Master’s Thesis
Audrey E. Martins
MIS CLASS 3 Table of contents
Aknowledgment……………………………………………………Page . 4
Introduction …………………………………………..……………Page. 5
Part 1 - History & Presentation………………………………………...Page. 9
1.1 Presentation of the company & sectors…………………...……Page. 9
1.2 Target of Mattel and Barbie……………………………….……..Page. 10
1.3 Relevant Data on the product and enterprise……………….…Page. 11
1.4 Presentation of the market, China & the U.S…………………Page. 12
1.5 Why is this hypothesis relevant?...... Page. 17
1.6 The product………………………………………………………..Page. 21
Part 2 - Field study…………………………………………….……..…..Page. 26
2.1 Introducing gender…………………………………………….…Page. 26
2.2 What important/relevant authors have to say?...... Page. 27
2.3 Gender sexual roles in sociology……………………………...Page. 32
2.4 Influence of gender on packaging and color neutral ideas……………………………………………………………………Page. 33
1 2.5 Subculture definitions and why is it relevant to consider……………………………………………………………..…….Page. 40
2.6. Presentation of the product…………………………..……...……Page. 42
2.7 Why did this product failed in China when it is successful in the U.S?...... Page. 45
Part 3 - Results……………………………………………………….…..Page. 50
3.1 Comparison with competitors...... Page. 59
3.2 Market & Strategy...... Page. 65
3.3 Recommendations, What can we do to improve the sales?.. Page. 68
3.4 How to innovate and make the sales soar?...... Page. 72
Conclusion…………………………………………………………....…...Page. 78
Bibliography…………………………………………………….….……...Page. 80
Appendixes………………………………………………….…………….Page. 84
A - SWOT………………………………………………….…………..…..Page. 85 B - Products………………………………………………….……………Page. 86 C – Real life size………………………………………………….………Page. 87
This work is copyrighted and cannot be USED nor QUOTED without WRITTEN consent from AUDREY MARTINS.
Copyright @2012
2
Abstract: Barbie dolls are one of the power products for girls worldwide. Mattel’s
Barbie is a known brand and its product’s face is among one of the most famous image in the world. However, we have to keep in mind the fact that no two countries work the same way nor do they have a similar culture. In the case of this study, it was forgotten that products should sometimes look differently and be advertised differently for it to work and have important sales. Gender is the main component of this study, not only for the packaging side but for the product aspect as well, a product should always reflect the culture of the country it is sold in. We will here compare two countries and cultures – China & the U.S.A will be compared in terms of gender, culture and Barbie sales, we want to understand why a famous product failed to be as successful in China as it is in the U.S.
Barbie est l’une des marques pour filles la plus connue dans le monde. Barbie, possédé par le groupe Mattel est reconnue et la tête de son produit phare fait partie des images les plus célèbre. Cependant, nous nous devons de garder à l’esprit le fait que deux sociétés ne fonctionne pas de la même manière, elles ne possèdent pas non plus une même culture. Dans le cas de cette étude, cette variable a été oubliée, le fait que deux produits devraient parfois avoir l’avoir différent et ressortir différemment de manière à ce qu’ils fonctionnent et que leurs ventes soient conséquentes. Le genre fait partie des variables les plus importantes de cette étude, pas seulement pour l’aspect de l’emballage mais le produit même, ce doit de refléter la culture dans laquelle le produit est vendu. Nous allons comparer ici deux Pays et cultures – la Chine et les Etats-Unis à la fois le genre, la culture et les ventes mêmes de ces poupées, nous souhaitons comprendre pourquoi un produit reconnue aux États-Unis n’a pas réussi à atteindre ce même niveau de succès en Chine.
3 Acknowledgement:
I would like to start my thank yous by appreciating the wonderful work the Universite d’Evry Val d’Essonnes as well as the University of Connecticut (UCONN) did in teaching me tons of materials so I can study a culture and look around in order to keep an open-mind and be amazed every day. Thank you to the wonderful sociology instructors and professors I had and was lucky enough to meet along the way for teaching me how a society thinks and how we can always change what we want by understanding it better and fighting in what we believe in.
I would like to thank my wonderful family, my mom & dad for always pushing me to reach higher & for being behind me 200%. Thank you for teaching me to never give up when I set my mind to achieve something and to always try to be the best in what I love. Thank you to my little sister Ali for making me laugh and being such an inspiration every day. Thank you to Alex my wonderful big brother for being the best role model anyone could ask for, you showed me the way and how to always fight for what you believe in. Thank you so much for all you have done for me and for always believing in me. I love you all so much. I would also like to thank my best friends, Laurine TORRENT, Marine LECOMTE, Diamir DESCALLY, Bethaney JUEN & Grant HUNTER for always being there for me, making me laugh and believing in me – I am so thankful every day to have friends like you five and I love you with all my heart.
Lastly, I would like to thank my fellow marketing (MIS CLASS 3) students (especially Maylis, Marion, Andrea, Anne-Sophie, etc.) for being a wonderful team in class projects all year long. Thanks also INSEEC and its professors who taught me how to make a product work – I will always keep in mind what you taught me and will try my very best to make INSEEC proud in my future endeavors by being the best I can be.
4 Introduction: Throughout this thesis, we will study the brand Barbie. However, since it is mostly known as a girlie brand, I decided to emphasize the gender roles and colors of this brand and to compare these gender roles in two different countries. The problematic of this thesis is as follow:
A Barbie Case of Mattel’s Barbie sales in the U.S & China – Why did it fail in China and why should we take into account the different gendered roles in these two societies?
We will see here how one mistake, not taking one component into the equation can determine if a product is more likely to fail or to succeed. In this case study I chose to study two countries. Firstly, I chose the U.S because it is the country of origin of this brand, as well as one of the countries where it is the most developed and it sells most of its products. I picked China because even though the brand and product succeeded in the U.S it wasn’t the case in China. If we consider what could explain this failure, we can come up with a variety of reasons. However,
I found that gender roles were the main components. Gender, as we know it, allows us to comprehend a society and its beings through a stereotyped perspective. By not taking such a variable into account we are sure to fail in understanding the needs and habits of our customers.
Gender will impact the product itself, as well as the packaging (what colors? What writing?
What materials? Etc.) and advertising (should we show little girls playing dress-up with their
Barbie dolls or going to school? Putting make-up on, taking care of families? Playing alongside a guy friend or a brother or with other girlfriends?). These questions are some of the ones we should always keep in mind whenever we want to launch and sell a new product in a new market. However, we will show how this variable of cultural gender role was forgotten and it participated in Barbie failing to reach its sales quota in China. Not only were cultural differences
5 forgotten, they also tried to sell an American product (full of cultural values) in a market that had different habits.
I chose to write my master’s thesis about this particular brand and subject having studied sociology for 5 years and being especially interested in gender studies. Growing up I loved
Barbie dolls and the color pink, however having a brother I was also used to play with boys’ oriented toys, so I wondered from a very young age how come it was appropriate for me to play house with dolls and dress-up and like pink when it wasn’t seen as appropriate for me to fight, play tag or play with cars and plastic guns. It’s why I decided to study this brand and see how forgetting this variable as well as the subculture and cultures of a society can explain the failure in China’s market.
I also wanted to study Gendered toys – by gendered toys, I mean toys that are targeted not only to a specific age, but also to a gender, and to one extent a biological sex. Numerous sociologists have debated that gender and biological sex do NOT have to be related, for example a woman can have a masculine gender and be attributed social traits whereas a man can have a feminine gender. However, since femininity and feminine traits such as pink, girly, frivolous, weak, caring, etc. and masculine traits the likes of physical strength, blue/green, virility, etc. are most commonly attributed to women and to men, we can say that these so called gendered toys are also targeting a particular biological sex, or more likely, a particular gender. In our case study, since Barbie dolls are most commonly attributed to femininity, it also is targeted towards women or men with a feminine gender.
For the methodology part of this study, I will use both qualitative and quantitative data from both markets. We will hear thoughts and citations on the subject, field research, as well as
6 quantitative data (percentage …). Since I think it’s important for us to see the full perspective and dimensions of this study, we will use a bibliography that will incorporate sociology’s books on gender, gender roles, culture, subcultures, etc. as well as marketing books and readings about these two different countries.
Before we start introducing our subject let’s start out with the outline of this work. The first part will focus on the general aspect; we will introduce the key words of the problematic as well as two hypotheses that I think are important to consider. It will mainly focus on the history and presentation of the Mattel Company and more precisely its sub brand, Barbie. We will see who the intended target of Mattel/Barbie is, as well as relevant data on the brand and product itself. We will then move towards the cultures of the two countries this thesis will focus on and the product itself. The second main part will be our field study; we will introduce gender as it is defined by American sociologists as well as by our societies. This will allow us to move on to what are called gender roles as well as an explanation as to why it is an important factor to consider for us marketers. We will then see a definition of subcultures correlated with this gender perspective. To finish this second part, it is important to introduce the product itself and see the reasons why it failed in China even though it succeeded in the U.S. Lastly, the third part of this thesis will be the recommendations/results part, where competitors’ gendered products known as
Girlie-girl products (fashion dolls) will be compared (Bratz, Disney Princesses & Sindy). This last part will be a comparison of products, sell strategies. I will also present a SWOT in appendix
A to try to see the brand’s opportunities. To conclude this thesis, recommendations and ways to improve the products and the sales will be presented. We will also see what can be done to deepen this work so it could become a multi-dimensional study taking into account different
7 variables. This study will try to do an in-depth analysis of both the product and the brand so that we can improve the sales.
Now that we have seen the main components of this thesis, I think it’s important to remind the main hypothesis as well as the two secondary hypotheses that should be considered in order to be as thorough as possible. The problematic is as the follow:
A Barbie case: Case study of Mattel’s Barbie sales in The U.S & China – Why did it fail in
China and why should we take into account the different gendered roles in these two societies?
From this problematic we can derive two secondary hypotheses:
Gender color packaging will impact the sales and interests as much as the product itself. Would more gender neutral packaging help to increase sales?
Secondly, can we say that if Mattel had done a more thorough PESTEL on China and the
Chinese culture it could have helped the sales? What elements factored in the failure?
This thesis will answer within its different parts the main questions as well as the secondary hypotheses; let’s start with a presentation of the company.
8 Part 1 – History & Presentation
1. Presentation of the company and its products as well as sectors
The brand’s name Mattel is a mix of the first and last names of its inventor and former owners.
They started by making pictures frames at first before switching to making only toys in later years, their first success was a toy ukulele. The doll was introduced 14 years after Ruth & Elliot
Handler co-founded Mattel Creations. Ruth came up with the idea after watching her own
daughter play with paper-dolls and imagining these dolls
in grown-up roles or acting in normal teenagers’ roles
(cheerleaders, etc.). Barbie was introduced with some
difficulty given unlike her competitions which looked
like baby or kids, the dolls were adult women with a fully developed body that was marketed for kids. Barbie is a sub brand of the toy manufacturing company Mattel Inc. Mattel, a public company, was founded in 1945 in the U.S.A by Elliot
Handler & Harold Matson. Its headquarter is in California. Mattel is a leading brand when it comes to toys & games in the U.S.A with famous brands the likes of Fisher Price (for young children), Barbie, Hot Wheels, American Dolls, etc. As of 2013 all Mattel’s production has been outsourced to China and no more factories are functioning in the U.S. Mattel’s current CEO &
Chairman is Stockton Bryan and its revenue as of 2012 was $6.42 billion1 and had an average of
28000 employees in 2011. The brand official website is: mattel.com but it also has an official website for just the Barbie brand: http://www.barbie.com/.
1 http://markets.ft.com/research/Markets/Tearsheets/Forecasts?s=MAT:NSQ
9 There was a conflict in 2008 over Barbie’s competitor, Bratz, which was eventually settled and won by Mattel. The US district court ruled in 2008 that the
CEO of Bratz had violated the terms of Mattel’s since he was still working for them when he created the product. As a result, the Bratz doll are now off the shelves, even though it was seen for a time as Barbie’s main competitor and hurt
Mattel’s sales over an extended period of time.
1.2 Target of Mattel and Barbie
Mattel main target is children; however they have a variety of brands from birth until teenage age with different products. For the youngest part of its customers it owns and operates the Fisher
Price brand which makes safe toys and newborn products, they also have other branches of products with electronics devices and games for teenagers.
Among all that, they separate products by gender, some are known for being gender neutral, such as electronics for teenagers while others are gendered oriented such as action figures or Cars for boys and girlie products such as Barbie and Polly Pocket for girls.
In the electronic and connected era, Barbie had to face the challenge of keeping up with the competition, not dolls anymore but another kind of products – computer, electronic & online games. They launched an online community for Barbie customers so they could create avatar and interact with other Barbie users. They moved the playtime from one’s bedroom and living room to the online world – girls can now play with international costumers instead of local friends they had to invite over or meet so they could play. Kids can now have a safe community to play in an
10 international playground with customized dolls – even though it is not a material product anymore they can customized its look unlike that of already made Barbie dolls.
1.3 Relevant Data on the product
This fashion doll was made using as an inspiration a German doll named Bild
Lilli (pictured on the right). Later on, in 1964, Mattel acquired the right to the
German doll, ceasing the production of the look-alike doll that same year to only
market Barbie. At the time of Barbie’s creations there was a gap when it came to
the toy market, most children’s dolls were made to look like infants
and kids, Ruth got the inspiration for her doll after watching her
daughter play with paper dolls.
Roughly 350,000 Barbie were sold at the end of 1959 to reach an estimated billion Barbie sold in over 150 countries nowadays, it is estimated by Mattel that three
Barbies are sold every 1 seconds. The dolls also used to have a sideways glance until this was changed in 1971 so that she could be looking forward.
Barbie had a marketing strategy resting solely on TV advertising and prints, making it one of the first brand to do so. Nowadays, standing at 11½ Inches tall (5ft9), Barbie is a cultural icon for girls worldwide, and a feminine ideal for American girls. To celebrate her 50th birthday, the brand Barbie wanted to stay in history with a runaway in NYC during the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week as well as a move to Shanghai China in a six-floor building.
11 But before she turned 50, she had a childhood and a story. She was given a full name as well as an education, a family and of course, Ken, her now ex-boyfriend who helped with the marketing campaign. Ken was used in 2004 to re-launch the brand, Mattel issued a statement that
Barbie and Ken had split-up but hoped to rekindle their relationship in 2006. Barbie has also owned plenty of pets, cars, houses and diplomas. They also created friends for Barbie (Christie,
Teresa, Steven, Stacie, Todd, etc.)
1.4. Presentation of the market, China & the U.S
As we have seen in the above section, in the U.S, Barbie is considered a cultural icon, generations of little girls strived to look like, dress and be like her ‘Barbie is more than a toy; for the last 54 years the 11.5-inch molded-plastic doll has been a defining feature of American girlhood. She is also a money machine’2.
Even though some negative meaning can be attributed to being called a Barbie, no one can deny that it also means that the person is close to perfection – after all Barbie is the unrealistic representation of the female ideal for men and it also represents (or more likely used to represent) the way young girls in the U.S wanted to look like. Barbie is well known and respected in the U.S market, however, like the following citation will show; sales are now falling in favor of more innovative and recent toys:
“For quite a few years, Barbie sales have been showing signs of weakness– and Mattel knows it […] That’s bad news for Barbie […] can Mattel rejuvenate Barbie amid this mid-life crisis?”.2
2 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/
12 Barbie tried to fix the slumped sales from 2009, they decided to celebrate and throw a big 50th birthday bash for their golden girl, it was a good marketing campaign, however, as we will see it later on, it didn’t work as well as they’d hoped. Nowadays kids don’t have the same interest as they used to, younger kids now own their own smartphones, eBooks and Tablets. Some schools even teach their students how to use Tablet and teach them through educational applications.
More and more applications are targeted towards kids so they can play anywhere and in a safe environment. Facing that, Barbie now has not only to deal with dolls competitors the likes of
Bratz, but they also have to attract new customers who might be more interested in 99cts applications than in a $20 doll. We are now connected on the internet non-stop, even kids are more and more aware of that at a very early age – even though social network websites are supposedly blocked to kids younger than 12 years old, they find ways to still own at least one account (Twitter mostly or Instagram) and share with the world.
[…] digital generation that favors 99-cent iPad apps over traditional toys, a shrinking number of toy stores and the looming concern that DIY 3-D printing will render premade plastic toys obsolete’.3
Being mostly a part of the plastic toy era, it is hard for Barbie dolls to compete with this digital era, however, Barbie understood that. They launched their own internet community with avatar and customized dolls so kids can safely share and interact with other Barbies’ fanatics. It is also a way to discover new products and promote their brand’s image and market them to other kids.
“Having an action hero that’s on for a steady basis–on television, on webisodes, on digital–is going to create a more consistent demand for that product4”
3 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/
4http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2013/04/17/mattels-life-after-barbie-inside-the-new-toys-from-the-worlds-largest- toymaker/2/
13 This citation shows that not only is Barbie on the internet but she is also reaching her audience through TV, Webisodes, Dvds, etc. Barbie is not just a plastic toy anymore; she is also a digital being who has a lot of products.
Now that we have seen how Barbie is trying to maintain her profile and her place within the
American cultures by attracting new customers, we can wonder about the sales, how is Barbie doing in the U.S and on the international market? Barbie used to be Mattel’s golden and hit girl by reaching the tops of toys lists and little girls’ birthday lists. However, now things are different, Mattel has to move its strategic plan to maintain their top spot in Toys companies:
‘In 2012 Stockton’s first full year at the helm, Mattel’s sales climbed 2% to $6.4 billion and profit increased 12% to $864 million, excluding a one-time litigation charge […] Mattel stock climbed 32% in 2012 versus 12% for Hasbro and a 10% decline for Jakks Pacific […] Mattel is a shining example of how to execute well, with about 50% of its revenues coming from outside the U.S’.5
As we can see from this citation, Mattel is still number one when it comes to selling toys, closely followed by Hasbro their main competitor. Half of Mattel’s revenue comes from Outside of the
U.S:
‘There are three ingredients to Mattel’s continued success: launching new, richly developed products like Max Steel; efficiently milking mature franchises like Barbie; and, perhaps most importantly, continued overseas growth’.6
Not only is Mattel trying to reach other markets outside of the U.S but they are also succeeding in doing so by trying to better manufacture their Barbie franchise for all she’s got, market her differently depending on the market but also by inventing and launching new products and lines:
5http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2013/04/17/mattels-life-after-barbie-inside-the-new-toys-from-the-worlds-largest- toymaker/2/
6 http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2013/04/17/mattels-life-after-barbie-inside-the-new-toys-from-the-worlds-largest- toymaker/2/
14 ‘Besides the company’s infants and preschool division, which includes Thomas and Fisher-Price and produced $2.2 billion in revenues in 2012, two franchises stand as potential Barbie replacements: American Girl and Monster High’2.
These two product lines are quite successful worldwide (however the American Girl Franchise is more targeted towards Americans – including a line of American history dolls (along with
Movies, Dvds & Books as well as customized dolls). They are the new golden products of
Mattel, even starting to take Barbie’s former place in kids’ heart and playtime, here are descriptions of both of these lines:
‘Monster High is a high school populated by Goth chicks–imagine a mash-up of a Barbie doll with Elvira […] All those flaws add up: Monster High is expected to sell more than $1 billion at retail this year, producing an estimated $550 million in revenues for Mattel’8.
This lines of Goth Barbies, is kind of the anti-barbie when you think of it, they are not made to look beautiful and perfect, they are actually anything but perfect, by looking like monsters and having out there looks, they are not classy like Barbie. These dolls have flaws but they are also made to look fun and relatable (unlike Barbie). It still has to be seen if they can take Barbie’s place in the American culture and if after the Twilight and vampire frenzy they manage to still sell as well.
‘Mattel’s other golden goose is American Girl, a catalog retailer of $110 dolls, which the company bought in 1998 for $700 million and has transformed into a retailing phenomenon […] average American Girl store generates an estimated $1,500 in retail sales per square foot […] American Girl’s well-made and wholesome-storied dolls have the highest gross margins at Mattel, at about 65% versus 63% for Barbie […] There are already 14 American Girl stores in the U.S., and more are planned. Sales are expected to hit $600 million in 2013, up from $568 million in 2012 […]’7
7http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2013/04/17/mattels-life-after-barbie-inside-the-new-toys-from-the-worlds-largest- toymaker/2/
15 This is the second franchise that might overthrow Barbie from its pedestal, these are well-made, expensive dolls (count an average of $100 for the already made-dolls, and add to that price what it takes to customized that doll, from her appearance (hair, eyes, skin colors, freckles, eyes shape, hair length, etc.) to her clothes and accessories (dresses, dogs, glasses, roller-skates, etc.). These dolls are made to look like their owner and share not only their appearance but also their interests
(Ballets, music, etc.) by adding anything from a book to a helmet. After adding all of these items to make the doll unique, because it is the point of this line, you will most likely end up with a bill of $300, but hey, customization and uniqueness have a price tag.
Another good news for Mattel is also the fact that: “The global middle class is expected to grow from 569 million households in 2011 to 766 million in 2020,”, if they manage to reach them through efficient marketing tactics, this will be gold for them and allow them to increase their sales even more.
“[…] if Barbie can’t resonate with a younger generation in all corners of the world, the doll is going to have a very hard time aging gracefully”.8
As a way to re-launch their product and make the sales soar, Mattel decided to launch it in a new market, even though Barbie dolls were already sold in China, the brand didn’t have a specific store to promote it. In order to mark and celebrate her 50th birthday, Barbie decided to visit and relocate to China – this moving bliss was however short-lived and only lasted two years. Let’s first focus on her move:
“Barbie's made-in-China makeover is part of a push to re-brand the iconic American doll on the eve of her 50th birthday. With domestic sales slumping, Mattel has set its sights on China, hoping to the weather the financial storm in the
8 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/
16 relative calm of the country's vast -- and comparatively untapped -- consumer market”.9
“Barbie was even given her own six-story outlet store in 2009 to help revitalize slumping global sales. The result? Well, despite some flashy features the mammoth doll house was a flop — and Mattel today announced the site is being shuttered altogether”.10
‘[….] flagship Barbie store – the House of Barbie – in Shanghai after two years struggling since opening in 2009. Mattel invested over $30 million in the House of Barbie in celebration of the American iconic doll’s 50th anniversary’.11
“[…]The world’s first and only Barbie concept store debuted on Barbie’s 50th birthday in 2009, and graced a huge six-story space in downtown Shanghai, China […] an ambitious marketing push to boost the iconic American doll’s sales in China. But it failed miserably”12
The concept was creative and quite innovative, this store was impressive and it even came with other functions than selling and displaying dolls (more than 800 dolls !!), it also offered services.
Barbie’s target? Young girls and women – not only were they trying to appeal to their main target in the U.S but also to a new target in China – young women by offering a SPA as well as a full bar with alcohol. After all, Barbie turned 50 and wanted to celebrate.
‘The store targeted twenty-somethings by offering a line of clothing […] and it sold Barbie brand cosmetics and even had a Barbie Bar with alcoholic beverages’.13
‘It targeted the right age and socioeconomic group. Middle-class Chinese women between the ages of 24 and 32 are especially optimistic. Their incomes kept rising to where they now account for about half of all household income, up from 20% in the 1950s’14
9 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/barbie-in-china-mattel-to_n_171540.html 10 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/ 11 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/ 12 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/
13 http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html 14 idem 15
17 ‘The concept was that Barbie is not just a fashion forward doll, she would also be a lifestyle symbol and cultural icon for girls and young women’15.
‘The six-story building had the world’s largest collection of Barbie dolls and affiliated products such as children’s bedroom furniture and young women’s clothes. It also features a fashion runway, a design studio, a stunning spiral staircase decorated with 800 Barbie dolls, and a café on the top floor’.16
Even though the concept was good and so was the target, it still didn’t help the brand and actually hurt it since it closed after only a couple of years:
“[…] the experiences of a middle-aged Barbie in China mirror results in the U.S. Now over 50 years old, the iconic doll is being pushed aside by younger and trendier dolls. In 2009 […] to celebrate Barbie’s big five-oh, sales slumped a whopping 26%. The recession played a role, yes, but toy sales dipped just 10% overall that year”.17
“Barbie sales rose 8% percent worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2010. And when the China concept store launched, sales in the nation were a mere 2.5% of total Barbies sold. So it’s not like the closure is a sign that Barbie is on the outs everywhere”.18
However, Barbie’s failure to appeal in China didn’t only rests on external factors such as the recession, the fact that the marketing team didn’t understand or try to understand China’ culture better is also to blame, however will we see it later on in this work. For now, let’s focus on the fact that Barbie didn’t manage to keep her house in China even though : “[…] retail sales in
China grew by a staggering monthly average of 18.4% 19[…]”
1.5 Why is this hypothesis relevant?
15 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/ 16 idem 17 17 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/ 18 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/ 19 http://www.fool.com/investing/international/2011/07/22/us-retailers-take-a-licking-in-china.aspx
18 As you have seen throughout this work, Barbie was founded and created in the U.S. It was created and still remains an American product – the norms, appearance and clothing displayed on the product are American. It is important to remember that two societies are different the same goes for the looks and appearance. The original Barbie was blonde haired with light blue eyes, the appearance of an average American young women. A lot of debates have been going on about Barbie’s unrealistic looks and appearance. Articles and media have talked a great deal about how it is an unattainable ideal to showcase to young girl at such a young age.
Barbie also had a limited amount of none-faired skin dolls until recently, the original being blonde haired and blue eyed only some are copped or with darker skin.
One of the main problems is that they are selling an ‘Americanized’ product in other cultures and societies – the clothing and looks are what American girls know however they are not what foreign countries girls are used to see. We can identify them as cultured and gendered products given they are both an ideal of femininity and what an American girl should look like.
I think we should be wondering why a product can be very successful in one country and fail in another, what makes a product succeed or fail? Can one characteristic matter when it comes to success? This study will analyze two cultures and diverging norms so we can better understand what every marketer should never forget when launching a product into another country, no matter how successful it is into its original country.
The toy market is highly competitive, and of course, China is not any different, according to an article the ‘market is set to grow by nearly $4.7 billion over the next five years. No one company
[…] has more than 5% market share’. 20 Unlike in the U.S where Mattel is the clear winner for
20 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/05/barbie-wants-to-make-it-big-in-bombay/
19 Toys - overthrowing companies like Hasbro - they don’t have this advantage when it comes to the Chinese market where two companies are alike. Given that China’s ranks of potential consumers is ever increasing21, it was estimated that so will rise the middle class and a way for the company to cash in China’s growing population by appealing to its youngest costumers.
However, not all is lost for Mattel’s golden girl in China, even though the store closed its doors after roughly two years, the product is still being sold in over 1000 outlets in the nation.
“Marketing officials are quick to stress that Barbies are still on sale at more than 1,000 retail outlets in the nation22”.
In order to ensure their sales, Barbie needs to be sold in as many retailers and stores as possible – not in a store where they have to take care of operating cost on top of low sales – which by the way makes it hard to maintain the store in good condition:
“Mattel cut its sales targets by nearly a third within the first eight months, and the store is already being cleaned out just two years later due to high operating costs and disappointing business23”.
Now that we have seen both the Chinese and U.S market, we can focus on the product itself, its history as well as a full description of it – after all she is still seen as a female ideal at 50 years old without having any plastic surgeries done - that we know of (except one to enlarge her hips after the main scandal).
1.6 The product
21 ‘As China's ranks of consumers swell -- the number of middle class earners is estimated to grow 70% to 600 million by 2020 -- so too rises the stakes for companies looking to cash into China's growing consumer market’. 22 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/ 23 http://investorplace.com/2011/03/barbie-concept-store-mattel-nyse-mat/
20 Barbie dolls are made out of plastic; we will see here a description of Barbie dolls throughout the years from its very beginning until nowadays. I think it is important to know the evolution of this brand and product so we can better understand where it is going and what should be done next to ensure its continuing success.
The very first product of the Barbie brand was launched in 1959 by Ruth
Handler who is also a co-founder of Mattel (wife of one of the founders of
Mattel). She named the product Barbie after her daughter, Barbara. Barbie made her grand debut in an American Toy Fair in NYC.
After Barbie, Ruth created a guy version of the doll and launched it in 1961 (roughly two years after Barbie’s debut), named Ken after her son Kenneth.
The first name of the original doll was Barbie Millicent Roberts and her biography stated that she was from Wisconsin and a teenager fashion model (as of 2013, she has had over 150 jobs and each one comes with her own personal history), another trivia, Barbie has had one main boyfriend (Ken) but has never married nor has she ever had any kids (and at 50 years old it is
21 doubtful she will ever have any except via a surrogate – maybe Barbie will launch a new line to appeal to the current changes in societies).
The doll was introduced in two versions, a blond one (she can be seen on the left-hand side) or a
brunette. Three years later, Barbie became red-haired and in 1980
the very first African American and Hispanics dolls made their
grand entrance on the market, meaning roughly 21 years after the
original white Barbie was introduced in America. However,
Christie (pictured on the right), known as Barbie’s black best
friend was introduced in 1969, meaning 10 years after Barbie. The original
price of Barbie in the U.S.A was $3 in 1959, nowadays they are sold for an
average of $10.00-$30.00 for the doll alone and $40.00 for a collector edition one. Girls could also purchase additional clothing ranging from a price of $1-$5 in 1959, nowadays the same holds true, with articles of clothing from different Barbie Dolls collection for example My Scene, for an average price of $10-$15 depending on the quality and number of articles of clothing.
Even though the original price was $3 today, an original from 1959 can go for hundreds of thousands of dollars if in mint condition. Famous designers are also known for making original piece of clothing for the dolls (as of today over 70 fashion designers have made clothes for
Barbie).
In 1965, bendable legs were introduced on Barbie’s products as well as eyes that could open and close, to make it to a fully moveable doll that could twist her waist in 1967. Barbie dolls are also easily recognizable by their long hair, most Barbies have longer than shoulder length hair
22 (stereotype of a feminine girl).24 Barbie has had many alterations made to her appearance, showing both the changes in generations through the years as well as the diversity in both physical appearances and professions.
The Barbie dolls brand turned 50 years old in 2009. To celebrate Barbie’s 50th
birthday, Mattel released a modernized version of their original Barbie with a similar
bathing suit and the original $3 price for the first week after Barbie’s birthday. The
doll also debuted a new face, a different look (fuller lips, almond-shaped eyes, thinner jaw, etc.), along with her new body, Barbie also moved into a new house (her new
Malibu Dream House).
The Brand Barbie also launched celebrity Barbies, made as doppelganger of
famous and well-liked celebrities or personalities (Katniss
Everdeen (Hunger Games product – pictured on the right hand
side), Hilary Duff (Famous Tween Queen, singer & actress – pictured on the left-hand side), Hermione Granger (Harry Potter Franchise), Bella
Swan (Twilight Franchise), etc.
24 http://inventors.about.com/od/bstartinventions/a/The-History-Of-Barbie-Dolls.htm
23 They also sell accessories made especially for their dolls (houses, cars, ponies, horses, restaurants, SPA, dogs, clothes, etc.) as well as for the girls who play with their products
(costumes, nail polishes, backpacks, school products (notebooks, pen, etc.), CDs, software,
DVDs and players, TV, etc.). The merchandising of Barbie product is impressive in quantity as well as diversity; they make anything from clothing articles, to blocks (mega blocks, the equivalent of Lego for girls) to bedding, toothbrushes and books (pictured in Appendix B).
When it comes to Barbie and her world, the very idea of a glass ceiling is a none existent concept even though real women still have to break it everywhere. Here are some interesting facts about this brand, Barbie has had over 150 careers, even running for the presidential race in
1992 once and attending college in 1964. She made her introduction in the European market two years after she was launched in the U.S, in 1961, making it the same year Ken was introduced in the US. Nowadays, she is sold in over 150 countries. She has five sisters, Skipper (1964), Tutti
24 (1966, her twin), Stacie (1992), Kelly (1995) and baby sister Krissy (1999). Barbie has over a billion pair of shoes and over hundreds of new additions of clothing annually. Her signature color is hot pink also known as Barbie pink (PMS 219). In 1998, Mattel introduced the Internet customizable friends of Barbie.
Before concluding this part, below is what Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler had to say about her product and the appeal she has for little girls – for her Barbie doll was the very definition of feminism and women liberation everywhere, that a little girl could be anything she wanted and had a choice:
“My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie has always represented that a woman has choices. Even in her early years, Barbie did not have to settle for only being Ken’s girlfriend or an inveterate shopper. She had the clothes, for example, to launch a career as a nurse, a stewardess, a nightclub singer. I believe the choices Barbie represents helped the doll catch on initially, not just with daughters - who would one day make up the first major wave of women in management and professionals – but also with mothers.”
(Ruth Handler on Barbie being a good role model for young girls)
Part 2 – Field study
Now that we have seen a short history of the company and the brand, and know it a little better, we will focus on the field study part of this paper. This part will rest a lot on sociologists’ works as well as on gender books. In order to better understand the success or failure of the brand in another market, it is important to comprehend sociology’s perspective on the matter. We
25 should take into account gender theories when it comes to the package or even the product itself, details such as colors are an important factor when it comes to explaining the product’s sales. We will start off this part with a short introduction as to what is gender before moving on with important terms and theories from prominent sociologists.
2.1 Introducing gender
Gender is a social construction of what a biological sex is supposed to be like. Men are supposedly virile and masculine while women are caring and tender. Being feminine and masculine is assigned to different biological sexes as are being weak or strong. Unlike the biological sex which we are born with, the gender is what we can choose, what society can assign us depending on our society. Along with some given traits, there are also colors that are known to be female or male oriented, pink is the color of birth card for little girls, while blue can read “It’s a BOY”. Also an important trivia is if you look on the card you can detect gender roles on it, for little girls’ birth announcement card it is most likely the little girl will be represented as sleeping while the boy will be playing or crawling around – showing the passive role attributed to women and active one to men. We can wonder why societies assign us such traits, why are women supposedly more caring and not tough enough ? How come the firefighter profession which is seen as a virile job has more men among their ranks, while nurses are mostly women? Is it because they are more “caring”? Is it because they are more nurturing? No, it’s because they are supposed to be more caring given their biological sex and ‘weak nature’ and that human beings tend not to question things that are perceived as natural because someone said so one day and made it a norm.
26 “Sex refers to one’s biological identity of being male or female while gender refers to the socially learned expectations and behaviors associated with being male or female. Sex is biologically assigned while gender is culturally learned25”
We can see by this definition that gender is first and foremost a culturally and socially learned trait – unlike the biological sex which is predetermined by biology. It is of the outmost importance to always remember that since it is a part of a culture it should be taken into account when trying to sell a product if we want to avoid a failure – gender can diverge from one’s biological sex to another and can also be chosen according to personal preferences or what one being might feel like – also what a society perceives as the norm. A lot of books mention this dichotomy between the biological sex and the gender – most commonly known as transsexual.
2.2 What important/relevant authors have to say?
Now that we know a bit more about gender we will see what some key and relevant sociologists have to say about gender and its possible impact on marketing and on society in general26:
Like this citation shows, there are no specific skills that are biological or natural, men and women were born equals. However, they are not raised or treated by society as equals and with
25 According to http://sociology.about.com/od/Disciplines/a/Sociology-Of-Gender.htm 26 KIMMEL Michael, The Gendered Society, Oxford University Press, December 30, 2009, USA KANE Emily W., The Gender Trap: Parents and the Pitfalls of Raising Boys and Girls, USA OTNES Cele C., TUNCAY Zayer Linda, Gender, Culture, and Consumer Behavior, Routledge, March 21, 2012, USA BUTLER Judith, Undoing Gender, Routledge, August 19, 2004, USA
27 similar skills. Both men and women are displaying their gender identities through learned traits and behaviors – these common gendered traits are human behaviors not only gendered ones, like the author shows women and men are capable of a wide range of emotions and they shouldn’t be reduced to only some of them since they are seen as gendered – like crying is seen as a man weakness and a woman nature when it is actually biological for everyone.
Parents are also to blame when it comes to gender and producing them – along with other social institutions like the family, the religion, the education, the media, etc. Some reproduce these stereotypes reluctantly and without even knowing they are doing so – I mean it seems normal for someone who hasn’t studied gender or even for people who don’t pay particular attention, to buy something pink and girlie for a little girl, no one in their right minds would buy a blue trunk for a little girl (except if they know for sure it’s what she wants). Society, especially a small group of influential people, decided that gender and social roles had to be that way and that kids should be brought up learning about these roles so they could teach them to their own kids later on and it could stay that way until someone was strong enough to question it.
Parents don’t even question the gender construction anymore because even though they are crafting it, it is just routine that then became invisible and participated in shaping their children and making them fit into the neat little boxes of traditional and stereotypical gender traits.
28
Gender and stereotypes aren’t all bad, for example marketers tend to use them to promote their products the best way they can by using their customers’ vulnerability in not caring about gender and what it means to their kids’ development. Marketers use research so they can learn how to reach young children and get them or more specifically their parents, to buy the brand’s product.
Gender is fluid and is associated to a particular biological sex, femininity is assigned to women while in practice a men can actually have a feminine gender and a women can have a masculine one – however when they do they are labeled with yet another stereotyped concept – Tomboys - which for girls is rather seen as an insult than as a compliment to little girls since it expresses a lack of femininity which is still seen as important in our society for little girls.
29
Gender is a social construction, kind of like Erving Goffman and what he talked about in his work ‘the presentation of self in everyday in society’ that society is a big stage where individuals are actually actors who put on a social show in their everyday life, they are not playing themselves. Goffman said that society is a stage and social interactions are like a play where everyone is playing a role according to the setting, their costumes and characters.
Everyone is displaying only one side of their personality, they have their social self and their self
– each of these are worked on and rehearsed backstage so they can avoid a bad show and looking out of place. This is why Goffman actually says that to know a profession and a situation one has only to look backstage since it is where social characters are not into their characters but are more vulnerable and themselves, they are practicing their selves and lines according to the situations. Here the same goes, gender is a doing, acting part performed by men and women to be in sync with society and its expectations. Just like we are acting in society and performing the social roles we are expected to, we are also acting a gender without even knowing we are doing it even when we are not willing to perform the stereotypes we just don’t know any better – it is deeply learned and has become part of the being – but it is not automatic – we have to practice and have an audience to watch us perform.
Next to gender is also attributed a special meaning and apparently taste that goes with being a girl or a boy. This is showed in the books packaging girlhood and boyhood – for girls it is anything pretty and pink and messages the likes of being sweet and soft as for boys it is more
30 tough and loud and anything blue. Marketers use these ‘tastes’ to try and target the right customers for their brands and keep these biased tastes in mind while developing a new line of product since they know girlie girls won’t like violence or weapons kind of toys.
To conclude, gender shouldn’t take such an important place in society, it shouldn’t have an impact on equality, power and privilege – no matter the gender, the traits should hold the same place on the ladder, not one higher than the other just because someone said a trait is more important or rewarding than another because it is a woman’s or a man’s trait. Feminine is most commonly identified with terms such as weak, low, dark, wet, second, etc. while men are identified with the complete and higher opposite of these words: strong, high, light, first, dominant, etc. Equality starts with making sure not one gender is assigned with the lowest spectrum of the words while the other is still seen as dominant and holding a higher status because one man said so a long time ago.
2.3 Gender/sexual roles in sociology – meaning and main authors
Gender, like we said is nothing more than a social construction, a stereotypical definition of what a biological sex is. Alongside what a biological sex is, societies and cultures also define
31 how beings are supposed to act like. They have what’s called sexual roles or gender roles. These rests on traits and roles a biological sex is supposedly born with, these are inner traits or natural traits. Women are born caring, tender, and feminine while men are born tough, virile, and dominant – at least according to sexual roles. Given these traits we are all assigned roles we are supposedly natural at, for example women were born nurses while men were born leaders
(according to sexual roles). Men were also apparently made to work at top position given their natural skills while women were left to do the housework and take care of the kids because apparently nature said so. Other things participate in determining one’s social roles, such as toys or colors. Pink, especially hot pink is mostly attributed to girly girls, while blue and green are attributed to boys. Such a display of colors can be seen from birth, from the things parents and friends buy to the cards, clothing for boys are most commonly blue while girls’ are pink, the same goes for congratulation balloons.
‘[…] Today, toy stores divide the many toys, games and movies into two primary categories: boy and girl. […] toys which children play with, pass down stereotypes of gender roles. Through their gender-biased toys, typically, boys learn "warrior-like" roles and girls learn to nurture. Girls’ toys stress physical beauty and appearance while boys’ toys focus on respect for their physical abilities […] Gender socialization, through toys, teaches and reinforces stereotypical gender roles’". Human beings are not born with any pre-existing knowledge of, or orientation to, their world. What we come to feel about life and about ourselves, we learn through socialization, the social mechanisms through which gender developments occur".27
It didn’t used to be that way, a while ago it used to be the other way around, pastel color such as blue was for girls whereas pink was for boys. Yellow is seen as a gender neutral color, as is white. We will see in the following section the meaning and history of gendered colors. But keep
27 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/
32 this in mind, we learned the sexual roles we are now performing through socialization, it doesn’t have to be that way – things change so do social mechanisms.
2.4 Influence of gender on packaging and color neutral ideas
Babies are not biologically attracted to one color or another, parents raise their kids with a range of stereotypical ideas of what men and women are supposed to be and like. Nothing said that pink had to be a color for girls or that blue was for boys. Actually, it didn’t used to be that way, one day someone decided it should be that way but it is anything but natural.
‘[…] color preference between genders; women chose the redder shades of blue (those with reddish-purple tones) while men chose the greener shades of blue. But the study found that both genders universally prefer blue’.28
Like this citation shows, blue is actually the color that has most of the votes and that women and men alike likes, it doesn’t rest on gender or biology but rather on personal preferences. It actually depends on how impressionable one person is and if the vast majority of them decide to care, listen and follow what one person or a group says to make it a norm. Let’s say society decided anything with chocolate was forbidden for women and as such it should be a men’s food – would women stop eating chocolate because society and norms decided it for them? Or would they still eat it because they like it? I guess it rests on how deviant or different one person decides to be and if she/he decides that just because society said it was that way it is natural. The same goes for colors, one person decided that pink was for girls so a ‘real’ boy couldn’t be wearing pink – let alone hot pink – because like the chocolate example, it is deviant. Norms were created that
28 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/
33 way, because someone with charisma said something, other people cared enough and decided to reinforce it until it became the norm and then natural enough so no one from the “normal” people would dare question it – but nothing is natural like this study shows, we can always question it and maybe care enough to prove the contrary.
As with the chocolate example, pink and blue didn’t used to be assigned to the same biological sex they are today – actually in 1918, it was the other way around, boys were generally assigned pink stuff while blue was seen as more delicate and lady-like for little girls, in 1927 the same was still true. It is only in 1970 that this general rule changed and pink became innately for girls:
‘[…]The general rule these days is that girls are more likely to wear pink and boys are more likely to wear blue […] In 1918, an article in Ladies Home Journal advised […] The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl29.”
These citations actually disproves assigning a color to one sex – after all apparently blue is universally preferred by both genders – pink isn’t even mentioned in this citation, which shows how even colors are assigned according to stereotypical ideas and what one person, a marketer even, decided was in and it just stuck enough that people started to reinforce it as norm. Even children know from a very young age the color assignation, however since like we saw earlier, it isn’t natural, how can we explain that even as kids they know the meaning behind pink and blue?
"By the time children are 3 to 4 years old, they have already formed an image of themselves as boy or girl […] Children form these images from parents, teachers, societal members, and the toys and games with which they play’30.
29 http://brooks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/22/pink-and-blue/ 30http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/
34 ‘In hospital rooms, babies encounter gender socialization occurs for the first time when nurses place traditional "blue" or "pink" caps on their heads’31.
‘[…] girls must have pink clothing, pink bedrooms, and glittery pink cell phones. It’s enough that girls are taught to recite “pink” as their favorite color. It’s enough that Barbie’s 3-Story Dream Townhouse and Pop-Up Camper are pink […]’32
So there we have it, children are taught from a very young age what is respectable or not, what they should like and how they should play – girls are taught to sit still and talk in whispers while boys can run around – after all the saying does say – boys will be boys – meaning societies tend to forgive and forget active behaviors from boys because of their biological sex and natural traits but not when girls display a similar type of behavior.
‘[…] in elementary school, children are well aware of which colors and products are intended for them. Their choices have been severely limited by the adults around them, to the detriment of the children’33
‘What the children do learn is strict gender norms, and the children who don’t adhere to those norms frighten their peers. “They’re made anxious by difference because we’ve given them sameness’34
Society is teaching sameness, norms and accepted behaviors – like it is teaching values and deviance – threats and shame are made to reinforce a stereotypical ideal of society and in this case, gender. But who should be blamed? Well social institutions? Yes. Socialization? Yes … how about the marketers?
Marketing, like many other professions, use extensively this ‘hidden’ meaning of colors – kids are culturally taught that pink stuff are for girls while blue are for boys, well some shades of the colors anyway – for example hot pink is the perfect example of a girls’ color while pastel
31 Idem 36 32 Idem 36-37
33 http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/12/09/gendering-toys-is-good-for-nobody/ 34 http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/12/09/gendering-toys-is-good-for-nobody/
35 blue can act as both girls and boys. Marketing is using this color assimilation to target specific and intended groups of people:
‘[…] toy packaging exhibited significant color differences. The store aisles contained plenty of pinks, the most popular "girl" color by 95%, yellows, whites, lavenders, reds and pastels. ‘Conversely, the boys' aisles had an array of blue the most popular "boys" color by 95% as well, green, red, black, gray, and brown […] In addition to color, inventory also reveals sexism. The female section of the toy store was much bigger than the male side possibly feeding into the stereotype that women have more material objects than men. Little girls could buy dolls and kitchen sets, and boys had access to action figures and weapons. […]These items, chosen by young children can lead them to improper gender role socialization and gender stereotypes35.
"Toys R Us" helps to expose the hidden sexism that occurs through children's toys [,..]”Toys R Us" actually divides toys into a blue and navy "boys" section, and a pink and white "girls" section’36
Through toys companies, retails stores and marketing tactics even, boys and girls alike are taught about their social and sexual roles – they are being told that if they were born a girl they should be quiet and cook while if they were born boys it was okay to be loud and play ‘war’. Marketing participated in a way in making these sexual roles the norms, the following three citations show how girls and boys are given sexual roles from a very young ages through the toys their parents picked for them.
‘[…] young girls learn that their roles take place in the home. They learn that their duties require completion of household chores and nurturing the children. The descriptions on many of the packages tell the child the importance of their "roles."37
‘The main difference between boys' and girls' games is that girls' games do not challenge the mind; rather, they only expand on gender stereotypes. Games made for girls teach them to sit and play quietly, under the stereotype that girls are
35http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/ 36 Idem 41 37 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/
36 better at simple repetitive task […] These products are manufactured under the stereotype that girls socialize more than boys, teach girls to value socializing with friends rather than education […] Young girls are not specifically encouraged to participate in 'active' activities, and are encouraged to 'be careful' […] The toys teach young girls their "roles" inside the home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the young, all the while looking eloquently beautiful for those on the outside world. Overall, girls' toys teach them that their gender role is and cannot be superior to that of their male counterpart’. 38
‘[…] toys even suggest that our society values young boys more highly than girls. Parents tend to choose more masculine and gender-neutral toys, than female toys […] most masculine toys encourage competitive and aggressive behavior, but are also more constructive, conducive to handling, and much more reality based. Masculine traits associated with these toys are aggressive, active, dominant, and competitive […] These toys reflect negativity because they send a message that violence can solve problems. Through their toys, boys receive a message of being active, assertive, often associating in violent activities, and war games. They learn that they must be strong and "Warrior-Like" in order to be accepted as a real man. These particular toys have become so popular due to the stereotype that all boys show more aggressive behavior than girls […]. 39
‘Through these toys, boys freely, explore and experiment, not having to play at home quietly 40[…]’
Here we saw how marketing tactics and toys companies reinforce stereotypical roles of girls and boys and what is seen as accepted behaviors. How about gender neutral toys? Why shouldn’t they promote that? Maybe because it is harder since it is quite difficult to market and to know the exact target – it’s too general. But since society seems to like sameness, I bet it would be actually easier to promote it by just saying how it doesn’t participate in enforcing gender differences and domination. However, on the low side, neutral toys also means evenness, sameness but also equality since it doesn’t matter what sex a person was born with, it can thrive
38 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/ 39 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/ 40 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/
37 to be an equal and through neutral toys learn the same skills, not fight or nurture anymore – but common skills for everyone.
Marketing and toys companies are not to blame for reinforcing these stereotypical roles – educations and social spheres should also be considered (family, friends, religion, activities, etc.). Gender and gender values are now a part too deep of our society to forget it.
‘In conclusion, gender socialization, through toys, teaches and reinforces stereotypical gender roles […] In order to prevent children from living by these stereotypes portrayed through toys, parents should encourage gender-neutral and cross-gender play in children at an early age’. 41
Colors and assimilating them to a specific biological sex and a sexual roles is anything but natural, no one ever said that a toy was custom-made for girls just because it is pink. Let’s take the example of a plastic soldier – which is commonly assigned as a boys’ toy – does making it pink makes it for girls instead of for boys? Will girls be more likely to be attracted to this toy – even though it was made originally made for boys – only because it is pink? :
‘[…] there is no practical reason why a corn popper push toy for a girl needs to be pink, and sold side-by-side with the blue popper for boys. There is no logic for the girl’s parking garage to be pink while the boy’s parking garage is red and yellow […]’.42
This example is a prime example of what we said above, how come a company has to change the color of the very same item just so it can be shown it is intended for another target, in this case another gender, aren’t parking garage originally boys’ toys? Why does making it pink should mean it is marketed towards girls instead?
41 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/ 42 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/
38 ‘[…]. As a marketer, I think it’s a brilliant idea. What I don’t like is that they are only for girls. It’s the gender marketing that has me seeing pink. I reject the notion that girls can’t follow directions. I reject the notion that boys can’t be creative […]’43
To conclude this part, I think we should mention how marketing and behaviors can be related and how marketing is in part to blame for this stereotypical representation and limitations of what one being is supposed to like according to its biological sex:
‘Gender marketing pigeonholes our children into specific roles and behaviors’. 44
‘Children are bombarded with marketing, but every time we teach a girl to build or a boy to nurture, every time we give a girl a Star Wars water bottle or pick up a My Little Pony for a boy at a yard sale, we are opening up options that the toy stores and companies have shut down’.45
2.5 Subculture definitions and why is it relevant to consider
In a sociological sense, a subculture is: ‘‘[…] a group of people within a culture that differentiates themselves from the larger culture to which they belong […] a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture‘. It is also ‘an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society […]’46
As we can see, subcultures are groups or as they put it - different co-cultures - that co-exist in the society as a whole, even though the vast majority of a country shares common beliefs, values and habits they also differ in varying ways such as their tastes, their likings, activities… They tend to
43 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/ 44 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/ 45 http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/12/09/gendering-toys-is-good-for-nobody/ 46 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subculture
39 create or belong to groups that have the same tastes and to interact with people who are the same or have things in common. Let’s say someone really liked a band, then we can guess that it is likely this person will belong to a group of people who likes the same or who likes similar types of music. With subculture we can also link what Howard Becker studied in his work, Outsiders, in it he shows how a group or should we say, a subgroup can be perceived as deviant or abnormal because they don’t conform with the rest of societies and their values or tastes. As an example of an outsider/deviant group he mentions jazz players and marijuana users – because they are not seen as conforming to the society they are put outside the neat little box society tends to create and at the boundaries – they are marginalized and seen as outsiders or deviant since they don’t fit with the rest. I think it is important to mention subcultures here because
Barbie is a brand and like we mentioned earlier little girls and even women still see her as an icon of female beauty, they form a sort of subculture – a Barbie doll subculture or group where they interact with one another. For example it would be hard to imagine a tomboy being part of the Barbie club – at least not the majority of them.
It is important to consider the importance of subculture in this study especially knowing that they are sub-groups that includes a group of people who have common or similar characteristics such as a love for an activity (horseback riding, swimming, skating, music, art, etc.) or a type of music, common beliefs or values… They form a group that share a passion and want to interact with similar beings, for example girlie girls, the exact definition being girls who love Barbie and the color pink, tend to interact with similar girls. However, what happens when this subculture is being let down? Next we will study the scandals Barbie had to live through.
2.6. Presentation of the product – Scandals and setbacks
40 What would be a brand without its share of scandal? After 50 years Barbie is no exception when it comes to bad press – she had some ups and downs – well besides breaking up with her now ex- boyfriend Ken. Like any brands, Barbie evolved through the year, even the brand logo has changed as we can see below:
The brand Barbie isn’t scandal free, it has been tainted by different scandals through the years, the most common one is about the unrealistic ideal and pressure the product puts on the shoulders of young and easily influenced little girls. Even though Barbie is a well-liked product, she had her fair share of controversies - one of them being about its unrealistic looks and the devastating effects it can have on growing and easily influenced little girls. Countless articles have been made about how if the Barbie was indeed a real girl, she couldn’t even stand given the size of her head and her disproportionate body (see Appendix C for examples).
“One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman, leading to a risk that girls who attempt to emulate her will become anorexic”. 47
‘Barbie" should partly take responsibility for the picture-perfect "standard of beauty" girls learn to value. With her leggy, busty figure and body measurements that would make it impossible for her to stand up in real life, "Barbie" is available in an assortment of races, colors, and professions, to appeal to any background" […]Through "Barbie’s" image, girls think the perfect, attractive, and socially accepted woman, is thin, but well endowed, glamorous, happy, and
47 http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/12/09/gendering-toys-is-good-for-nobody/
41 silent. "Barbie" also offers a young girl a "workout" tape to stay in shape, again reinforcing the message that thin and only thin is acceptable’.48
In order to address this scandal and try to put it to rest – Mattel redesigned the mold and gave
Barbie a wider and more realistic waist (in 1997 – pictured above).
A study was conducted among 200 girls from age 5 to 8 years old, to see how they liked their own bodies, it showed that the girls within the group known as the Barbie group were more dissatisfied and unconfident about their bodies and the way they looked. These girls considered
Barbie has a good role model and as a result would try to look like her – no matter how impossible or unhealthy it might be – Barbie is seen as an unrealistic and unhealthy role model for many like the diverse citations above mentioned.
Another scandal worth mentioning is the cultural value, one of the brand’s doll known has the cultural doll was made to showcase different cultures, or should I say to make little girls believe in premade and unrealistic values – according to this line of dolls French women carry around a basket of baguettes, Mexican ones have a Chihuahua – I find this line of dolls offensive to the cultures they are supposed to represent and so did the Mexican customer apparently since the
Mexican doll was discontinued from this line after complaints – now she is sought after by collectors:
“ All the dolls come with their own traditional dress, a passport, and in most cases an extra accessory. The French Barbie holds a basket of baguettes, the Dutch one a bunny, the Chilean a doggy […] have blasted Mattel claiming the doll is culturally offensive […] other dolls with ‘stereotypical’ accoutrements.”49
48 http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need-pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a- bad-idea/2/ 49 http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2013/04/mattel-pulls-mexico-barbie-from-website-over-stereotype-controversy- 2618734.html
42 This isn’t the first time that the culture of the Barbie becomes part of the equation, in some
Islamic countries were this doll is seen has disrespectful of the country’s values and goes against most Islam principles, a special doll was created, similar to Barbie but that respected the countries’ values. However, this doll called Fulla isn’t made by Mattel:
“In September 2003, the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia outlawed the sale of Barbie dolls, saying that she did not conform to the ideals of Islam50”.
“In Middle Eastern countries there is an alternative doll called Fulla which is similar to Barbie but is designed to be more acceptable to an Islamic market. Fulla is not made by the Mattel Corporation 51[…]”,
Fulla is the same size, height and looks similar to Barbie. However, she has a different lifestyle and appearance – she is not oversexy and doesn’y wear anything too revealing unlike most
Barbies (skirts longer than knee-length and covered shoulders to respect the Islamic religion).
Fulla also has a smaller chest size, not as much curves and has long dark hair, brown eyes and olive skin. One other thing she does have in common though is the criticism that she represents an unrealistic ideal of beauty too and too high expectation when it comes to the perfect body image. She has no boyfriend unlike Barbie’s Ken.
2.7 Why did this product failed in China when it is successful in the U.S?
‘With its retail sales growing by 15% in China in 2009 Mattel was right to look there for revenue growth for its Barbie brand’52
50 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie 51 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie 52 http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html
43 A lot of articles talked about the “unexpected” failure of Barbie in the U.S market as if it couldn’t have been predicted by looking at the product or the packaging itself when it was launched in China. However, having studied gender and having put the cultural traits into the equation we can say that it could have been predicted and even avoided if they had done a Pestel of the market and thought that Chinese girls didn’t have the same culture or expectations as
American girls. As stated above, Mattel opened a flagship store in Shanghai (the location was one of their mistakes as we will see below) in March 2009 only to close down two years later.
This can seem surprising given Barbie is seen as a safe and well established brand in the U.S – however here lies the secrets, yes it is iconic and well established BUT in the U.S, the same isn’t true in other countries where the references and importance of this brand is not as high as it is in its home country. Little girls don’t have the same toys nor do they play the same way with them, it all lies in cultural differences – which is something Barbie forgot to account for and should have. To follow will be some important citations I found in articles that explain why and how
Barbie failed to see the obvious – not being ethnocentric and remembering that like two persons are not like the same is true for two societies:
“According to The Wall Street Journal, Chinese consumers thought Barbie wasn't serious enough and wanted a better role model for their daughters”. 53 “Other reports said the doll was "sexy" rather than "cute," and was therefore inappropriate for Chinese children” 54
“Whatever the exact reason, it's clear Mattel didn't do its consumer research”.55
Mattel forgot to consider that some societies are looking for different types of products and that the very definition of beauty is different. Chinese tend to prefer cute over pretty and do not want
53 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/ 54 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/ 55 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/
44 their daughters to play with an overtly sexy (even too sexy for some women) toy that doesn’t showcase their culture but the North American one instead.
“Mattel went wrong assuming that Chinese girls and their mothers would go gaga over the curvy blond doll. Barbie was just too over the top for Chinese sensibilities. Cute dolls are good; sexy dolls are creepy. Doing some homework here could have helped”.56
“The Barbie hasn't catered to the local audience, which prefers Hello Kitty cute to Barbie sexy57”.
However, Barbie isn’t the only one who made the same mistake; other top American brands the likes of Walmart and Best Buy, even though well-established in the U.S also made the same mistakes. These two big corporations tried to launch their brands in a foreign market but they made a mistake along the way:
“For some American companies, China has become the graveyard of ambition58”.
“[…] Best Buy […] initial assumption that to be successful in China, all the company had to do was import the Best Buy model as is, with no tweaking for the Chinese market”. Best buy reason for failure59.
“But Chinese consumers weren't ready for Best Buy as is […] the store's high-end product selection -- and high-end pricing -- wasn't quite right […] Chinese are used to haggling over prices, something the U.S.-styled Best Buy wasn't quite ready for”.60
56 http://www.businessinsider.com/mattel-china-barbie-2011-7 57http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/08/134363659/shanghai-barbie-palace-closes-doors-as-mattel-changes-tack-in- china 58http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/08/134363659/shanghai-barbie-palace-closes-doors-as-mattel-changes-tack-in- china 59 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/ 60 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/
45 One of Mattel’s mistake when it tried to launch Barbie in China was to put the store in Shanghai since it was a big city and their thought it was a safe bet given the population ratio – however their intended target might not have been so obvious had they studied the Chinese culture:
“[…] U.S. companies that failed to do their homework. Starting with Mattel […] Mattel came on way too strong in Shanghai in March 2009, when it opened its 36,000-square-foot pink shrine to Barbie, the iconic American doll […] Two years later, the company closed the store”.61 “This type of selling mimics Chinese culture, which is very network- and referral- based”. 62 “[…] wealthy, cosmopolitan city like Shanghai, middle-class shopping habits in China's small cities aren't yet ingrained, so shoppers are more open-minded63”.
Mattel needs to keep in mind that a success in their own market doesn’t mean it will happen in another, after all Barbie is an American Icon because she was made and marketed towards her birth market by American manufacturers – they have put their cultures in this product, the way she looks, even the way the package is designed showcases an American product (colors, types, shapes, what drawing and type of writing on the box, etc.). The do-it yourself American likes isn’t necessarily what other cultures want to hear – rather they want a product that is marketed especially for them not a hand me down – who likes hand me downs?
“[…] the big American brand's fundamental incorrect assumption was that Chinese consumers would be as excited by the thought of "do it yourself" as American ones […] But in China, doing it yourself can mean you're too poor to have someone else do it”64
61 http://www.businessinsider.com/mattel-china-barbie-2011-7 62 http://www.businessinsider.com/mattel-china-barbie-2011-7 63 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/ 64 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/
46 This doesn’t mean they should give up on the Chinese market, just that next time, they should redo their Pestel and try to better understand the needs of the Chinese – the marketer needs to step in this culture’s shoes and try to see the world from a different perspective – who says
Chinese gender color is pink for girls? Not every girls likes pink like not every girl is blond nor do they act alike – Barbie needs to find their USP on the Chinese market and persist with some cultural humility and a bit less ethnocentrism.
“U.S. companies are not going to give up on the Chinese market. (Mattel says it remains committed to making the brand work in China.) But it's going to take persistence and some cultural humility to win favor with customers a half a world away […]”65
“[…] American business needs to learn about selling to Chinese consumers before it can slice off a sizeable piece of that pie”66
However, according to Mattel, the store closing was “only” a change in strategy and in no way a failure of the brand to appeal to the local market.67
“Tall, blond, impossibly large breasts. Barbie stands out anywhere, but in China, she really turns heads. And that, of course, is exactly what Mattel, the U.S. company behind the Barbie doll, wants68”.
The intended strategic plan was to expand their brands and increase their sales by focusing on the
Chinese market, by appealing to a brand new foreign audience:
65 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/ 66 http://www.fool.com/investing/international/2011/07/22/us-retailers-take-a-licking-in-china.aspx 67 “A Mattel spokesperson, however, that the store closing only represented a change in strategy”http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/08/134363659/shanghai-barbie-palace-closes-doors-as-mattel-changes- tack-in-china 68 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/barbie-in-china-mattel-to_n_171540.html
47 “The plan is to turn America's favorite doll into fashion fodder for China's upwardly mobile, trend-setting elite. By moving up-market and focusing on Barbie-branded merchandise, the company hopes to widen profit margins and attract a new demographic: Chinese women”.69
Mattel didn’t understand that the appeal of Barbie isn’t that she looks like a real women but that she is an American product that doesn’t look like Chinese women, she actually doesn’t look like a real woman – which is how they tend to appeal because like Anime in Japan they are an ideal of women, not the real deal:
"Our research shows that Chinese women want a blond doll, that they expect a blond doll because Barbie is American70,"
‘‘The point, Lord says, is not just that Barbie doesn't look like Chinese women, but that she doesn't look like any woman -- and never has’71.
This next and last part of the work will focus on the results and answers as to how we can turn
Mattel’s and Barbie’s luck around and help them succeed in launching their golden girl into a new prolific and emerging market.
Part 3 – Results
This part of the paper will focus solely on the results we have gathered from both the quantitative and qualitative data. We will talk about competitors’ products as well as the strategy that could be taken and recommendations to better this product and try to re-launch it in China - but SUCCESSFULLY - this time around. Like we said before, Barbie move to China was made
69 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/barbie-in-china-mattel-to_n_171540.html 70 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/barbie-in-china-mattel-to_n_171540.html 71 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/barbie-in-china-mattel-to_n_171540.html
48 with a big bang but ended up in a flop – the brand’s happiness in China was definitely short lived
– the sales failed to meet the expected goal and endangered the brand in China:
“Mattel launched the store in March 2009 - Barbie's 50th birthday - in an attempt to expand the market for its famous doll into China […] However sales failed to meet expectations and the firm was forced to cut its targets within the first eight months of the store's existence”.72
Even though the expectations were high and so were the possibilities, they failed to sell their star product or even to reach their goal. We can wonder why such a star product that was once seen as Mattel’s golden star – failed in China after such a short time. One of the reasons that can be given in order to explain the failure to successfully launch it in China is the fact that Chinese girls don’t have a history with the product – they didn’t grow up with them, they didn’t know the icon it is in the U.S because it is not their culture:
"Barbie in the US has a very long history, people grow up with the brand, their parents grow up with the brand, so brand recognition is very high. In China, though, nobody really knew what Barbie stood for" 73
Like this citation shows, even though Barbie is famous and recognized in the US it is not the case in China where no one really knows her values or even the point of buying a high price
Barbie instead of the cheaper copy:
‘In America, Barbie is an iconic symbol of “femininity” for young girls […] In China, Barbie is simply a doll. She is not associated with any cultural significance for Chinese girls or young women’74.
‘Since Barbie is not a cultural icon in China as she is in America, Chinese consumers couldn’t care less about Barbie-branded products […] The Barbie
72 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12670950 73 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12670950
74 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/
49 fashion clothes for young women would only make sense if Barbie is a cultural icon and established lifestyle brand’75.
‘[…] there are countless knock-off Barbie dolls on the market […] a 6-year-old girl would not care about whether her Barbie dolls are authentic or not’76.
Also, given the lack of history or meaning of this product, the image is not there, little girls – like we showed before – don’t care if the doll is a real Barbie doll because they just don’t know any different – why would anyone pay $15 more just because of the Mattel or Barbie name when there is no outside difference for someone who just wants a doll and who doesn’t understand its value:
‘Mattel failed to execute the strategy well […] made the mistake of paying too little attention to local consumer tastes. Chinese women tend to like cutesy, girlish pink clothes (think Hello Kitty), not the sexy and skimpy kind Fields designed. Odd as it sounds, Snoopy-branded clothes, cartoon logos and all, are hot sellers for women entering the white-collar workforce’77.
‘[…] the merchandise in the store was expensive since Mattel did not source in China […] No one would spend that amount of money for a brand that doesn’t have significant recognition’78.
So here we have the first issue to explain the failure Barbie had to face in China – it didn’t have a brand image and a meaning like it does in the U.S. A brand needs to appeal to its target by its history and the memories customers create along with these product – Mattel didn’t think that this was something it still had to do in China – like they did in the U.S before she became an icon she was relatively unknown – that is still the case today in China. They need to start from
75 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/ 76 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/ 77 http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html 78 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/
50 scratch to create a brand image not try to market the American one they have because it doesn’t have any meaning to local customers.
Another mistake Barbie made was the location of the store itself – they shouldn’t have launched it in a big city like Shanghai as the spending habits are not what they needed given the lack of history. Localization is one of the key components in ensuring that a brand works, I mean in order to sell something you have to have customers around - and in Barbie case what they lacked was the right customers in the location they chose. Localization is a question every company has to consider: ‘[…] how much and where to localize is universal to every multinational company’79
‘[…] the localization-globalization question needs to be addressed at the level of dozens of variables pertaining to both strategy and operations […] the company pays careful attention to localization along a host of variables such as package type and size, amount of sweetener, distribution channels, advertising media, and pricing80’.
One thing they should have done was to first launch it in department store in order to ensure the brand visibility when people go shopping:
‘The first mistake […] is to have a standalone store before establishing Barbie as a strong brand in China81.’
‘Barbie’s […] mistake was setting up a standalone flagship store […] [it] rarely works in China. It’s usually better to build a large store within a mall or department store, where the foot traffic is. […] most Chinese prefer to go to one indoor destination rather than walk down the streets. They expect to shop, eat and hit beauty salons in a single place with nice air conditioning and a clean environment […] foreign brands […] need to go where the customers are to catch people who have no experience with them […] Mattel should have set up a store
79 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2 80 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2 81 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/
51 in a large, busy mall. […] build up brand exposure. Most important, they get the foot traffic you need to make your brand known and attract new customers’82.
Another issue was the price of the product itself – they sold it for a similar price as the one they did in Barbie’s home country – they should have remembered that no two countries have the same incomes nor do they have the same spending habits – a lot of people in China try to make ends meet and food is still a priority and not a given for many:
‘[…] every market has its own quirks. For now, nice toys remain a niche buy. In emerging markets, "when people have more cash to spend, they're choosing to buy premium baby food brands," […] Compared to toys, "baby food may be a bit more of a necessity."83
‘The product positioning and style just aren’t what Chinese women want. The pricing hasn’t fit the market either’84
‘[…] China Market Research Group, conducted interviews with shoppers leaving the store and most said they thought the store’s tops, which they viewed as simply T-shirts, were overpriced. […]they’ve sought value […] They want to make the most of their spending by buying bags and coats they can use every day rather than skimpy, eye-catching outfits they’d only wear every few months’85
‘China has been tough for toy companies to penetrate, in part, because U.S. toys are expensive. American parents tend to have much more discretionary income to spend on their children. "There are a lot of people living in poverty in some of these countries’ 86
Chinese have a spending habit different than American or European one that should also have been taken into account when deciding the price, here a PESTEL could have helped too:
82 http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html 83 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/05/barbie-wants-to-make-it-big-in-bombay/ 84 http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/ 85 http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html 86 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/05/barbie-wants-to-make-it-big-in-bombay/
52 ‘A dichotomy is growing in Chinese consumer trends between shopping for status and shopping for value’87.
‘branded for middle-class consumers […] is people either shop for the most expensive things they can get […] or they go for the cheapest’88.
‘Third, Mattel tried to bring a 50-year-old brand to a new market that had just gotten to know Barbie. Chinese consumers are new consumers. They are not yet as sophisticated as their counterparts in the West […] having a design studio to design her own dolls is too much of a luxury for her. The market was simply not ready for that89’.
Also, Mattel tried to promote a lifestyle and brand image that wasn’t in sync with the Chinese market or the country’s values – the ‘I can be’ it promotes is not something Chinese encourage,
Mattel should have studied the market better and try to empower its customers by finding their
Chinese USP and not re-use the American one.
‘Instead of making Barbie a fashion and lifestyle brand, Mattel should have made Barbie an aspirational brand to empower Chinese girls. The idea of “I can be” is not encouraged in Chinese society, but is exactly what Chinese girls need. If Barbie, or Ling for that matter, could become a role model for Chinese girls, she would have re-invented herself and Mattel would have had a better chance to succeed in China90’.
As we can see, we have here a part of the solution – re-market Barbie and her image – they should create a custom-made Chinese doll that shows the right values and not what they think they want or try to model the Chinese culture like the American one. The very idea of femininity varies in two societies – who says sexy is feminine in China? Chinese women tend to prefer cuteness over sexiness like we showed before. They also prefer sweet and soft rather than smart,
‘bombshell’ and dazzling.
87 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/21/business/china-consumers-barbie 88 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/21/business/china-consumers-barbie 89 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/ 90 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/
53 ‘Second, Mattel didn’t quite understand what Chinese girls and young women want. The Chinese concept of “femininity” is very different from that of American. In China, “feminine” is more about sweet and soft rather than smart and strong, more about gentle and loving rather than dazzling and fashion- forward. Although it has created a Chinese Barbie Ling with black hair who wears Chinese attire, Mattel failed to understand what Ling would represent in order to appeal to Chinese girls91’.
Even though they tried to make a Chinese product named Ling, they failed to understand that dyeing her hair black and making her wear Chinese clothes doesn’t necessarily makes her a success in this market – it still doesn’t represent what they want to buy or as a matter of fact what mothers want they daughters to play with – it is not seen as a good role model:
‘[…] Barbie is a Western doll and is “too sexy” for Chinese girls […] Chinese girls actually like the blond Barbie better than the localized Chinese Barbie called “Ling92.”
Even though Ling was more localized and culturally aware, she still didn’t appeal, not because she was too sexy but rather because Chinese girls liked the blond Barbie better because she didn’t look real and she didn’t generate stereotypes.
‘[…] the concept didn't take. Chinese parents were turned off by what they saw as the over-sexualization of the doll […] Barbie can make a very easy comeback with the right attire, maybe some different features or products’93.
Even though the concept was good, it was deemed inappropriate by the buyers who are mothers
– they don’t believe in this over-sexualization because it is not their culture or what they want their daughters to look up to.
‘Toymaker Mattel failed to cater to Chinese tastes for cute over sexy […] Companies often try to graft successful overseas strategies onto the Chinese market’94
91 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/ 92 http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and-how-she-could-re-invent-herself/ 93 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/05/barbie-wants-to-make-it-big-in-bombay/
54 ‘[…]they didn't think long and hard enough about whether Chinese girls wanted to look sexy or they wanted to look something closer to what you'd associate with Japan – cute […]Hello Kitty is doing well, but Barbie is an example of crash and burn’.95
Patience and innovation are the two main concepts Mattel needs to consider next on this market
– also they should do a better market study to comprehend exactly what people want and how they can reach their intended target :“International firms have been using Shanghai as a test market for their expansion into China and Mattel is not the only retailer to have had difficulty in adjusting to the Shanghai marketplace […] They either don't change quickly enough or they are not patient enough to be successful here96,"
In order to find the right spot for a brand, the same goes as for finding the right target and the right product – they need to do their research beforehand, study the market and why not experiment to see how and why a store can be successful in this location and not another one.
Having a college nearby can ensure that students will come to eat at a diner, so accordingly price of that area might be more expensive, and nearby colleges is also where we can find tons of restaurants, libraries and cheap rent apartments, movie theaters, etc. The same goes for locating a toy store, no one in their right mind would put a toy store near a retirement home, it is more likely it will be located downtown or close to an elementary school so kids will see it on or from their way to school.
‘[…] traditional market research […] will often be woefully inadequate in helping companies figure out what to localize […] active experimentation and trial-and-error learning will generally be the fastest approach to getting the most accurate answers’97.
94 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/21/business/china-consumers-barbie 95 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/21/business/china-consumers-barbie 96 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12670950 97 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2
55 Another mistake they made was to just assume that according to the Chinese people external appearance, the way they looked western, that they also wanted a western product – which was not the case:
‘[…] avoid the trap of superficial generalization […] make the mistake of assuming that, because urban Chinese customers appear quite Westernized in their outward appearance, they will easily accept Western concepts, products, and services […] they must understand and adapt to potentially important market differences’98.
Mattel shouldn’t give up in piercing the Chinese market, it should just redo they whole tactic and keep in mind that the market is ever changing – not only with the fast-paced electronics but also when it comes to plastic toys. Kids now tend to put aside their toys for technology products
(video games, DVDs, etc.). Everything tend to become obsolete pretty fast, what is In today will most likely be Out the next – and after all Barbie is 53 years old – it must be a record since especially today toys have a life expectancy of a couple days to a couple of years tops since it becomes out of fashion pretty fast. Plus, China along with India is becoming richer and richer and rapidly so, it would be a shame not to take advantage of these countries wealth because of the difference in culture and requirements to study them better - because customers and income wise it will prove worth it in times and will pay off with new and returning customers:
‘[…] keep your ears close to the ground. Emerging markets such as China and India are changing at three to four times the pace of developed markets. Thus today's perfect blend of localization and globalization could easily become obsolete three years from now […] As China and India become richer, there is a rapidly growing sense of national pride. […] it is inevitable that local styles and brands will start acquiring as much cachet as global ones’99.
‘All is not lost for Barbie in China, however. Young girls still clamor for those dolls and other products. Barbie has a fine future in China, but if she wants to
98 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2 99 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2
56 make the most of it, she will need to rethink what Chinese girls and young women want, as well as how they shop’100.
The next section of this paper will feature a description a comparison product wise of the main competitors.
3.1 Comparison with main competitors
Even though Barbie was once the first of its kind on the market, the same doesn’t hold true nowadays, the famous plastic doll now has many competitors to defeat if she wants to be successful. This part will focus on Barbie main competitors, past and current. We will talk about
Bratz dolls as well as Disney Princess line (some of which are made by Mattel).
“In 2006, a toy-industry analyst indicated Bratz had captured about forty percent of the fashion-doll market, compared with Barbie's sixty percent’101
Bratz was launched by MGA Entertainment in June 2001, the inventor worked for Mattel at the time he came up with the doll idea, which will later turn out to be the brand’s downfall. These dolls are recognizable by a similar frame as Barbie’s, but with a bigger head, bigger eyes, heavy make-up and funky teenage looks (short skirts, etc. – part of the scandal with this product since a lot of mothers see the dolls are way too sexy and over the top – they are not seen as good role models). They also came with animals and a color theme (unlike Barbie). Every Bratz doll had her own color, matching clothes and an urban look (skater, etc.).
100 http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html 101 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2
57 ‘[…]Facing dwindling sales in the U.S. and increasing competition from MGA Entertainment’s Bratz dolls, Mattel wanted to revamp Barbie’s image and create a lifestyle brand’102
One of the main points of success of this brand was the fact that unlike Barbie who has held over
150 jobs, she didn’t represent a particular lifestyle – she was marketed to everyone no matter their beliefs, activities, incomes, etc. Each little girl could find the Barbie who most represented who she was or who she dreamed she could become – she was a success story in a sort of way.
Bratz was different, she was marketed differently, she had a lifestyle, every single Bratz looked
Urban, you could tell by the heavy make-up or funky life-style along with funky & bright colors streaks in the dolls’ hair. She wasn’t so much marketed for every little girls but rather her intended target was teenage girls. Meaning elementary school age to high school girls mostly – she didn’t appeal to kindergarten girls – or if she did mothers would not allow them to buy the dolls since they had a “trashy look”. She was the very definition of an anti-Barbie given her heavy make-up and rock look – she wasn’t lady-like but more scandalous so she could appeal to
girls who didn’t believe in Barbie dolls’ values or who wanted a funky doll.
Bratz were definitely big trouble for Barbie – they hurt Mattel’s sell quite a bit and were starting to replace them in numbers and diversity in stores – Barbie wasn’t the queen bee of toy aisles
102 http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html
58 anymore, the new doll in town dug Barbie’s grave and tried to bury Barbie in it. However,
Barbie was still strong at 50 years old and sued Bratz for her image on the claim that she was a pale copy of her. Bratz did give Barbie a run for her billions dollars franchise; she was seen as
Barbie main and first serious competition. Both were marketed in the fashion doll category, one for girlie girls who were classy, the other one for both girly girls since it was a doll but also for tomboys. Bratz were the anti-barbie with their rebellious looks and appearances so she had that potential Barbie didn’t - she appealed to different types of girls. In 2004, Bratz dolls were
“outselling” Barbie dolls in the UK (Barbie still had the lead in number of dolls, clothes and accessories sold). Don’t fret; Barbie remains the leading brand in Fashion dolls. However, in 2005, Barbie sales had fallen by 30% in the U.S alone and 18% worldwide – all thanks to Bratz dolls.
Barbie didn’t want to fall from grace so she sued MGA Entertainment on the ground that Carter Bryant who created the dolls was still working for Mattel at the time he was developing Bratz dolls. In 2008, the dolls were not sold in store anymore and were taken off the shelves.
As of august 2012, MGA won the trial with Mattel having to pay $310 million in damages and
MGA is claiming a $1 billion in damage from Mattel lawsuit that they hope to get back.
In 2008, the jury agreed that Bratz dolls ‘were liable for converting Mattel property for their own use and intentionally interfering with the contractual duties owed by Bryant to Mattel’.
They had to pay $100 million in damages to Mattel before being banned in December 2008 from selling Bratz after the end of winter 2008. In 2011, both companies returned to court to see who would own Bratz, MGA won. After forfeiting their Bratz dolls, MGA launched the Moxie Girlz
59 to replace them and be able to continue selling them. These dolls are very similar, besides the name, to Bratz, they have the same mold and body types as well as urban/lay back look. Also, like Barbie, they also have other types of products, like movies, etc.
Two other competitors are Sindy dolls (who look very similar to Barbie in appearances, looks and body type) and Disney princesses (modeled after the Disney movies and princesses). Both brands are direct competitors of Barbie since they have similar appearances and are marketed on the fashion dolls market. They also target the same age-range, gender (feminine) and biological sex (girls).
Sindy is a fashion doll created in the UK in 1963 by the company Pedigree Dolls & Toys, she used to be the UK best-selling fashion doll. She is seen as a direct rival to Barbie and was for a long time her first competition (until Bratz gave Barbie a run for her money). Hasbro bought the rights to Sindy and redid her to look more like Barbie and be more marketable towards the US market. This remodeling of the doll caused some drama and Mattel filed a lawsuit against Sindy on copyright grounds, Hasbro then had to redo Sindy’s face so she didn’t look as close to Barbie.
Like the pictures show, Sindy looks very similar to Barbie. Along with Barbie, Hasbro also launch a competitor to Ken, only one that appealed to boys and was marketed as such – G.I. Joe
60 (Pictured next to Sindy). Due to the limited success of the doll and the growing sales of Barbie,
Hasbro returned the doll’s license to Pedigree. Sindy is celebrating her 50th birthday this year. To celebrate her 50th, the brand is designing a new merchandise range (notepaper, shoes, accessories, etc. for teenagers) as well as a new doll which is currently in the design stage.
Since 2003, to mark her 40th birthday, New Moons manufacturer acquired the rights, redesigned and re-launched the doll. An interesting piece of trivia about this doll is the fact that Mattel actually contacted the Pedigree Dolls & Toys to offer them a license to produce Barbie – they declined it after their research showed that Barbie was not the hit toy for British girls – they chose to manufacture their own version of the dolls based on the Tammy dolls. Like Barbie,
Sindy comes with passions, accessories and dreams – each doll is marketed towards a type of girls, a group and taste – they each have a role. Sindy’s boyfriend was also introduced in 1965 – his name his Paul. As a way to outsell Barbie, Sindy actually had more accessories than Barbie –
Mattel only expanded the line of accessories for the dolls in the 80s. Sindy’s market research and trends were high; the marketing team would visit other countries like France to be inspired on the latest fashion trends for their dolls. In order to be different from Barbie her face and whole appearance was modified to look younger than Barbie and a new family was introduced. Like
Barbie, Sindy launched an official website in 2000 where little girls could create, dress up and customized their dolls and her bedroom as well as chat with other customers. In 2006 Sindy was re-launched to look like a 12-14 years old unlike Barbie who is in her 20s. Sindy’s target in 2006 was 3-5 years old and appealed to mothers who wanted a doll who looked more appropriately than Barbie or Bratz who can be seen as over sexy. Originally the name of the doll was chosen by a vote from kids, they picked it from a list of names and chose Cindy, the S change was made so it could be the product’s trademark. Sindy dolls look just like Barbie dolls, they are also
61 confused a lot with Barbie – a lot of kids owned a Cindy dolls while growing up since they were the cheap look-alike alternative to Barbie dolls without the high price tag. Sindy dolls are blondes, tall, blue-eyed and skinny – parents of young kids tend to buy Sindy rather to Barbie to younger kids since it doesn’t matter if they ruin it by cutting its hair, coloring the dolls, etc. given they are cheaper than the famous alternative.
Habro also markets G.I. Joes (picture above) is a line of action figures by Hasbro – marketed towards boys. G.I. Joe is the male equivalent of Barbie or Sindy for boys. We can guess that it is marketed for boys since the action figure is part of the army, a commando and the colors used are most commonly used for boys.
Tammy, another competitor of Barbie’s, was an American fashion doll created by Ideal Toy
Company in 1962 – marketed as the teenage girl next door unlike the sexier version from Mattel.
Tammy was based on the character from the 1957 movie Tammy and the Bachelor. However due a very limited popularity the doll was discontinued in early 1966.
Tressy is yet another fashion doll made in the U.S. She is easily recognizable by her growing hair. She made her grand debut in the 60s and was manufactured by American Character Doll Co and in 1970 by Ideal Toy Company. Tressy, like Barbie, Sindy and Tammy was made to look like a pre-teen to teen dolls and was standing at 11½
The Disney princess dolls are part of the media franchise Disney Princess by the Walt Disney
Company launched in the late 1990s by Disney Consumer Products chairman Andy Mooney. As of today there are eleven princesses in the line, a 12th (Anna - from the upcoming 2013 animated
62 Disney movie Frozen) will be introduced in the line in 2014. The current princesses in the lines are: ‘Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana,
Rapunzel and Merida’.
The princess line is similar to Barbie, however they look like the princesses from the movies
(Cinderella and Aurora look similar to Barbie dolls with their blonde hair and blue eyes – except for the princess dress – however the rest look differently with a diversity in skin color, hair
texture and colors, etc).
3.2 Strategy & market
The SWOT of this work can be found in the appendix A, this part of the paper will talk about the data presented in the tables, as well as a detailed analysis of what has been found. It will also present ways to improve the brand and the sales resting on what has been found in the SWOT.
63 Strategy wise, it seems like Mattel didn’t try enough to sell their products in China – they didn’t try to understand the market nor did they even try to appeal to their intended target. However, something seems shocking; they succeeded in doing so in other countries, first in Europe where the feminine ideals is similar to the U.S if not the same in France’s case. But they also succeeded in countries that have different values than Western ones the likes of Argentina and India by understanding their potential buyers’ needs and what might appeal to them:
“[…] India, Mattel […] released a Barbie modeled after popular Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif. The doll was part of a line called "I Can Be." In America, "I Can Be" Barbie occupations include nurses, music teachers, and the President. In India, the Katrina Kaif doll represents a role model that appeals to the local market103”.
They succeeded in marketing their products the same way they did in the U.S by understanding
Indian values and beliefs in what make a good role models, like Barbie, Katrina Kaif is a role model to little girls. Indian little girls are inventing a history with this product like American little girls did before them and have done for now 53 years.
‘The company wasn't totally blind. It did launch Ling, a Chinese Barbie […] guaranteed that the speed with which the company would discover its multitude of mistakes would overwhelm its ability to learn and adapt’104.
‘Mattel itself has adopted a much smarter learning strategy for Barbie in India. Since its India launch in 1991, Barbie has developed an unrivaled brand presence in the country. The brand has been targeted exclusively at children and promoted via extensive advertising on television networks popular with kids. […] Mattel opened a large number of stores-within-stores, including an exclusive space in a highly successful Hamleys toy store in Mumbai. Such an approach reduces needed investment and associated risks while creating greater brand exposure. […] Enables Mattel to learn and adapt at a faster pace on the road to learning where and how much to localize. […] Mattel has also introduced an Indian Barbie modeled after Katrina Kaif, a popular Bollywood actress’.105
103 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/05/barbie-wants-to-make-it-big-in-bombay/ 104 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2 105 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2
64 Here we have an example of a successful business and marketing plan, they managed to communicate through the right and appropriate channels to reach their intended target – they also opened stores-within-stores in order to ensure an amount of people who go through the store and might see their products. This ensured a limited investment, unlike in China where they had to pay to keep the whole 6-story building 106operational and clean since it was theirs only. They also managed to market a Barbie like they do in the U.S after a real-life role model – in this case a famous Bollywood actress.
“Mattel opened a $30 million, six-story flagship Barbie store in Shanghai with great fanfare”.
Another main component that we need to keep in mind is the word adaptation – the brand needs to adapt to the market and customers’ needs. They need to be flexible as to what people might want and listen:
‘It's very important for the Western brands to not simply take an existing strategy or operations and try to take it into Chinese market […]You always have to be very flexible, be reactive to consumers' requirements and demands’.107
‘[…] localize their products to fit Chinese consumers’ […] adapt […] blends the West meets East culture’.108
‘China Market Research Group […] biggest concern in life, ahead of being able to pay education for their kids, or for medical care cost for their families, was food and product safety," 109
‘Toy companies have struggled, so far, to crack the promising Chinese market’. 110
106 ‘Mattel opened a $30 million, six-story flagship Barbie store in Shanghai with great fanfare’ - http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html 107 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/21/business/china-consumers-barbie 108 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/21/business/china-consumers-barbie 109 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/21/business/china-consumers-barbie 110 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/05/barbie-wants-to-make-it-big-in-bombay/
65 ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do." In our view, such an explanation is far too simplistic. You can never outdo the Romans at the fine art of acting like a Roman. Creating the right blend of localization and globalization is a much harder task than achieving either complete localization or zero localization. To succeed in dynamic markets such as China and India, managers need to learn rapidly what and how to localize […]’111
All of this ground work paid off as: "Mattel has been quietly enjoying the rewards of a strong performance by [Barbie] in India."112
‘[…] Mattel has a proven track record of adapting and thriving in the global marketplace’ Mattel […] international business shifted from 35% of our total business to 50% of our business today, and we plan to grow that number’.113
The following citation shows how a product can fail in one country and succeed into another:
‘[…] differences between Mattel's experience in Argentina and China. The Argentine market was already Barbie-crazy; a Broadway-style Barbie musical had even been highly successful on the Buenos Aires stage. In contrast, Barbie was a relatively new concept to China. Mattel faced many more unknowns in China than it did in Argentina. Yet the company chose to start out with a store more than five times as large […] misconnect with either segment could doom the whole venture’.114
Here we saw that the reason it succeeded in Argentina is because they were already Barbie-
Crazy as they put it thanks to their product – they already built a brand image unlike in China where the concept even was still to create. Even though there was this unknown variables they still decided to launch a huge store and try to make it big right away – they should have started small and tried to grow and acquire new customers from there before betting on existing and already made ones:
‘[…] you can never win in China and India […] by either complete localization or zero localization […] figuring out the right blend between localization and
111 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2 112 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2 113 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/05/barbie-wants-to-make-it-big-in-bombay/ 114 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2
66 incorporating global concepts and standards […] increase the odds of success […] by starting with simpler products and services, engaging in lots of rapid and low-cost localization experiments, and adding complexity to their business models as they learn from these experiments’. 115
3.3 Recommendations, What can we do to improve the sales?
We saw different important recommendations throughout this thesis, here we will break them down and try to explain why it could help Barbie to take these into account, not only to re-launch it in China but also for other markets they might be considering.
Gender and culture should be kept in mind at all times, like no two girls want exactly the same thing; the same is true for two cultures. The product and lines should be in sync with the market it is in, it should be considering the variables. An ethnocentric view of the market is definitely not a marketer’s friend as it is a stereotypical view seen through a one way looking glass of what one wants the culture to be and then they try to shape it that way by selling their own market’s product. Also, cultural value made the product not adapted for the market it wanted to succeed in. Marketers shouldn’t try to impose their views or that of their cultures and mold it for another country, they should adapt to the market and what people wants. By not taking into account these factors, the marketers failed to do marketing, which is listening first and foremost to the client and what they want – like they listen to trends. So here we have it the first recommendation to ensure the brand’s success is adaptation to the market and cultures.
Also, they should try to create and market a doll according to the country’s culture – like the one they marketed in India modeled after a famous Bollywood actress.
115 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2011/gb20110421_445230.htm#p2
67 I would advise a new line of product that mixes Barbie dolls with technology, why not a Barbie
Iphone? They should use the ever-changing technologies to their advantage. Barbie wise they should launch a line of International Barbie showing the different culture and NOT what they think these cultures are (no baguettes for the French, I mean American Barbie dolls don’t carry hamburgers and Soda even though it’s the culture’s stereotype).
Another recommendation other than the product’s and its appearance has to do with localization. Like we saw its location within Shanghai didn’t help the sales - it actually hurt them
- they should have done a better study of the market to see the lifestyle and spending habits in
Shanghai, this would have shown them that maybe locating the store in rural or small cities would have been best.
Other than location we have the store itself – they shouldn’t have tried to launch their product in such a big way with a stand-alone 6-stories store in one area, they should have launch it in smaller department stores in the country or why not make medium size and specific booth in store, to ensure brand’s visibility with the people who are going about their business to buy everyday things. The store was a good concept, it came with not only 800 or so dolls, but it also had other services the likes of a full Bar and SPA to attract their intended target. However, to launch it they should have first created a brand’ history so it would have been more successful, their main failure was not considering the fact that Barbie were not as well-known in China as it was in the U.S, that some mothers were actually against them because they are too sexualized and they prefer cute over sexy. Also, since they didn’t have this culture, it didn’t really matter if the doll was a real Barbie or another cheaper copy of the dolls – why would they pay a great deal of money for a product they don’t know the history of while they can have 3 similar dolls for the
68 same price? So here are the other two main recommendations to consider - localization (both of the store), type of store and creating a brand’s culture.
The target Barbie picked was good, it was the right one, however they didn’t market it the way they should have to make it work nor did they consider important factor such as products variables, cultures or localization.
Now that we have seen the main recommendations, we will answer the two hypothesis as well as the main questions. Let’s start with the two hypotheses:
Gender color packaging will impact the sell and interests as much as the product itself. Would more gender neutral packaging help to increase sales?
In general, I don’t think it would, like we have seen earlier, parents also participate in keeping alive these stereotypes by enforcing them at home and buying pink stuff for girls and blue for boys. They tend to be attracted to these colors and buy them for their kids. It might help to have a more gender neutral color and packaging for parents who are trying to enforce diversity and break the social rules. The type of client for these gender neutral products are for example
Storm’s parents (Storm is a Canadian child whose parents decided not to divulge its biological sex to anyone except the immediate family – they didn’t even release the sex to close family members – they wanted to raise him/her without any gender stereotyping so he/she could pick the one she/he wanted without being influenced by education and being put by school in a neat little box – it was later released that Storm (who was 5 at the same of the public release) was born a boy but that he had both gender and assimilated with both gender stereotypes. To conclude, in our study case it wouldn’t matter if the packaging was gender neutral or not – it wouldn’t have helped to increase the sales in China. A gender neutral packaging and color might
69 attract both genders however the fact that in Barbie doll case the product itself is gendered – she is a fashion doll after all and was made to be marketed towards girls. Like princesses, it is important to market and package the product towards their intended target because kids were socially taught that dolls were for girls anyway, the color of the packaging wouldn’t matter in gender oriented toys – however it would if the toy was gender neutral.
Our second hypothesis, can we say that if Mattel had done a more thorough PESTEL on China and the Chinese culture it could have helped the sales? What elements factored in the failure?
We answered that hypothesis all throughout this study, yes, if Mattel/Barbie had done a better research and PESTEL it would have helped to ensure the brand’s success – first it would have factored the Chinese culture into the equation and helped to increase the sales. The things that turn out to be its downfall are varied, the localization, the store type, the culture of the product as well as its appearance.
Finally before moving on to how Barbie could revitalize its 50 years old Barbie, we will answer our main hypothesis : A Barbie case: Case study of Mattel’s Barbie sales in The U.S & China –
Why did it fail in China and why should we take into account the different gendered roles in these two societies?
We saw that it failed in China because they hadn’t done their research in terms of the culture of the product as well as where to sell it, which city, what type of stores, etc. They tried to sell an
American product within a different culture, their intended target didn’t relate to the product since it wasn’t their ideal of beauty nor was it their culture – Barbie was deemed too sexy for the
70 local market and wasn’t seen as a good role model – unlike in the U.S where little girls play with her and wished to look like her – in China they would rather have cute instead of sexy.
3.4 How to innovate and make the sales soar?
Here I will propose a way to change and make innovation to
the brand and product, this part doesn’t rest on any data but it is a
result of this paper and the analysis I have made throughout the
readings and data I collected, this part doesn’t
only proposes way to make the product work in
China but also to improve the sell in the other market we studied here, the
U.S.A. For this part we will take into account the current as well as former market, we will also include the future innovation and how it can improve their sales.
“Over the years, Mattel’s iconic Barbie doll has had every hairstyle imaginable, including a bubble beehive, a ‘60s flip and even multi-colored hair extensions. But she’s never been bald”.116
116http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/01/12/campaign-to-create-bald-and-beautiful-barbie-heats-up-on-social- networking/#ixzz2YLUTaRPC
71 As a way to improve their image and show that they care about what some little girls have to go through, they recently launched a bald Barbie as a way to show their support to cancer stricken girls. Mattel’s Barbie is known for her very long hair, only a handful of them have short hair.
Since most girls like having Barbie dolls that actually look like them, it was
important to consider that Cancer and bald head is unfortunately a reality for some
girls. After some girls and parents campaigned for Mattel to create a bald Barbie
for cancer patients and also as a way to show their support, Mattel launched a bald
Barbie doll in 2013, her name is Ella and she is described as Barbie’s friend.
“Two women who bonded over hair loss started the campaign in December with a Facebook page asking the public to encourage Mattel to introduce a bald Barbie. Rebecca Sypin’s daughter lost her locks through treatments for leukemia, and Sypin’s friend, Jane Bingham, went bald during her battle with lymphoma […]”117
This Barbie dolls has had a lot of controversy surrounding her, from her very beginning, it took a lot of efforts and time from parents of cancer stricken kids for Mattel to launch this
Barbie. Mattel’s motto was to make every girl feel special, beautiful and empowered, with a positive image, however some people didn’t agree with this Barbie and the way she looks.
“Sypin and Bingham have reached out to Mattel but were told the company doesn’t accept ideas. Now, they’re just hoping the toy company will be moved by the Facebook praise and positive press the campaign is getting […]This all sounds wonderfully warm and fuzzy but does it make sense for a major toy manufacturer to make a doll that would realistically have narrow appeal?”118 This citation goes to show that given the small proportion of people who would actually buy this product, Mattel was not interested into producing it, not being able to make profit.
However, I think something important should be taken into account, the positive image it would
117 http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2012/03/30/barbie-will-go-bald-for-kids-with-cancer/ 118 http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2012/01/12/a-touching-campaign-to-make-a-bald-barbie/
72 give the company to show that they care about what some of their consumers are going through, like some companies decide to promote green as a marketing tactic I think the public opinion and the pressure to include their small proportion of the population and potential consumers made sure that they manufactured it. The following citation show that public image is as important as items sold, given that some people will most likely buy products from companies with a positive image and that agree with something they support themselves (like vegetarian, not using animals products, green and recycling…). Companies have to show they care about what the people think and stand for:
“The number of kids clamoring for a bald Barbie is probably small, considering that little girls’ love of hair-brushing once drove the company to create Totally Hair Barbie, and it went on to become the best-selling Barbie doll ever. However, releasing a limited edition doll would look good, please some sick children, and probably become a hot item among collectors.”119 Barbie could have sold their dolls in stores however, these dolls won’t be seen on stores shelves; they decided to distribute them directly in hospitals so they could target the kids they are made for and promote their brand’s image at the same time:
“The company says it will begin a limited distribution of the dolls next year through children's hospitals[…]In its statement, Mattel said it made the decision to distribute the special-edition Barbie in hospitals in order to "get the dolls directly into the hands of children who can most benefit from the unique play experience […]It’s called direct marketing, target marketing, right there where they can be used, in the hospitals. You go, Mattel”120 Barbie is seen as a part of the American and mainstream culture, they have an important influence for growing little girls, not only for the body image but also for the values this one doll shows, that any little girl can be anything she wants to be, after all, Barbie ran for the presidential and has hold over 150 jobs in 54 years. Mattel should strive to promote a positive image for little
119 http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2012/01/12/a-touching-campaign-to-make-a-bald-barbie/ 120 http://www.today.com/health/barbie-goes-bald-thanks-facebook-campaign-604773
73 kids who look up to her by including diversity into their production, like they’ve done thus far by going along with the changing societies through the years.
“You’ve got a sick child, there’s nothing worse in the world. All of a sudden a child that’s gone through treatment can say, ‘wow, I’m normal, there’s Barbies out there like me […] I think having an image of a bald child or bald adult […] does promote a positive message in the mainstream […] Barbie is clearly in the mainstream."121 Apart from improving their company’s image, there are other ways Barbie can improve its sales, by studying thoroughly the market they want to launch they product in, with marketers tools such as the Pestel, by drawing a SWOT to make sure it actually makes sense for them to launch their products in this market and to know exactly what types of products they should market in a particular market. They shouldn’t market a stereotypical product from their own culture and cross their fingers that it will be as successful as it is in their market, they should consider differences in societies, what foreign little girls actually want… They should listen to their consumers.
Another way they could improve their sales is by making less gendered products, making it more gender neutral so that even feminist girls or none girlie girl can relate to the dolls, it shouldn’t be the kind of toys that other make fun of if you play with them. Also, they should re-do their dolls so she doesn’t look as skinny and unrealistic. They should still produce it for girls who want them but like they have a variety of range when it comes to skin or hair colors they should allow girls to choose a body type – why not make an overweight or small Barbie so little girls can pick the doll they would like to play with instead of the skinny ones Mattel picked for them. The main scandal Barbie had to weather and still do, is about the unrealistic body their product has, so they should listen and make a variety of dolls – just like we have a variety of body types in society, we should also be able to find that type of products in toy aisles.
121 http://www.today.com/health/barbie-goes-bald-thanks-facebook-campaign-604773
74 Also as a way to re-launch and revitalize the brand I would create a lifestyle line – like the Bratz doll did, they should try to create a line of dolls showing different interests and package in different colors so kids can pick the one they like. They should also launch a celebrity line in
China, like they do in the U.S with movie stars and like they did in India, why not market a
Barbie doll that looks like a famous and well-liked Chinese star? She would be the perfect role model since the star reputation would already have established her image. That would ensure sells. I find they had the right strategy when they came up with the Monster High collection since it followed the current market trends for vampires and zombies after the success of the Twilight
Franchise and Vampire Diaries.
‘Mattel should be given credit […] by extending its brand in terms of both new positioning and regional expansion. That was smart. Unfortunately it didn’t execute properly in the design of the products or the location of the store’122.
“ While emerging markets tend to have big, young populations, American toy companies such as Mattel and Hasbro have yet to turn them into large profit centers […] Barbie, for example, had a bit of a botched debut in China”123
They also need to figure out a better way to launch their product in China and turn this country into large profit – new customers would definitely help the brand and its sales.
Mattel should expand their products, change their designs and consider where to sell them. They should also try to launch an American Barbie collection – in synch with what they did with the
American Dolls collection, they should use that to try to market it in different countries, like a
French doll collection, a Chinese Doll collection – only like they did for the American Dolls they shouldn’t use stereotypes but actually do their research and try to market it the way kids want it.
122 http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html 123 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2013/06/05/barbie-wants-to-make-it-big-in-bombay/
75 Another way to improve their brand would be to allow kids to customized and make their very own doll, like Build a Bear did or like they do themselves with the American Girls – they are so successful because kids can make them their own by customizing them the way they want, looking like them or looking like they want. This option shouldn’t only be for the internet dolls but also for the real product – nowadays people like to make things their own so no one can have the same one.
76
Conclusion
In order to ensure a brand’s success experimentation might be the key – see the response and learn for next time what could be done differently. This is what Barbie needs to do next time around, they need to learn from the epic failure of launching a stand-alone store in Shanghai – they need to act differently next time on many aspects we have seen here: Better estimate the best location (no big cities), their target, how to reach their intended targets, the Chinese culture
(cute over sexy), the gender differences and how it differs in societies. Also, not launching a big store directly, rather being present in small stores where brand exposure can be ensured. Most importantly they need to achieve once again what they did 53 years ago with Barbie and more recently in India – they have to establish a brand image, share a history and make sure their doll becomes an Icon and part of a child’s childhood and happy memories. Barbie needs to get rid of their ethnocentric view and not overgeneralize everything according to their own culture and values – the key result of this study? Listen to the market before acting and make the product what the society wants not what they think it wants according to a biased view of the market. I think Barbie needs to be more accessible to little girls, their next move should be allowing girls to customize the doll they want – like they are doing through the American girls line. They should also diversify their Barbie looks, not only in appearance and looks – mainly because they are already doing that – but in body types, not everyone wants to play with a skinny and unrealistic doll.
‘To keep growing, Mattel needs a steady diet of fresh new hits […]’
77 Along with new Hits, like this citation shows, Mattel should also try to promote their existing golden girl better – they should try to re-launch her image so kids might consider buying her instead of an electronic toy that would only be a hit for couple weeks.
As a follow-up to this current study we could do a study on boy gendered toy such as G.I. Joe and study the gender stereotypes and their influence on marketing more thoroughly – we only studied the surface of the matter here, this study could go on for pages about how marketers could and should use gender in their marketing tactics and how important it is to consider the social stereotypes and what gender roles really mean. Also, to go further in this study we could have compared the females as well as male-gendered toys and how differently they are promoted, marketed and sold. Even the packaging is different, we only mentioned this fact during the gender part of this study, a more thorough work could be done on both girls and boys packaging and products.
Finally to conclude this work, I would like to say what it taught me, this work allowed me to know the brand Barbie better, to see its evolution and the changes it went through. I also saw as to why she was blamed as not having a good influence on little girls by promoting an unrealistic body image – something I knew nothing about or even considered as a kid since for me she didn’t look real anyway. I also learned how gender and colors have to be taken into account as well as sociology theories when it comes to marketing and ensuring the success of a product.
78 Bibliography & References
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80 Websites:
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81 http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2013/07/mattel-barbie-meets-real-life-barbie-in- artists-render.html http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-207_162-2039729.html http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57407196-10391704/mattel-to-manufacture- bald-barbie-doll/ http://www.colormatters.com/color-symbolism/gender-differences http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/06/20/why-china-doesnt-like-barbie-best-buy-or-diy/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2319827/Barbie-3D-model-like-real-woman- waist-HALF-size-average-19-year-old.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2353420/Artist-Nikolay-Lamm-shown-Barbie- look-like-measurements-normal-19-year-old-woman.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2122589/Its-Bald-Barbie-Mattel-produce- hairless-doll-cancer-victims-inspirational-campaign.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308658/How-Barbies-body-size-look-real-life- Walking-fours-missing-half-liver-inches-intestine.html http://www.dontgetmewrong.org/2012/03/barbie-more-than-just-doll-story-of.html http://www.fashion-doll-guide.com/Barbie-Doll-History.html http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/22/barbie-mattel-china-leadership-managing-rein.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2013/04/17/mattels-life-after-barbie-inside-the- new-toys-from-the-worlds-largest-toymaker/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/10/24/why-barbie-stumbled-in-china-and- how-she-could-re-invent-herself/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/04/06/who-decided-that-girls-need- pink-toys-why-gender-marketing-is-a-bad-idea/ http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/01/12/campaign-to-create-bald-and- beautiful-barbie-heats-up-on-social-networking/ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae22d5c0-48b9-11e0-9739- 00144feab49a.html#axzz2YG0N4Uf7 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/03/barbie-in-china-mattel-to_n_171540.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/mattel-to-make-bald-barbie_n_1389552.html http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-ig-barbie-0308-pg,0,7287154.photogallery http://www.marcdolls.ch/engbarbie19592009.html http://www.mattel.com/ http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/08/134363659/shanghai-barbie-palace- closes-doors-as-mattel-changes-tack-in-china http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1883083,00.html http://www.today.com/health/barbie-goes-bald-thanks-facebook-campaign-604773 http://www.unc.edu/~dcderosa/STUDENTPAPERS/childrenbattles/toysrusdenise.htm http://markets.ft.com/research//Markets/Tearsheets/Financials?s=MAT:NSQ&subview= BalanceSheet&period=a https://www.facebook.com/BeautifulandBaldBarbie
82
Thank you for taking the time to read this paper.
Appendix
83 Appendix A
Strength Weaknesses o Famous & well-known brand & image o Didn’t do the right type of marketing o History o No market study – China o Product biography o Unrealistic body image blamed for o Worldwide reputation anorexia o Wide range of products & variety o Limited Target – little girls o High possibility for development & o Declining sales creation of new line o High-end store closed after 2 years o Mattel is the top selling toy brand o Products look to American, too sexy, worldwide not cute enough, etc. for certain o Mattel has other lines than Barbie to markets. keep on selling o Culturally biased o Fashion icon and seen as female ideal o Gendered o Scandals on product image and biased stereotypes it showcases (gender roles, skinny look, etc.)
Opportunities Threats o Emerging economy in new countries – o High competition high potential of sales in emerging & o Development of electronic toys – new market electronic era o Development of the middle class o Fast development of the market worldwide o Kids are not as interested in plastic toys o Wide space for innovations and new anymore - electronics products opportunities given their o Difficulty in knowing the countries’ reputation and revenues trends and values when it comes to female image o High adaptation needed of the products depending on the society
84 Appendix B – Some Barbie products:
85 Appendix C – Real life size Barbie
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