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I never owned a Barbie, though I think my older sister did. I was a big fan of the 12” G.I. Joe figure with real clothes, velour-covered head, and clunky plastic boat with plastic guns that only made noise when you went "ptchoo ptchoo" with your own mouth, however. Unfortunately, G.I. Joe is not the subject of the blog today – though I will take a moment to internally reminisce about the old days. Ahhh… Good times.Alright. The brand I’m poking today is Barbie. I guess this is the first official poking via the blog, since my Realtor rant wasn’t really against the brand, but against the practices of the individual practitioners under the brand heading.
So, why Barbie? Because she was written about in Harpers Magazine this month. (Sorry, no direct link to the article because they apparently want you to buy the magazine and not freeload.) You can see comments *about* the article here. The portion of interest to me begins near the top - where Barbie begins to lose limbs. Why would girls around the world (or at least in Bath) be ripping apart this doll? Oddly (or perhaps unsurprisingly, given the nature of this blog) I believe it is branding. The probable purpose of the doll was initially to act as a visual role model – always proper, always high-heeled, always skinny. Barbie could not physically do anything wrong – she couldn’t bend enough to get nasty. Bad things started happening for Barbie somewhere around the 70s (but don’t quote me on this – I was only just gaining consciousness then) when ERA started to mean something outside of baseball. Women did not want to be represented by the skinny stiletto-heeled darling. I even remember the day in the mid-seventies my own mom talked to my older sister about Barbie and how she wasn’t a real representation of women. My basic takeaway from the conversation – that Barbie was a bimbo and not someone she should try to emulate (or whatever word a six-year-old would use instead of “emulate”.) The reaction from Mattel/Barbie was rather predictable. “Let’s get us some positive role models!” They made Barbie good at math, an astronaut, a teacher, a college student (attending at least a dozen schools, no less,) a world traveler, and more. Interesting concept, but Barbie wasn’t really ‘built’ for the types of activities she was dressed for. Sprinting, perhaps (since heels don’t touch the ground in that sport) but I’m guessing that even in low-gee environments she’d need to stand flat-footed eventually. I’m going to stop the brand poking at this point today to ask a question. Who is Barbie really marketed to today? If the backbone of branding is based on specialization, then we should be able to identify a limited set of target consumers/buyers for the brand. Any ideas? My guesses:
As for the violence aspect mentioned in the article... I was going to write today’s entry entirely about that, but about two paragraphs in I realized that the violence was not necessarily a function of the brand focus, but in fact a function of the company's inability to create products for the end user. It is the lack of focus on the right market that (in my opinion) is causing the girls to rip the dolls to shreds. Why treasure something that doesn’t represent what you want to be, is completely disposable, and comes apart in seconds, but is presented in a box dressed exactly the way you are? It’s about as genuine as me dressing up in heavy chains, a muscle shirt, and pants that say to the world “I just wear a belt to keep my waistband above my knees.” No one would be fooled into thinking I was a gangsta. The little girls aren't fooled either... Obscure closing thought: It doesn't matter what sort of fun and colorful label you put on a hot cup of coffee, nor how much an adult may like it - if you give it to a kid they're not going to use it the way you want them to. A sip, maybe two - and then the coffee will be poured on the carpet - or more likely on the little brother. Give them grape soda and, barring a visit from Murphy and his law or sibling rivalry, you'll have to surgically remove the kid's tongue from the bottle after they try to get the last drop. At the core of the brand there's got to be an identity that connects with the target - and Barbie just doesn't have it today. |
