Then and Now: The Evolution of Brand Barbie
Stuff & Things #26
Hi 👋
Welcome to Stuff and Things! In today’s post, we’re discussing the brand evolution of Barbie through its 61-year history.
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💥Pop Quiz time💥
Ruth Handler, an American businesswoman and co-founder of Mattel Inc. was created the first Barbie doll.
Who helped her design it?
An engineer who worked at the Pentagon
Handler's pre-teen daughter
A chef who was also an avid doll collector
If you guessed #1 - you’re absolutely right. Jack Ryan began his career as an engineer, making missiles for the Pentagon, but was eventually hired by Mattel for his "space-age savvy" and knowledge of materials.
Handler took inspiration from ‘Bild Lilli’ - a German comic strip character that later became an R-rated doll and an adult gag gift. A similar-looking Barbie debuted at the American Toy Fair in 1959.
Barbie’s Beginnings
When Barbie was introduced in the 1950s, it was first marketed to parents. However, her mature body didn’t sit well with women, who were accustomed to buying dolls that taught young girls the skills required for being a mother.
Mattel quickly changed their audience from adults to pre-teens. It became the first company to broadcast TV commercials for children on The Mickey Mouse Club. The doll was positioned as a ‘model of teenage innocence’ that projected what every little girl ‘wanted to be’ - pretty and popular. By investing in TV commercials on children’s shows, the doll became #1 on every girl’s wishlist, leaving parents with little choice but to buy them. This strategy worked - in its first year, the company hit record sales of 351,000 dolls.
Barbie's outfits reflected society’s attitudes towards women. It focused on wedding gowns and dresses related to hygiene and homemaking. Aiming to expand her wardrobe, Mattel created new careers for the doll - registered nurse, flight attendant, and fashion model to name a few. Women and children embraced this positioning:
Unlike baby dolls, Barbie did not teach nurturing. Many women who played with the doll credit Barbie with providing an alternative to restrictive 1950s gender roles. Outfitted with career paraphernalia, the doll was a model for financial self-sufficiency. (Barbie’s résumé includes, among other things, airline pilot, astronaut, doctor, Olympic athlete, and United States presidential candidate.) Nor was the doll defined by relationships of responsibility to men or family. Barbie has no parents or offspring. When in the early 1960s consumers clamoured for a Barbie-scale baby, Mattel did not make Barbie a mother but issued a “Barbie Baby-Sits” playset.
Barbie steadily became a pop culture and fashion icon, generating huge sales for Mattel and eventually making it the biggest toy-maker in the world.
The Decline
As the company continued to grow, strong criticism followed.
New GenX and Millenial parents voiced their displeasure with the image Barbie promoted —a doll that perpetuated gender stereotypes and set unrealistic body standards for young girls.
A babysitter Barbie carried a mini diet book titled “Don’t Eat”
The company released a ‘Teen Talk’ Barbie with pre-recorded messages including “Math Class is tough”
In 1994, researchers in Finland announced that if Barbie were a real woman, she would not have enough body fat to menstruate.
The negative perception impacted business. Sometime after her 50th birthday, sales started to decline. Barbie wasn’t an icon anymore - but a reflection of society’s questionable attitudes towards women. The company soon realized that change was imminent. They had to keep up with technological advances, fierce competition, and millennial mothers.
So what does Barbie stand for today?
Since the 2010s, Barbie has been on a path of reinvention by focusing on two areas - 1) changing the product, and 2) building partnerships that position Barbie as someone who can be ‘anything she puts her mind to’.
In 2014, the President and COO of Mattel Richard Dickson revamped his leadership team and hired people with creative backgrounds to lead several brands. The Head of Design posed one question to the team: “If you could design Barbie today, how would you make her a reflection of the times?” They tackled their biggest criticism first - setting unrealistic beauty standards - by introducing new body types, skin tones, and hair textures.
Next, they asked themselves the question every marketing leader struggles with: “What does the product stand for?”
As much as Mattel has tried to market her as a feminist, Barbie’s famous figure has always overshadowed her business outfits. At her core, she’s just a body, not a character, a canvas upon which society can project its anxieties about body image.
To combat this, the company began to partner with organizations and people to position the doll as championing ‘female empowerment’, with a focus on diversity and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). Barbie partnered with the European Space Agency, Tynker (the gaming platform that helps kids learn to code), and Virgin Atlantic to create dolls as astronauts, engineers, and scientists.
As part of its Shero campaign, the company built dolls to honor real-life heroes including Yara Shahidi, Naomi Osaka, and Adwoa Aboah.
This strategy seems to be working. During the pandemic, parents needed to keep their children away from screens and (re)discovered Barbies. In October 2020, Barbie became the single biggest contributor to Mattel’s growth, bringing in US$532.2 million in gross sales for the brand.
A Long Way to Go
Today, the Barbie range includes 176 dolls, 9 body types, 35 skin tones, and 94 hairstyles. She has over 200 inspirational careers. But it’s going to be a while before she becomes synonymous with ‘empowerment’. The company is still working on changing perceptions from negative to neutral. And the question remains - Will this identity evolution turn into an identity crisis?
To reinvent Barbie, Mattel needs to have a vision for the future of women and shape society's perceptions towards them today. Very much like the original doll, it will have to be ahead of its time and reflect what we aspire to be, in a way that's inclusive, realistic, and true to its roots.
Until next week,
Shrikala