Word: mattell
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...Since then, Barbie's parent company Mattel has sold more than 1 billion copies of its hit toy by cultivating its wholesome image, making it as popular with American kids as it is safe for parents. But the toy industry has been changing. Girls are trading in traditional favorites for video games at younger ages while tweens flock to hipper dolls like Bratz, which launched in 2001 and quickly chewed into Barbie's market share. Mattel last year won a copyright-infringement case against Bratz owner MGA Entertainment, but that didn't change the fact that, over the past five...
...Mattel isn't about to give up on one of the industry's most enduring success stories. But it is breaking out the marketing Botox. To revitalize the line, the world's largest toy company is not only adding some edge to Barbie's nonthreatening image, it is pitching Barbie-branded merchandise to a wider customer base - adults - and ramping up its overseas sales efforts, starting with the potentially vast China market, by opening dedicated Barbie concept stores (think Nike Store, but exceedingly pink). (See pictures of China's wild side...
...sense of just how far Mattel is deviating from script requires a trip to the retail district in downtown Shanghai. There, on March 6, the company plans to open a 38,000-sq.-ft. (3,500 sq m) House of Barbie - the first of its kind in the world. This is nothing like the Main Street toy shop of yesterday. To enter the eight-story showpiece space, customers pass through a pink neon-lit tube, where the prerecorded sound of giggling girls grows progressively - some might say demonically - louder. After registering for a Barbie passport, visitors can get their hair...
...With adult clothing, pricey collector's dolls and a pickup bar, the store sends a clear signal that Mattel intends to seduce an older demographic. This isn't as crazy as it may seem. In Asia, the Barbie brand is not deeply entrenched, so grown-ups are less likely to automatically dismiss it as kids' stuff. Besides, Asians don't necessarily put away childish things as they age. Collecting toys such as Hello Kitty merchandise well into adulthood is common. "Asian culture loves cute," says Richard Dickson, general manager of the Barbie brand. "They're much more comfortable with character...
...Scrabble soap opera went viral earlier this year when both Hasbro and Mattel filed lawsuits against two brothers from Calcutta for launching "Scrabulous," their own online version of the popular word game. Created in 2006 to waste time and wage distant linguistic battles, Scrabulous eventually became the most popular application on Facebook, attracting more than 500,000 players each day to the social-networking site. But the brothers, Jayant and Rajat Agarwalla, had a quick and clever response to the accusations of copyright infringement. Their newly dubbed "WordScraper" now features a malleable board that, if one feels so inclined...