Marketing Mix of Barbie dolls under the brand name of Mattel. A little description about mattel as a company and then discussion on 4 p's of barbie along with recommendations on how to improve further.

1. Mattel- Barbie Marketing Management Project Submitted By: Anurag Mehra 11BSPHH010989

2. Mattel- Introduction Mattel is a market leader in world toy industry. It was formed in 1945. Its founders were Ruth and Elliott Handler and Harold "Matt" Matson (Mattel is a combination of Elliott and Matt's names). The company started out in wood products and soon branched out into toys.

3. Mattel- Introduction Their very first toy was dollhouse furniture created from wood scraps left over from frame making. Mattel became a household name with parents and children alike with the introduction of Barbie in 1959, at Toy Fair in New York. But by the end of 1960’s, Mattel nearly went bankrupt.

4. Mattel- Introduction However, constant re-invention of Barbie have helped company survive and run successfully till now. In addition to Barbie, Mattel makes popular toys including Hot Wheels, Fisher Price toys including TMX Elmo, and American Girl dolls through their Pleasant Company subsidiary. Mattel is a publicly traded company. Its stock is traded by the NYSE with the symbol MAT. The company is located in Hawthorne, California.

5. Barbie- Introduction Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. Barbie is the figure head of a brand of Mattel dolls and accessories, including other family members and collectible dolls. Ruth Handler got the idea of making an adult doll when she saw her daughter playing with paper dolls. While on a holiday trip to Germany she got the doll exactly as one she wanted called Bild Lilli.

6. Barbie- Introduction Mattel acquired the rights to Bild Lilli doll in 1964 and stopped it’s production. It is estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with Mattel claiming that three Barbie dolls are sold every second. Barbie has appeared in a series of animated films and is a supporting character in Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.

7. Marketing Mix As defined by Mr. Philip Kotler, the set of controllable tactical marketing tools-product, price, place, and promotion- that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market. As said it consists of 4 P’s: Product: Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.

8. Marketing Mix Price: The amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that customers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service. Promotion: The specific blend of promotion tools that the company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and build customer relationships. Place: Place describes the how and the where of taking your product to market. In the place segment of marketing mix you need to make decisions about which distribution channel you will use.

9. Barbie- Product First Ever Barbie in 1959

10. Barbie- Product Barbie as a brand is having a product line as mentioned below: Barbie Dolls. Barbie Accessories. Barbie Clothing. Barbie Dolls: Barbie is, almost universally, 11.5 inches tall, and she has been this size since her inception.

11. Barbie- Product Barbie Accessories: It is offering many kind of accessories for the decoration of Barbie as well as for the normal girls e.g. Barbie’s range of Back-to-School bags which are offered at many retail outlets have created buzz among young girls. Barbie Clothing: The clothing line covers the clothes for the doll. Now as girls like to decorate their dolls, so Barbie came up with the clothing line to exploit the accessories market as well.

12. Barbie- Product Barbie came up with various variants and designs of dolls. To capture Indian market, they launched a new doll in 1982 known as Indian Barbie. It was one of the first “brown” Barbie’s of the International Collection (now known as “Dolls of the World.”).

13. Barbie- Price In comparison to commodities, the prices of toys have always been secondary to the consumers. In the case of Barbie it dominates the doll industry for more than 40 years and several competitors were unable to withstand the popularity of Barbie dolls. Indian market the prices range between `100 to `3000, which indeed is a big variation and also it, shows the huge product mix that they comprise.

14. Barbie- Price They are saving on distribution cost and delivering it to consumers by selling Barbie online. As we have seen the variation in prices of Barbie dolls.

15. Barbie- Promotion Mattel have created Barbie a separate brand and never let the brand image of Barbie effect the brand image of its parent company. It has never followed an aggressive marketing strategy as it has always believed on its brand value. It has always made a fancy packaging to attract young girls. At 50th Anniversary, Barbie has endorsed Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif as their brand ambassador.

16. Barbie- Promotion Katrina Kaif unveiled the new Barbie collection in Lakme Fashion Week in 2009. In LakmeFashion Week, Katrina Kaif dressed up like a Barbie doll to create buzz in media and increase the popularity of the brand. Mattel has awarded “The Shirt Company” (TSC) to retail the Barbie clothing collection among its 3 showrooms.

17. Barbie- Promotion

18. Barbie- Place Barbie dolls do not have their own store and therefore relies on the retailers. They are selling through various online websites. Following are some of them: http://www.infibeam.com/ http://www.indiangifthouse.com/ http://shopping.rediff.com/shopping/index.html http://shopping.indiatimes.com/ http://www.naaptol.com/

19. Barbie- Place Some of the offline selling units of Barbie are mentioned as below: Mom N Me, Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad. New Born Shoppee, Kondpur, Hyderabad. Babie’sWonderland, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. AppisCollection, Madhapur, Hyderabad.

20. Recommendation Promotion Go with aggressive marketing strategy for consumers who do not use computer much. Place Try to capture unorganized sector of Indian retail market as it is having the maximum market share of maximum commodities.

21. Thank You