How Play-Doh Found a Second Life
The number of toys on the market today is staggering—and children are no longer the only ones buying them. According to Circana, a market-research company that tracks consumer purchasing behavior, people age 15 and older now account for 18% of global toy sales. Sales to that group have increased 111% since 2020.
Those numbers suggest that growing older no longer means leaving play behind.
Borrowing from the Apostle Paul, adults have not exactly put away childish things. Many are holding onto—or buying back—the things that brought them joy when they were young. Much of that market is built around pop culture, including superheroes, movie characters, old cartoon favorites, and collectibles.
Most of those products began as toys and followed their owners into adulthood. Play-Doh traveled in the opposite direction. Adults did not reclaim it from childhood. Children reclaimed it from adults.
Long before Play-Doh reached the toy aisle, it was used to clean coal soot from wallpaper.
A Cleaner Kind of Beginning
Kutol Products was founded in 1912 as a cleaning-products company. After relocating from
Louisville to Cincinnati, it manufactured powdered hand cleaners and other commercial cleaning products. An agreement to produce wallpaper cleaner eventually helped make Kutol one of the largest manufacturers of the product in the world.
In the early 20th century, many American homes were heated with coal. It kept families warm, but it also left soot on the walls. Wallpaper could not simply be scrubbed without risking damage, so Kutol manufactured a soft, pliable compound that could lift away the soot. For a while, wallpaper cleaner solved a real household problem.
Then the problem began disappearing.
By the 1950s, cleaner heating sources such as oil, natural gas, and electricity were replacing coal. Washable wallpaper was also becoming more common. Kutol had a product designed for a world that no longer needed it, and the company was struggling.
Kathryn “Kay” Zufall, a nursery-school teacher in Dover, New Jersey, was facing a different problem. Zufall had helped establish a community nursery school and needed a modeling material that would be easier for young children to use.
After reading that wallpaper cleaner could be used for craft projects, Zufall tested Kutol’s compound with her students. The children loved it. They rolled it, flattened it, and molded it into different shapes. The same material adults once used to remove dirt from walls gave children a clean surface for their imaginations.
Zufall shared the discovery with her brother-in-law, Joseph McVicker, who was trying to help Kutol survive. She and her husband, Robert, also suggested a better name for the repurposed product: Play-Doh.
Same Product, Different Problem
Joseph McVicker did not invent an entirely new product. He changed the purpose of one his
company already had. Kutol created a subsidiary called Rainbow Crafts to produce and market the material as a toy. The original compound was white, but red, blue, and yellow versions soon followed.
The product moved from the cleaning aisle into schools and department stores. The material had barely changed, but everything surrounding it had. It received a new name, audience, packaging, and promise. Instead of helping adults remove something from a wall, Play-Doh allowed children to create whatever they could imagine.
Major department stores began carrying it, and television helped turn Play-Doh into a household name. The product appeared on popular children’s programs including Captain Kangaroo, Ding Dong School, and Romper Room. Instead of describing what the compound could do, television showed children doing it. Wallpaper cleaner required an explanation. Play-Doh only needed a demonstration.
By 1958, reported sales had climbed to nearly $3 million. A product approaching obsolescence was becoming a permanent part of childhood. Kutol did not save the wallpaper-cleaner market. It found a market that wanted the same product for an entirely different reason.
Play-Doh is now owned by Hasbro and has sold more than three billion cans since its 1956 debut as a toy. In 1998, it was inducted into The Strong National Museum of Play’s National Toy Hall of Fame.
What Are Your Customers Telling You?
The Play-Doh transformation looks obvious in hindsight. At the time, Kutol did not see a
future toy sitting on a shelf. It saw a wallpaper cleaner with a shrinking customer base. The breakthrough came when someone outside the company recognized that the product solved a different problem.
That discovery did not come from an executive meeting or an expensive market study. It came from watching children use the product. Their behavior revealed an opportunity that the original sales numbers could not.
Small businesses receive similar clues. Customers may repeatedly request a service that is not advertised, use a product in an unexpected way, or respond strongly to one small part of a larger offer. Those moments can feel like distractions, but they may be telling the business where its real value lives.
Not every unusual request deserves a complete change in direction. The pattern must be repeatable, profitable, and something the business can deliver well. However, when customers repeatedly find value in something the company considers secondary, it may be time to stop defending the original plan and start paying attention.
Finding a Second Life
Businesses often look for growth by adding another product or service. Sometimes the better opportunity is already sitting inside something they offer. It may need a different audience, purpose, name, package, or explanation.
Play-Doh did not succeed because Kutol developed a better wallpaper cleaner. It succeeded because someone recognized that it was no longer a wallpaper cleaner at all. The product’s second life became far more valuable than its first.
If one of your products or services has stalled, Woodruff Media can help you take a second look at it. We can examine how customers use it, identify other problems it may solve, and explore ways to reposition it for a new audience. You may not need to create something new. You may need to discover the second life of something you already have. LEARN MORE
Sources
Tim Walsh, Timeless Toys: Classic Toys and the Playmakers Who Created Them, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005.
Disclosures
Play-Doh is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc. This independent article is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro. Article content created with AI assistance.
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