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Chinese girls just not into Barbie
A woman checks out dolls at Barbie's flagship store in Shanghai
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TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: Over the years, Santa's had quite a few Barbie dolls on his list.
But the brand's been struggling for market share with rival dolls such as Bratz. Now it seems parent company Mattel is facing another problem -- on the other side of the planet. Here's Marketplace Shanghai correspondent, Scott Tong.
Scott Tong: The Barbie flagship store sits on Shanghai's main shopping street, the equivalent of Fifth Avenue. But this holiday season, the sales staff outnumber the customers, and there's a lot on sale.
This saleslady hawks Barbie-brand eye shadow. Was $17, now $12. T-shirts are half off.
It's a big comedown from the store's ambitious opening in March. Back then, brand designer Richard Dickson promoted the Barbie-brand wedding dress for real-life brides: $10,000.
Richard Dickson: So you getting married. And oh my God, a Vera wedding dress, how fantastic. If you buy the Barbie Vera Wang wedding dress, you get a collector doll that wears the exact same dress, and we will sculpt that doll in your likeness.
Now, Chinese shoppers seem to have left Barbie at the altar. Parent company Mattel has replaced the store's general manager and revised its sales targets.
Shanghai consultant and seasoned shopper Michelle Wei provides a clue to what went wrong:
Michelle Wei (voice of interpreter): We never played with Barbie dolls growing up. I don't have this sense of, "Wow, Barbie is so beautiful." If I shop for a friend's daughter or my niece, I may buy a doll for them. But me, I'm not so interested.
Plus, hot pink isn't too popular here. Nor is the midriff-revealing Barbie brand clothing.
Shaun Rein at China Market Research thinks Mattel just doesn't "get" young Chinese women.
Shaun Rein: They're a lot more immature. They like cute, not pure sexy, halter top, see-through. That's not really popular in this market. The young, girlish-type of models do a lot better.
Point is, just because something sells in Malibu doesn't mean it'll work in China. Youth market researcher Mary Bergstrom:
Mary Bergstrom: For brands to be successful in China, you need to do a little bit of ego checking at the door. So whatever your brand has accomplished outside of China isn't necessarily what you bring into China.
Bergstrom thinks this struggling store is fixable -- so long as long as Barbie the brand puts on her glasses, does her China homework and updates her look once more.
In Shanghai, I'm Scott Tong for Marketplace.
Barbie has to adopt Chinese culture first, then, Chinese girls will be able to make connections with Barbie.
so far, mattel has not come up with any good designs to catch Chinese customers. the Chinese Barbie (released in late 90s) looks pure ugly in Chinese girls' eyes, the recent release "Empress of golden blossom" wears Japanese Slippers, gee!
It's a similar story in Japan. Cute, not sexy is the key. And there simply isn't a market for fashion dolls in any case. Big brand-owning corps need to as the writer says leave their ego at the door and either do better research or be prepared to start humbly and put some time into developing the brand.
Consider that the inventor of Barbie is known to have insisted that the doll have a full bust so that girls could grow up proud of their womanly figures (I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it). Then consider the sizes, shapes, and attitudes of women in china. Yes, they can be trendy and sexy as any women, but busty is not a word I would associate with women in Chinese society. Did Mattel do _any_ research before sending the dolls over there? Weird!
I find it funny that Mr. Rein would label young Chinese women or their taste in dolls to be “a lot immature†just because they don’t prefer “pure sexy, halter top and see-through†dolls with disproportionally large chest, frightfully constricted waist and chopstick sharp legs. One would think that there are more suitable measurements for maturity.
