BarbieA new product pitch by Ruth Handler
A doll who gets to be a grown-up.
Mattel leadership · Hawthorne, 1958
Outfits sold separately. That's the business.
The customer insight
Girls don't play mother. They play grown-up.
Barbara and her friends give their paper dolls jobs, dates and weddings. Nobody plays the baby.
Paper doll wardrobe Cut on the dotted line
- Goes to the office
- Has a date
- Gets married
- Flies to Paris
Who it's for
Three people decide. Only one of them plays.
- The buyer
- MomPays $3. Says yes when her daughter asks for it by name.
- The gatekeeper
- The store’s toy buyerUsually a man. Has not, to his knowledge, played with paper dolls.
The player
The girl who's done with baby dolls
She chooses the doll, names the outfit she wants next, and asks for it every week.
Size: grown-up, someday
Evidence the behavior exists
Girls already buy the wardrobe. They just cut it out.
Every box checked. Only one signature missing, and it is in this room.
Switzerland · 1956
Sales slip
- 1Lilli doll, for BarbaraUser testing
- 1Lilli doll, for MattelReference
- 1Lilli doll, for MattelBackup reference
Total dolls3
Expense report pending
Field research
Europe already sells her. I bought three.
Lilli has sold in West Germany since 1955. Children dress her in outfits sold separately.
The product
One doll for $3. Twenty-two outfits, sold separately.
- Height
- 11.5 inches
- Price
- $3
- Hair
- Blonde or brunette
- Made in
- Japan, hand-finished
- Name
- Barbie, after Barbara
The objection, and the answer
Mothers won't buy her? Daughters will ask.
Interoffice memo
FromDesign department
ReRuth's doll
Mothers will never buy their daughters a doll with a grown-up figure.No.
You said Mothers will never buy their daughters a doll with a grown-up figure.
They'll ask for her by name.
We talk to daughters directly, every week, on television.
How we reach customers
Toy makers advertise at Christmas. We advertise every week.
The toy industry
Mattel, since 1955
$500,000
52 weeks of the Mickey Mouse Club, signed in 1955. About what the whole company was worth.
Leadership was nervous then, too.
The economics
The doll is the razor. The wardrobe is the blade.
14%The doll's share of what she spends
Doll $3Wardrobe $18Total $21
The ask
Approve the run. Launch at Toy Fair, March 9, 1959.
- 1production runMade in Japan, finished by hand
- 22outfitsDesigned by Charlotte Johnson
- $3priceOutfits from $1 to $5
ForecastBuyers: lukewarm.Girls: not.