How Barbie's 'Imagine The Possibilities' lifted sales and repaired her reputation

This paper explores how Barbie, the Mattel-manufactured children's doll, adopted a new positioning that rejected the identikit image of American beauty that had defined her past, and embraced diversity and aspiration.

How Barbie's 'Imagine The Possibilities' lifted sales and repaired her reputation

Lucy AitkenWarc

Barbie's 'Imagine The Possibilities' film was released in October 2015 and has been the focal point of a wider marketing push that has helped millennial parents and their 3-8 year-old daughters to reconnect with the brand. This has been good news for Barbie's parent company, Mattel: after three years of declining sales and intense competition from Disney's Frozen range, demand for doll brands including Barbie helped the biggest US toy maker's net income rise 20% in the second quarter of 2016. Barbie sales alone are up...

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