Vtech’s senior manager, development department, Vincent Yuen, says the award-winning V.Smile, a product of the innovative R&D team, is bringing a smile to the company’s financial results

A Hong Kong designed educational toy that is bringing smiles to preschoolers worldwide has clinched numerous awards at international toy fairs in London, Nuremberg and New York

Aptly named V.Smile, the TV Learning System designed and produced by Hong Kong company VTech, uses a video-game format with a console and joystick controller to combine a high degree of entertainment and education. Targetting the 3-7 year old preschoolers - notably in the US, UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands - the award-winning toy has met with enthusiastic response.

VTech's senior manager, development department, Vincent Yuen, who headed the design team for V.Smile, explained its global success. "V.Smile makes learning fun. The young kid sees his parents and his siblings playing TV games and he wants to join in as well. The parents know there's no violence and it makes the kids learn in a fun way so it's a win-win formula."

Creating brand awareness in global markets

V.Smile utilises well-known characters such as Winnie-the-Pooh, Spiderman, Care Bears and Scooby-Doo for which VTech has entered into licensing arrangements with Disneyland, Marvel, American Greetings and Warner Brothers.

"V.Smile is the only product of its kind in the market currently so it is filling a gap that retailers and licensors are eager to address," added Mr Yuen.

It is also proof that VTech - and many other Hong Kong companies - are going in the right direction in their Original Brand Manufacturing (OBM) to create brand awareness and to maintain competitive edge in global markets. Vtech spent US$33 million or 4 per cent of its annual turnover on Research & Development (R&D) last year. The toys division generates over 40 models in five languages each year.  

"Hong Kong has the creative talents to come up with world beating designs. Combine that with skilful engineers from the Chinese mainland in our factory in Dongguan, and you have a very good combination," said Mr Yuen.

"We encourage our team of designers and engineers to access the latest technology. Hong Kong is an international city and we can get the most up-to-date information on anything."

VTech's electronic learning products business surged nearly 67 per cent for the six- month period ended September 2004 riding on the success of V.Smile and its line of revamped products. Listed in both Hong Kong and London, VTech is also one of the world's largest suppliers of cordless phones and employs over 20,000 employees in 10 countries.

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