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Barbie dolls should be given to girls, and construction kit toys should be given to boys, which seems beyond doubt. But is this really the case?
In the history of more than 50 years of Barbie dolls, Mattel, the manufacturer of this doll toy, launched the first Barbie construction kit toy, which highlights that the market is undergoing a major transformation. In the family, fathers are increasingly taking on the responsibility of family shopping; and compared to ever before, parents are encouraging girls to play toys that can develop math and scientific talents in early childhood ( As the boys are already doing).
Not only Mattel is launching Barbie dolls to build luxury mansion toys-of course, these toys are all pink-and Lego is also promoting a series of pastel construction toys called "Friends", which This toy has become a major product in the early stages of this year's holiday shopping season. The Mega Bloks Barbie Building Style product line will be available next week. This product targets girls-of course, their father.
"Once this product enters the family, fathers can play with their daughters to a large extent, otherwise they may feel that (traditional Barbie) is not their field." Psychologist, building a suit for the new Barbie Dr. Maureen O'Brien, who advised Toys on consultants, said.
Consumer surveys show that men are increasingly making home shopping decisions, reflecting the increase in double-income households and wives working abroad while husbands stay behind. According to the latest data released by the Census Bureau, one-fifth of the fathers and husbands in households with preschool children and working women claim that they were the main family caregivers in 2010. The data also shows that in 2011, 37.6% of households had a higher income than their husbands, compared with 30.7% 10 years ago.
"The children will grow up with their father, who will be responsible for bathing the child, driving the child to watch the football game, and the father will cut the orange for the child when eating fast food together." North America of BPN, a subsidiary of media holding company Mediabrands President Liz Ross said the company recently completed a study on male consumers. "Although this trend is progressing slowly, it is indeed happening, that is, the image of the drunken father will gradually disappear."
The impact of this change is not only reflected in toys. Traditionally, the marketing of consumer products has generally focused on the issue of attracting female customers, and the design of the store is also based on the feeling of women. But today, some brands and stores are directly catering to the preferences of male shopping decision makers in the family. For example, Sears Department Store (Sears) is transforming its stores, placing tool products next to work clothes according to male preferences. Procter & Gamble is also working on opening men's beauty counters in the shops of major retailers, which means the company agrees with the fact that women no longer choose shampoo or shaving gel for their husbands.
As far as the Meijiabao Barbie architectural style product line is concerned, the main selling point of this product jointly developed by Mattel and the top toy company Mega Bloks is to help girls develop spatial reasoning skills, but also to stimulate the interest of fathers.
"Overall, fathers have a greater influence on what toys to buy, and this (building toy) suit fits this trend well because the construction category is that fathers grow up on their own The toys they played with during the period, they must have a very strong feeling for this toy. "Vic Bertrand, chief innovation officer of Mega Brands, the parent company of Meijiabao, said.
The category of construction toys for girls is growing rapidly, thanks to Lego ’s launch of the Friends product line in January this year. Although facing these suits-themes of which include beauty salons and fashion studios-with sexist criticism, the CEO of Lego once said in August this year that the sales of such toy suits in the first half of the year were comparable After doubling the company's original expectations, retailers such as Amazon (AMZN) and Target (TGT) have listed it as a popular holiday shopping season toy.
Anne Marie Kehoe, vice president of toys at Wal-Mart Americas, said that with the upcoming Barbie building kit toys, the category of building toys targeting girls by the end of this year will account for all of these toys The proportion will reach about 20%, and there were few such products on the market last year.
Research shows that playing with building blocks, puzzles, and construction toys can help develop children ’s spatial reasoning skills. Susan Lay, the head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago and co-leader of the National Intelligence Foundation (NSF) Space Intelligence and Learning Center Dr. Susan C. Levin said. She pointed out that children with better spatial thinking ability are more likely to eventually enter the fields of mathematics, engineering, science and technology. She pointed out that a toy set that targets girls may be beneficial, even just because such toys may increase the likelihood of girls participating in construction activities.
Dr. O'Brien, who advised Barbie dolls on building construction toys, also said that from the past tradition, the reason why girls used to play this kind of toys infrequently was because adults played the role of "limiting factors". Recently, this attitude has changed, and parents are beginning to study the problem of cultivating girls' spatial ability. "In terms of this (Barbie Doll Building Set) product, one of its advantages is that both father and mother will be attracted," she said.
Dr. O'Brien said that in the course of her research, she discovered that when her granddaughter played with Barbie dolls, her grandfather would also invest in it to explain some architectural principles. However, this construction package does not appear in the form of dump trucks and dirt, but is still "girl-only," said Stephanie Cota, Barbie ’s senior vice president of global marketing.
The components of the Meijiabao Barbie architectural style product series are all pink (Pantone color card No. 219 color, which is the iconic color of Barbie dolls), and the scenes are all fashion boutiques, buildings and ice cream carts. Each building suit has a small Barbie doll, which can be put into these scenes.
Mattel is the world's largest toy manufacturer. At present, the company's dependence on Barbie dolls is still very high. This is the company's most popular and longest operating toy brand. However, the pressure to update Barbie products has always been very high-in recent years, Mattel has launched Barbie dolls with video cameras and digital cameras.
Nevertheless, in the North American market as of September this year, sales of Barbie dolls still fell by 1%; at the same time, sales of Mattel ’s other girl brand toys (such as Disney Princess dolls, etc.) increased 44%. Last year, Meijiabao's revenue was only about 376 million US dollars, which is only a small part of its larger competitor Lego.
Because the dolls are too gender-specific, the Barbie doll brand itself tends to provoke the anger of feminists, not to mention that the brand had said in the 1992 advertisement that "math class is so difficult". In order to achieve the goal of gender equality, Barbie has taken some high-profile measures. For example, with the support of the Society of Women Engineers, the brand launched a computer engineer Barbie doll two years ago.
But for this time, it looks like Barbie launched a new product line in response to changes in the market, not to calm the anger of critics.
The girls "may not care about this kind of problem: 'That's a boy's toy, not mine.'" Kota said. "Now, girls are paying attention to interesting toys and paying attention to their favorite toys, which is very different from ever before."
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