Barbie and Mattel Corporation - Term Paper Example

Barbie and Mattel Corporation Creating brand images in the market is in most cases a rigorous exercise that requires business to adopt creative approaches and innovativeness to ensure that products have a leading edge in the market. Fierce competition in the market today makes firms to adopt strategies aimed at creating a competitive edge in the market as an advantage to the firm in a competitive market (Arslan & Altuona, 2010). Creating a brand name serves as the best way to achieve this objective.

This was the main story behind the success of Barbie in Mattel Corporation. Handler and Elliot modeled a success story by taking a different approach in that designing and modeling Barbie differently from other dolls in the market, which are susceptible to fashion and fickleness. Since customers are aware of an existing similar brand in the market, they are more likely to be more attached to a brand extension that provides better utility as compared to a new product (Arslan & Altuona, 2010). The success behind Barbie was that while other dolls were modeled on the prospect of being tender and dependent , Mattel developed a completely different approach of the same dolls by making Barbie to appear independent and having an elaborated adult figure that portrayed compete femininity that many girls of different ages were attracted to or tried to emulate.

This was better enhanced by providing Barbie with different hair styles, mood expressions and different expressions of careers. Barbie according to these aspects became more than a doll in the lives of many young and middle age girls, in that Barbie had a different lovely expression to each age group. This was the story behind creating a brand name in dolls industry that made Barbie to become a lifestyle for many. Though Barbie was hardly a high tech product, it was through innovation that Mattel made the model to be a brand name in the market.

The idea of innovativeness and extensions made the two to adopt a different approach that made the product a brand name in the market. An existing product can be created into a new product through brand extension that is much cheaper as compared to introducing a new product in the market (Arslan & Altuona, 2010). Largely brand extensions provide a better way to making brand recognition and image in venturing new markets (Aaker & Keller, 1990). The idea of extension in brands entails innovation and creativity as was in the case with Barbie that made the product to conquer the market and made a brand name not only with young girls, but in the entertainment sector as well having been used in movies and in music arena.

The quality of a product is of much importance in delivering its utility to customers and in making a brand name (Arslan & Altuona, 2010). Barbie becoming a brand name portrays a high degree of innovativeness as seen from the various designs and features that Barbie has been modeled to present to customers. An important lesson to learn in innovation is that creativity and setting benchmarks for new products are essential in making brand names in the market. Design innovation is closely related to marketing and in developing new products innovativeness is a key to conquer any market with a specific product (Hsu, 2009).

As Hsu (2009) elaborates, innovation incorporates careful integration of the four Ps in marketing; which relate to the product, the place, the price and promotion. Barbie as a product had differentiated features that promoted it to stand in the market despite there being thousands of doll designs. It is therefore the innovativeness that the product portrayed that made it to conquer the market with a storm. Innovation would therefore guarantee making of brand names in the market despite the level of competition in the market.

ReferencesAaker, D.A. and Keller, K.L. (1990), Consumer evaluations of brand extensions. Journal of Marketing. 54(1), 27-41Arslan M. F., & Altuona K.O., (2010). The effect of brand extensions on product brand image. Journal of Product & Brand Management. 19(3), 170-180.Hsu, Y.,(2009). Design innovation and marketing strategy in successful product competition. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. 26(4), 223-236.