1. Describe Mattel’s global marketing strategy for Barbie and assess its success. Does management demonstrate that it understands and embraces the needs to “think global and act local”? Mattel’s success should be attributed to its representation of American culture, and its Curated Consumption of its products, for example: when parents buy a Barbie doll to the children, it is easily acceptable price position and start , but after purchase it, the parents are bound to face follow-up to buy other clothing products linked to the Barbie doll, thereby it is enable to expand business ; in the aspects of global Marketing, at the initial period, Mattel adopted the regional strategy is highly successful.
Differentiate the strategy by the different local or regional cultural, make products more easily blend into the local culture, so that consumers accepted it, especially in the toy market, parents buy the toys can be considered as it represent the parents identify this culture and their expectations of their children; in the other hand, the children often attracted by the trend of popular culture, the change of culture has a profound impact on the development of the market of toys.
Not only their successful localized strategy , but also many of its products are produced in China Mainland, because of the advantages of its low labor costs, Mattel can increase its global operations advantage, therefore, the appropriate Global Marketing strategy help Mattel achieves their leading position of today’s toy’s market.
In the globalized international marketing environment, we should not only focus on one single way of marketing strategies, because of the difference in the local marketing environment, the Marketing strategy of the same product for different region should be as independent producers by the market demand and other factors and to the use of cross-compound, in other words, “there is no prefect one, just only the most appropriate one”.
This marketing strategy can reduce the obstacles to achieve success. 2. Approximately 90 percent of the world’s children live in developing countries. Despite recent negative sales trends, Barbie remains the most popular toy in the world. What must Mattel do to capitalize on the strategic strength of the Barbie brand and take advantage of market opportunities around the globe?
Most of the developed countries have to face of the an aging population, and low birth rate problem, in the same time, the economic growth in developing countries and also increased of the population, the core of toy market need to divert, the reputation of its brands lead the way to get into the market more easily. in nowadays, thanks for the development of network, the transfer of information has easier than ever. The developing country is easier to accepted American culture.
And Mattel’s Barbie dolls represent their American culture should be able to take place in the developing countries, but American culture is clearly in the characteristics of high integration, the Mattel did not use it very well, by Global Marketing, the Barbie should not just live in the American culture, but also can take advantage of the local culture, developing the related products for the Barbie as the extension, or even to extend in the region Another representative products, integrated into the regional culture to the status symbol, in addition, the clothing and diet can be associated with strong local color, for example: Barbie can develop their foreign friends, their foreign friends represent the local culture, but also can develop on behalf of the local culture of Barbie dressed in special clothing or makeup, these are the opportunity to start, and even made to open the process of its development in the country or special construction can also be become another direction, but in the developing countries, Mattel has faced problems of distribution, this is the first problem it need to think about, the joint venture could be a good choice for Mattel, except to solving distribution channels problem, it also easier to get into the local cultural 3. How important is culture in dictating children’s toy preferences? Will cultural differences result in failure for Mattel as the company faces new competitors in the Middle East?
We think Mattel lost in the Middle East, not only because of marketing strategy factors, but also the differences between the cultural values and the region represented by their products which is too large, or even it’s inacceptable. According to the Mattel’s Barbie, when further American culture his product represents, in a situation where in the area of the Middle East has generally hostile to the United States, as well as the differences in religious belief, its cultural values representative product is much harder purchased by local consumers, which can obviously be proved that the culture has an important influence to the product and the Marketing. As the article mentioned, some people in the Middle East even regard the Barbie as the same level of bomb, they worry about these products would influence the children’s cultural values.
People in the Middle East believe generally Koran; the scriptures teach the people diligence, honesty, etc… in addition to Barbie’s blonde hair is out of tune with his body, the Cadillac’s car and handsome boyfriend with the suit and tie is more contrary to their concept of the Koran, could also foresee the resistance encountered by its sales. In the regional sales strategy of the Middle East, those products which have a strong regional differences could be combined and cross-use with the main product Barbie, the product Barbie can take an approach to regional cooperation agency in those areas where have a higher acceptance to foreign countries’ cultures, launch new brands or products to develop the market in those countries where is rejected to it. These are all the directions that Mattel can try to develop.
4. Industry observers often refer to Barbie as “icon”. What does this mean? What should Mattel executives do to turn around sales of Barbie in the United States. Because of the Mattel Barbie’s market share, the reputation, the history of product, it is difficult to ignore their representative in the toy industry and consider as an indicator of the industry. From its development and changes of clothing, we can understand the cultural change and changes of social values in recent years, and its sales can represent the toy industry which is prosperous or recession; by observing the sales of Barbie in a regional area which can be observed that the potential and value of this market. nd because of Barbie’s subject is human-being’s life, this can give the children an extension of dreams and expectations, also showed the changes of this product can be unlimited, as long as the cultural exist differences and sustained evolution, because the topic of Barbie is people, that is why Barbie can be the indicator. In recent years, the sales of Mattel Barbie is continued downswing, the biggest reason is the impact of electronic games and global network development.
We can divide the toy market in two categories: the individual and the collective. In the individual area, the convenience of electronic games and related products updates information, its software cost lower compared with the physical toys, these lead the electronic game has become the most powerful competitors in the individual toys market. oreover, in the collective toys market, along with the popularity of the global network, it give the biggest advantage – the real-time interactivity, beside of it, it is also convenience and easy to play, you just need to download a software and pay for it. In the past, we have to collect all of our friends before we can play with the toys, it is absolutely a disadvantage. In that the popular of electronic games and global network is unstoppable, so why oppose the changes of the environment, why do not follow the trend of conversion and find new business opportunities, such as Mattel’ fashion product acquits a positive feed-back from the market. lso Mattel can also be combined with the game company to create a network exclusively for Barbie games, by the creation of online games or links with physical goods to achieve a significant influence of reputation, or even make the Barbie by full virtualization on the Internet to create a cartoon Barbie, etc. , to achieve coordination and awareness of children and parents. the brand Barbie has created an extraordinary value, how to use these resource and integrate with the development is the key point for the Mattel, after all, from the this case and the reality, it is not difficult to get a fact that the changes of culture have a great influence on this industry.
