2009 will be Barbie's 50th year on planet earth – that’s quite an achievement for a plastic doll!
Barbie has survived an ever growing competitive market over the past half century and has adapted well to keep at the top throughout her existence, from the introduction of her dream house, infamous boyfriend Ken, Latino and African American Barbie and all of the accessories a plastic doll could ever dream of. But as you would anticipate, competition is growing fiercer and Barbie is once again having to adapt to the changing market to keep popular with the children of the world.
It’s a tough market having to appeal to the new generation of girls time and time again as your existing customers grow up and leave your marketplace. Maybe it’s the growth of all things digital that have had an impact on Barbie; after all her 2007 sales growth was 1% in comparison to the Bratz 8%. Don’t get me wrong, Barbie has become digital with the launch of her interactive website www.Barbie.com in 2001 and her debut animated movie ‘Barbie In The Nut Cracker’ and in 2007 she established an online virtual community www.BarbieGirls.com plus video games; however the Bratz are taking it one step further with fully embracing all things digital which are no doubt instrumental in the market growth they have achieved in comparison to Barbie – and lets face it, technology is the way forward. Nowadays kids have Nintendo DS Lites, iPods and mobile phones to play with rather than the conventional (if not rather boring) plastic doll that previous generations had.
So here we are 50 years down the line and she’s looking good with age, but how long will it last? For me the question mark over the future success of Barbie is not so much how she embraces the digital world, but more so how the market continues to embrace her. Lets face it, she’s a size zero blonde with a complexion most would kill for and is perceived as a bit of an airhead (sorry Barbie!). Then you have the Bratz with their edgy fashion sense, television programme and attitude to boot – slightly more in tune with todays kids I’m thinking. I can’t for the life of me imagine an evolution resulting in Barbie tossing her tiara to the side and adopting a rougher/edgier look – and to be quite frank I hope that this doesn’t happen. However if the gap between the kids of today and Barbie continues to increase, what option does she have?
