Barbie's growing pains as American girl culture goes global

Barbie: Growing Pains as the American Girl Goes Global

Barbie is one of the most common toys in all of the United States. but, as she bean to go global, Mattel was forced to change its strategy and try new ways to sell the famous doll in brand new worldwide markets. In its attempt to capture these new markets, Mattel thought global but began to act local, saw cultural difficulties with the American version of the doll, while at the same time continuing Barbie's reign as a complete American icon. However, in order to further capture new, less affluent markets, Mattel should reconsider price structures which have been threatening sales in particular areas.

60% of all of Mattel's income comes from the United States, (AUTHOR, 143). This means that the American market is essentially the chunk of Mattel's Barbie sales. However, with a growing market available to them, Mattel is beginning to change its marketing strategies to fit a global market. Today, Barbie is sold in over 150 countries all over the globe, making the doll the most famous toy in the world, generating the most revenue, (143). The manufacturer of al Barbie dolls is Mattel, and has since become the largest toy manufacturer in the world. In fact, the sales of the dolls alone make up about 20% of Mattel's entire gross income.

However, many newer toys are beginning to take some of the massive percentages away from the long reigning champion Mattel. In the United States the new Bratz doll has gained a percentage of market control. In many other nations around the world, smaller more ethnic dolls are becoming more popular at the behalf of Mattel's previous rule of the market. The general appearance of Mattel's famous doll has changed drastically since its first debut. This is in order to capture new markets like the Middle East which have offered up their own ethnic competition to Barbie's Americanized style. Mattel has incorporated newer Barbies in order to appeal to a variety of markets. In 1968, the first African-American Barbie was introduced into the American market, (143). This aimed at capturing a market previously unavailable to the Barbie image of past generations. Mattel has also incorporated Hispanic and Asian Barbie dolls to continue its success in the field of multiculturalism. In order to continue this success through a variety of dolls to meet various cultural requirements, Mattel has also ensured themselves further success outside of their major markets such as Europe and the United States. Even in Central Europe, Mattel marketed a Barbie called the "Friendship Barbie," which was less flamboyant and a more subdued version of its Western counterpart.