On March 7, 2009, two days before the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Barbie doll, Mattel Launches Barbie Store in Shanghai. This is a six-storey building and 36 000m2 entirely devoted to the world of Barbie doll. Mattel seeks girls, but also adults, with 1,600 products on sale, including clothes and a 10,000 dollar wedding dress, a spa, a hair and nail salon, a restaurant, a cocktail bar ( to sip a Barbietini a Malibu Barbie or Bikinitini) with karaoke and DJ because, according to an official of the Barbie Store, "Barbie want to talk to Ken, you must have a space for it." Moreover, customers could even meet Barbie and Ken in the flesh:
Mattel has been working for three years on this project. According to sources, it would have …show more content…
This is why we chose Shanghai, the most modern city and more fashionable. "
Two years later, Mattel closes Barbie Store in Shanghai. The Barbie-flagship sank in China, sales have stagnated, attendance dropped to transform the Barbie Store "ghost town". Clearly, Mattel lost his bet to anchor the Barbie brand in the Chinese environment. This failure is due to a series of cross-cultural blunders for lack of knowledge of the Chinese context, even by overconfidence in the cultural hegemony of the Barbie …show more content…
Because it is indicative of a focus on what the city of Shanghai meant in the eyes of those responsible for Mattel (cosmopolitan and ultra-modern megalopolis, symbolic city of the XXI century incarnation of conquering China, etc.). Mattel did he not adjusted its marketing offensive based on representations projected on the Shanghai Barbie store and designed accordingly, not based on a detailed understanding of its client, the reality of the toy market in China and Chinese cultural context?
Still, that from March 2009 some question. Abuse of pink color does he not risk scaring off men? No problem, according to a consultant working on the project Barbie Store: "Where there will be a Barbie, there will be a Ken. "But the Barbie doll she is not" too blonde, too expensive "(up to $ 200)? If the doll is already selling in China, although girls are content quite similar dolls or imitations sold between 1 and 3 dollars, while parents are "horrified" by the price of Barbie.
Some China experts were very skeptical about the chances of success of Mattel. More than a year before the closure of Barbie Store, the failure of the latter had been announced by Shaun Rein of China Market Research
Mattel has been working for three years on this project. According to sources, it would have …show more content…
This is why we chose Shanghai, the most modern city and more fashionable. "
Two years later, Mattel closes Barbie Store in Shanghai. The Barbie-flagship sank in China, sales have stagnated, attendance dropped to transform the Barbie Store "ghost town". Clearly, Mattel lost his bet to anchor the Barbie brand in the Chinese environment. This failure is due to a series of cross-cultural blunders for lack of knowledge of the Chinese context, even by overconfidence in the cultural hegemony of the Barbie …show more content…
Because it is indicative of a focus on what the city of Shanghai meant in the eyes of those responsible for Mattel (cosmopolitan and ultra-modern megalopolis, symbolic city of the XXI century incarnation of conquering China, etc.). Mattel did he not adjusted its marketing offensive based on representations projected on the Shanghai Barbie store and designed accordingly, not based on a detailed understanding of its client, the reality of the toy market in China and Chinese cultural context?
Still, that from March 2009 some question. Abuse of pink color does he not risk scaring off men? No problem, according to a consultant working on the project Barbie Store: "Where there will be a Barbie, there will be a Ken. "But the Barbie doll she is not" too blonde, too expensive "(up to $ 200)? If the doll is already selling in China, although girls are content quite similar dolls or imitations sold between 1 and 3 dollars, while parents are "horrified" by the price of Barbie.
Some China experts were very skeptical about the chances of success of Mattel. More than a year before the closure of Barbie Store, the failure of the latter had been announced by Shaun Rein of China Market Research