Barbie: The American Girl Goes Global

Barbie: The American Girl Goes Global

1. Describe Mattel’s global marketing strategy for Barbie and assess its success.

Mattel pushed Barbie in to Global market by adapting fashion and culture trends to it product. Difficulties for Mattel to enter global market are culture, barriers and competitors. Mattel faced problem in the Middle East about religious and social grounds. Parents and religious leaders think Barbie is odd with their culture value and Arab girl’s reality is different from Barbie. In Brazil, Barbie has competition from local rival which has lower price and more realistic. However, Mettel found that they did not need a total overhaul their product to be successful, For example, Mettel launched Barbie with a painted head spot and dressed in Sari with universal Barbie in India.

Moreover, Mettel fought competitors in Japan by joining forces with Bandai, Japan’s largest toy company. They adapted Barbie to Japanese culture and realized that Japan’s market prefers well known American Barbie. Finally, partnership strategies had been eliminated but still Mettel had a huge success with 31% of total revenue. In brief, Global strategies are partnerships that adapt it product to local taste,