Here's a pretty good review from CIO Insight about how Barbie, despite having all of the information they needed, still made a number of mistakes that lead directly to a significant loss of market share. There's many sections to the article, so be sure to click on the link below to read it all.
Mattel's world-class competitive intelligence system crunches sales reports, children's play-pattern studies, and even findings on where kids go online.The system picked up signals that young girls, heavily influenced by the gyrations of pop star Britney Spears, wanted a doll bolder and brasher than Mattel's pert-and-pale Barbie. Yet, today, MGA's hip-hop cool Bratz threaten Barbie's reign as queen of the dolls.
Worldwide sales of Bratz reached $700 million last year --growing more than 45% over the previous 12 months, while sales of Barbie have stagnated. Barbie's share of the fashion doll market has shrunk from 75% in 2000 to roughly 60% today, and new rivals -- Janay and Friends from Integrity Toys, Girls on the Go from Tolly Tots, and the Princess line from Disney -- are all crowding into the doll aisle.
Mattel had the means to see it coming and act decisively to protect its franchise. What happened?
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