Pink wave, brands want a piece of “Barbie”

Pink sauce on that hamburger? Burger King? How about clothes and articles for your pet with motifs of Barbie? If that’s too ordinary, you might be interested in luxury pieces from Balmain. Welcome to the wonderful and strange world of marketing of “Barbie”.

Prior to the premiere of “Barbie” As of this weekend, parent company Mattel has created a product blitz with more than 100 brands painting themselves pink.

There are pink benches at bus stops and pink clothes in store windows. Microsoft’s XBox has unveiled a series of Barbie consoles and HGTV is hosting a four-part Barbie Dream House Challenge.

And then there are all the unofficial collaborators trying to get a piece of the Barbie fashion. Restaurants offer specialty pink cocktails, while interior decorators showcase options like strips of vibrant pink tile for “give it a Barbie touch” to your kitchen.

Even Support the Girls, a nonprofit organization that has provided 22 million bras and menstrual hygiene products to the homeless, refugees and immigrants, is creating a social media campaign about periods using Barbie and having volunteers create miniature Barbie-sized packs of menstrual items to include pads and tampons as educational tools.

“The ability to share stories and knowledge through play with Barbie is what made us realize we need to jump on the Barbie pop culture bandwagon,” said Dana Marlowe, founder and executive of I Support the Girls.

“If you can see your reflection in a toy or a doll, we also want to make sure we raise awareness for bras and clean underwear and things like that.”

Some experts say all the marketing beyond the movie is only good for the Barbie brand, which is turning 64, helping it appeal to multiple generations of fans.

“When a brand owns something as iconic as the color pink, it’s both good news and bad news,” said Marc Rosenberg, a Chicago-based toy consultant who has led global marketing teams for Hasbro brands like Furby, GigaPets and Hit Clips. “In this case, I think it’s good news, everyone wants a piece of rose now.”

But experts also say it will be hard for many of the products to stand out when the world is awash in pink.

“There is such a stampede towards this that most people will be trampled and not noticeable”said Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce, who believes there will be more losers than winners.

For some shoppers like Hollie Krause of Mahwah, New Jersey, the Barbie pink blitz that’s ramped up since June is already too much.

Krause, 31, said she loved her Barbie dolls as a child and had about 20 of them along with a Barbie Dream House.

When some of the merchandise started arriving earlier this year, she bought Barbie pajamas, a T-shirt, Barbie-branded pink lemonade, and other pink outfits.

Now she feels overwhelmed

“Barbie is supposed to be for everyone, but these nostalgic collaborations should feel a little more unique or a little more creative,” said Krause, who plans to focus on limited-edition items.

The first live-action Barbie movie, an homage to the doll with some biting satire, comes at a time when Barbie sales have been on and off after a slump from 2012 to 2015, when she faced stiff competition from other dolls and came under fire for pushing unrealistic beauty standards for girls and losing some relevance.

But Barbie enjoyed a big sales surge during the pandemic, when parents were looking to entertain their children.

It now accounts for a third of Mattel’s revenue and has diversified into dolls with more skin tones and versions with prosthetic legs, wheelchairs and hearing aids.

This year, she introduced her first Down syndrome doll.

As a result, according to market research firm Circana, Barbie has remained the most fashionable doll for the past four years from 2019 through June of this year in the United States and in the combined 12 countries that Circana tracks.

So far, the merchandising around the film has worked well.

The Mattel Barbie that was made specifically for the film, and wears a pink plaid dress, is No. 1 in doll sales and in the category of preschool dolls and dollhouses sold on Amazon, according to the retailer’s website.

Neiman Marcus noted that it launched its exclusive Barbie collaboration with Balmain last year and many items sold out in the first few days.

Building on the success of last year’s collaboration and the current cultural phenomenon of “Barbiecore” (which favors pink and all things doll-like), has reissued the collection starting July 10, the retailer said.

Then there are the mixed reviews on social media for the Pink Burger offered by the Burger King franchise in Brazil. It has a slice of melted cheese, bacon, and a smoky flavored hot pink sauce.

The Pink Burger comes in the Barbie Combo, which also includes French fries (called “Ken’s Fries”), a pink milkshake, and a pink glazed donut.

“Has BK completely lost his creativity or is he just too lazy to think of something better?”says a comment on the Burger King Brazil Instagram account.

Restaurant Brands noted that it is a limited-time partnership that is sold exclusively in the Brazilian market and will not be available outside of the country.

Source: AFP