Why Mattel's House of Barbie Failed in China
This paper examines why Mattel's six-story House of Barbie in Shanghai, opened in 2009 and closed just two years later, failed to capture the Chinese consumer market. The analysis covers the specific market problems Mattel encountered, including competition from generic doll producers and a lack of brand loyalty. It then explores six cultural dimensions that contributed to the failure: values and attitudes, gender roles, polite behavior expectations, communication styles, the primacy of education, and differing views on emotion. The paper concludes with recommendations for how Mattel might better position itself to reach Chinese consumers by appealing to the aspirations of the rising middle class.
- Introduction: Overview of the House of Barbie's failure
- Problems Mattel Faced: Market competition, strategy, and misjudged demand
- Six Cultural Issues and Mattel's Performance: Values, gender, communication, and education gaps
- Recommendations and Conclusion: Strategy for reaching Chinese middle-class consumers
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What makes this paper effective
- It grounds its argument in a concrete, well-documented business case — the closure of the $30 million House of Barbie — giving the cultural analysis real-world stakes.
- It systematically addresses six cultural dimensions (values, gender, politeness, communication, education, and emotion), providing an organized framework for a multi-factor failure analysis.
- It ends with a forward-looking recommendation rather than simply cataloguing failures, demonstrating applied analytical thinking.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates cross-cultural business analysis by mapping abstract cultural variables onto a specific corporate misstep. Rather than treating Mattel's failure as a simple business error, it identifies the underlying cultural assumptions — such as equating consumer preference with cultural identification — and shows how those assumptions failed in a non-Western context. This technique of diagnosing cultural blind spots is central to international marketing scholarship.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief introduction that frames the business failure and previews its argument. It then separates the analysis into two distinct blocks: market-level problems (competition, flagship strategy, market dynamics) and cultural-level problems (six named dimensions). A short concluding section synthesizes the findings and pivots to strategic recommendations. This two-part analytical structure — market then culture — keeps the argument clear and manageable.
Introduction
In 2009, Mattel opened a six-story House of Barbie in Shanghai, expecting it to serve as an enormous hub for an emerging market in China. However, just two years later, Mattel was forced to close the doors on the $30 million facility. This paper explains why Mattel failed to make an impact with its House of Barbie in Shanghai, examining the problems the company faced going in, which it failed to sufficiently consider, and how those problems might have been overcome.
The main points examined here are the specific market problems that Mattel faced by opening its store in China, as well as the causes of the failure in terms of values and attitudes, gender differences, polite behavior expectations, forms of communication, the importance of emotion, and education. The final section focuses on recommendations. In short, the American company expected Asian culture to embrace a Western icon that had no legitimate roots in Chinese culture. Though the doll was popular, it did not hold the same significance for young Chinese girls as it did for young American girls (Wang, 2012). The first thing Mattel should have done before opening the store was establish a deeper cultural foundation for Barbie within the Chinese consumer market.
Problems Mattel Faced
Mattel faced a number of problems from the outset. First, it was essentially competing with itself, as Barbie dolls were already sold in China and knock-offs could easily be purchased at a much cheaper price. Children did not care whether their doll was authentic, which meant Mattel faced competition from generic producers and had not established brand loyalty among the adult consumers purchasing for their children. It completely misunderstood its target market, assuming Chinese consumers were as Westernized as Americans simply because they bought Barbie dolls. China was not the West: consumers liked the dolls but easily substituted them with generic models because no brand loyalty existed for authentic products.
Another problem was that Mattel did not have a sound justification for its flagship store in Shanghai. The fanfare surrounding the opening was more impressive than the actual business it generated. The entire concept of a flagship store was misguided from the start, as it was not something that could culturally appeal to the average Chinese consumer. Mattel faced a serious culture clash by jumping ahead and anticipating a market for its products that simply did not exist at any level justifying a $30 million facility (Voigt, 2012).
Finally, Mattel failed to understand the dynamics of the Chinese market. It was not a market in which Western iconic goods could be embraced as though they represented China's own past. In America, Barbie had been glorified and glamorized effectively in the media to the point that she had become firmly embedded in the American consciousness — the image of the modern American woman, an expression of feminism and confidence. In China, however, Barbie had never represented Chinese womanhood. By leaping in with both feet, Mattel failed to adequately gauge the divide between China's market realities and its own ambitions.
References
Burkitt, L. (2013, November 7). Mattel gives Barbie a makeover for China. The Wall Street Journal.
Rose, I. (2014, November 26). Can Barbie conquer China? BBC News.
Voigt, K. (2012, November 21). What do Chinese consumers want? Not Barbie. CNN.
Wang, H. (2012, October 24). Why Barbie stumbled in China and how she could reinvent herself. Forbes.
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