Marketing Barbie free essay sample

But very little is known of its business and design aspects of Barbies story. In the 1998 $31 billion toy market, Mattel has nearly $4. 8 billion in sales. Barbie is responsible for more than one-third of those sales. In 1997 alone, Barbie represented 80% of sales in the doll segment. What is it about this doll that makes it such a phenomenon? What are the main factors that have allowed Barbie to dominate the doll market for almost 40 years? How have technology innovation and design strategy influenced product development at Mattel? What kinds of strategies has Mattel used to determine Barbies design and evolution? What approach to design is behind their strategy? This paper points to possible answers to those questions from an outsider point of view. Issues related to design development philosophy, teamwork, technology and innovation are explored. It is important to stress that this paper does not address or consider sociological or anthropological issues related to the doll extensive literature is available from other sources on those subjects. So they must ensure that Barbie is a safe toy and that when kids ask for Barbie their parents will purchase it for them. After deciding that the doll is marketed towards young girls and parents Mattel must then think what does my target market want? This includes the design of the doll, the name Barbie, her packaging and her warranty. Currently Barbie is designed as a young woman with grown up features. Size of doll? Material? The purpose of the design is the idea that Barbie poses as a role model for young girls to look up to. There are a lot of different Barbie’s to choose from with different ethnicities and careers. Barbie is currently packaged in a box with a transparent s in plasticfront and paper containers with a pink Barbie logo. Good that you described packaging – few students did It also includes a toy warranty that comes with all Mattel products. You should also be clear that there are a wide range of products – both doll accessories and products for little girls Pricing: The next step in the marketing mix is how to price your product. Pricing is based on achieving sales goals, maximize profit or to make room for new products. This also true with Barbie, Barbie’s today can go as cheap as eight8 dollars and up. Where did you get this number – on Mattel web site I think $6. 99 and at Amazon as low as $3 There are a lot of new releases of Barbie. The newer versions cost more for example on the Mattel website the new holiday 2012 Barbie costs $39. 99 but interestingly is sold for less at Walmart http://shop. mattel. com/product/index. jsp? productId=13288505 whereas the older not so recent Barbie which is Barbie doll roses cost only $6. 99 http://shop. mattel. com/product/index. jsp? productId=13002205 . To make room for newer products Mattel and distributors will sell their older Barbie’s cheaper but brand new Barbie’s cost more. Again should note wide range of prices for ancillary Barbie products (ex the Barbie car, both for the doll and for little girls) Promotion: After deciding how much the product is the next step is to promote it. Barbie is heavily much promoted. You cannot walk into a department store or pharmacy that sells toys or pharmacy and not see Barbie. Some places where Barbie’s are sold and advertised are Kmart, Walmart,Target, Sears, Jcpenney, CVS, and Toys r us being one of the biggest Barbie sellers. Toys r us has its own private section for Barbie in Times square Manhattan where there is a huge Barbie house that you can walk into, it is a big tourist attraction. There are also the countless Barbie television commercials over the years on TV and the Barbie website where you can play Barbie games and activities. Are ads for Barbie aimed at children or parents? Which medium is used most (tv)? Distribution: The Final step of the Marketing mix is make decisions on where to distribute your product. Barbie is very easy to purchase being that it is sold at any store that sells toys. Along with Toys r us Kmart, Walmart, Target, Sears, Jcpenney, CVS and others there is also the option to buy Barbie online straight from the Mattel website. This section is repetitive to paragraph above – remove info on stores from Promotion section and place here – then elaborate in promotion section on the types of advertising campaigns for Barbie Marketing environment: When all these elements work together it makes marketing more successful. However there are also some aspects of the market environment that will control how the product will sell. Two factors that might affect the sales of Barbie are economic forces and sociocultural forces. Economic forces are the effects of economic conditions on the customers’ ability and willingness to buy your product. This might affect Barbie sales because currently the economy is still at a low point. If parents need to feed their children and pay their bills they might not afford to have that extra cash to buy a Barbie doll. How does Barbie compare in price to other options parents have (for toy purchases? ) Sociocultural forces are influences in culture and society that result in changes of attitudes and lifestyles. Over the years there have been arguments against Barbie saying that she is too grown up and might make young girls want to mature too fast. After this view on Barbie a few parents did not want to purchase it for their daughters. There was also the Middle East where Barbie was banned in a country for her appearance. Overall Mattel does a great Job of Marketing Barbie and implementing the marketing mix.