and families.

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Adjacent Competitors

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Adjacent competitors would fit in the category of brands that focus on inspiring children to explore the world and enhancing the connection between family.

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5

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7

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– Exploration category(5,6,7,8,9): to provide children a pleasant experience of discovery and adventure.

– Educational toys (1,2): to help children develop their collaborative and cognitive skils.

– Faimly activities(3,4,10): to bring family together and help children learning from their parents and peers through activities.

1. The Lego Group (Since 1932) A Danish family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark. It is best known for the manufacture of Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks.

2. Mattel (Since 1945) An American multinational toy manufacturing company which aims to create toy to inspire the wonder of childhood.

3. Camp Awosting (Since 1900) Run by the Ebner family for nearly 70 years, Awosting is a traditional summer camp full of happy campers, mature, experienced and safety-conscious staff, and activities practically guaranteed to make a child’s summer more fun.

4. K1 Speed (Since 2003) It is the premier go-karting company in America. K1 Speed brings the thrill and excitement of indoor karting to a large audience. Offering highly advanced and environmentally-friendly electric go karts as well as large indoor entertainment venues that feature authentic racing memorabilia, pit cafes, meeting rooms and pool tables.

5. Exploratorium (Since 1969) A public learning laboratory in San Francisco exploring the world through science, art, and human perception. Its mission is to create inquiry-based experiences that transform learning worldwide.

6. Disneyland (Since 1955) Disneyland Park, originally Disneyland, is the first of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opened on July 17, 1955. It is the only theme park designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney.

7. California Academy of Science (Since 1853) A natural history museum in San Francisco. Completely rebuilt in 2008, the building covers 400,000 square feet and is among the newest natural history museums in the United States.

8. Mission Bay Park System: Kid’s Park (Since 1940s) Mission Bay Park is the largest aquatic park of its kind in the country. It consists of over 4,600 acres in roughly equal parts land and water. Kid’s Park which is for tots to school aged children is united around natural themes of water, exploration and discovery.

9. Children’s Creative Museum (Since 2006) An innovative art and technology experience for kids ages 2-12.

Our mission is to nurture creativity and collaboration in all children and families.

10. Indy’s Children Magazine(Since 1984 ) Indy’s Child Parenting Magazine is a local and nationally award-winning parenting magazine and verifiably one of the first locally and family-owned parenting magazines in Indiana to reach the highly-touted mom market, parents and educators since 1984.

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Aspirational Competitors

Aspirational competitors for Milton Bradley worth analyzing after the rebranding and repositioning of the brand, would be brands that focus on personal growth, team-work skill, and learning community.

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– Collaboration boost category(1,2,3): Providers that help people work efficiently and collaboratively.

– Personal growth (4,5,6,7): to help people optimize their life through knowledge sharing and idea stimulation.

– Learning group(8,9,10): Offline activities/community that bring peope together to enhance their social connection as well as make them inspired.

1. Teamwork.com (Since 2007) It creates task management and team collaboration software to support high-performance teams. The three products relate to project-management, customer support, and real-time internal communications.

6. The One You Feed (Since 2014 ) A podcast that hosts inspiring conversations about creating a life worth living. Open minded discussions of habits, meditation, wisdom, depression, anxiety, happiness, psychology, philosophy, and motivation.

2. DHI (Delivering Hire Insights)(Since 1990) It is a leading provider of specialized websites and services for professional communities including technology and security clearance, financial services, energy, healthcare and hospitality.

Providing information about careers, recruitment, job placement and business via the internet.

7. TED (Since 1984) A media organization which posts talks online for free distribution, under the slogan “ideas worth spreading”. It has broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural, and academic topics.

3. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development(ASCD), (Since 1943) A membership-based nonprofit organization. It has worked with a number of education experts to develop professional development programs, online courses, and publications to help educators learn, teach, and lead.

8. Meet Up (Since 2002) Meetup is an online social networking website/mobile app that facilitates offline group meetings in various localities around the world. Meetup allows members to find and join groups unified by a common interest.

9. Yonder (Since 2013) Yonder is a mobile platform for outdoor enthusiasts to

4. The Chopra Center (Since 1996) A provider of experiences, education, teacher trainings and products that improve the health and well-being of body, mind and spirit.

5. Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute(Since 2013) A nonprofit organization that was founded by Chade-Meng Tan and Marc Lesser. It aims to bridges practices of mind training with modern neuroscience and technology. The |curriculum combines neuroscience, mindfulness and emotional intelligence.

connect and share adventures around the world. It aims to bridge that gap between guide book and park trail maps with an outdoors-focused social network that allows people to share their great outdoor experiences.

10. DESIGNERS + GEEKS A community for people interested in design, art, and technology. We host monthly events that feature great speakers on interesting topics.

“THE COMMUNITY IS

OPENING UP SOME AMAZING POSSIBILITIES FOR US TO TRIGGER CREATION, REINVENT COLLABORATION.

— Mattie Stepanek, best-seller and American poet

”

SOURCE

http://boardgames.lovetoknow.com/Old_Milton_Bradley_Board_Games https://medium.com/re-form/the-timelessness-of-snakes-and-ladders-4ae7d205a4e7 https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3076 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Bradley https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/05/21/the-meaning-of-life http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/milton-bradley-lifes-checkered-past/

VOL . 1 VISUAL STRATEGY GUIDE

DESIGNER Wei-Hsin(Annie) Lo INSTRUCTOR Hunter Wimmer GR604_Nature of Identity 2017 Fall Academy of Art University

This book is a non-commercial project for educationalpurposes and in not intended to represent the Milton Bradley company.