Paper Brainstorm: Barbie

For my paper, I’m planning on writing a case study on the Barbie brand. The reason I’m interested in this topic is because I’ve always loved Barbie and I collected vintage Barbies when I was younger. I’m also very interested in this brand because I think it is one of the best examples of art imitating life. By this I mean that Barbie has been around for 50 years (in fact she just celebrated her 50th birthday) but she is contentiously changing with the times. I’m also interested in the fact that even her occupations and hobbies change based on the status of women change. When she first came about in the 1959, it was not as acceptable for women to be a part of the workforce as it is now. However, as times have changed, there have been Barbie doctors, veterinarians, scuba divers, ect.
Within my paper, I’m going to examine these changes Barbie has undergone over her 50 years of existence. I will look into how Mattel has researched the trends and values of its current customer base and created a Barbie fit for the times. I’m thinking about breaking up the time periods into decades or major social movements. I will also examine how Mattel has positioned Barbie in the market compared to the other toys and try to find out the secret for their great success at making Barbie not just a toy but an iconic figure recognizable to people in every age group and in every country.
Another main part of my paper will be looking at the Barbie brand’s current status. I will examine more thoroughly the current marketing strategies of Barbie and what Mattel is changing to satisfy the needs of the current customer base. For example, I will look at how Barbie is becoming a bit sexier to keep up with kids who are growing up a lot faster than they did 20 years ago. I will also look into how Barbie is competing with new brands of dolls like Bratz. This competition is interesting because for the most part, Barbie has maintained a classy image even though she has gone through edgier phases. On the contrary, Bratz dolls send a completely different message to children (just look at the brand name). Thus, I will examine how Mattel is dealing with this competition as Bratz dolls have been widely popular. Is Mattel going to follow Bratz’s lead and become more like them, or retain their image? Also, because Mattel is currently in a lawsuit with the owner of the Bratz brand, I may look at this too (however, I’m not sure if this will completely flow with the focus of my paper).
Another interesting part of Barbie’s current status in the market is how she is competing with the other types of toys children and tweens are using. When Barbie first started, she was the “it” toy because she was more modern than the cloth baby dolls of the time periods before. However, now kids have so many more options on the types of toys they play with because technology has advanced so much. With the internet, video games, and other high-tech games of today, how will Mattel continue to grab the attention of kids? It seems like it will be a challenge for Mattel to do this as kids are using their imagination less and less as they have access to so many toys that imitate life so well. Are kids in 10 years going to want to play pretend with plastic dolls that can’t even move or speak on their own?
I think I need to narrow my focus down a bit more because I think I will be able to do this better once I’ve researched more. However, I have found one really interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about how Mattel is giving its marketing strategies a makeover for Barbie’s 50th birthday. The article is called “Building an Edgier Barbie to Revive Franchise Sales” and can be found on the Wall Street Journal website.