A BARBIE DOLLS 2013 CASE 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.