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I was never really a Barbie girl, but I find myself living in a very Barbie world.
With a paint-the-town-pink approach to marketing the Barbie movie, there’s no mystery about the ambition of making this a blockbuster hit. But it’s more than a blockbuster hit that Mattel is after. If it were just about ticket sales, they could have done half as much and still be well on their way to capturing the hearts and minds of moviegoers.
This is about re-invention. About re-defining and re-imagining a brand that has been around for generations and making it relevant and real for a new audience, and maybe even changing the perception of an existing audience that used to put Barbie in a certain box (literally or figuratively).
Revitalizing a 64-year-old legacy brand that’s worn as many outfits as its iconic character is no small feat, especially when the brand can be polarizing and carry a stigma.
What Mattel, Warner Brothers and the film’s director Greta Gerwig, have mastered in their marketing of Barbie is a re-imagining of a character and a brand we thought we knew and introducing us to a new side, a different side, a side that maybe feels entirely more of what we want to see in this character.
When it comes to evolution, the first step is firmly choosing to evolve. The second step is to get clear on who you are, who you want to become and how you’re going to get there authentically. The third step is to figure out how you’re going to keep your existing fans and learn how to bring new fans into the fold without compromising either.
Change happens over time, with intention
The bedrock of any entertainment franchise is grounded in the universe that it creates: the characters, the lore, the world that consumers can immerse themselves, escape to and become a part of. When you’re a franchise that happens to be a legacy brand, it’s easy to get stuck in that world, stuck in that time, to appease the belief that if something were to change, the brand itself would be in jeopardy. It’s why we have brand guidelines; the things we always hold true to ensure the consistency and integrity of the brand.
But there is a lot that can and should change over time. We need reason more than rigidity, and rationale more than rigor.
Barbie was once upon a time ago a tall, skinny, white blonde woman who seemed a bit superficial and flakey, more about the looks and less about the substance. She had a lot of jobs, a lot of outfits and a pretty cool dream house. But she felt one-dimensional, a bit vapid, set an impossible physical standard and didn’t seem like she was for everyone. While Mattel may have had ambitions for her to embody empowerment, that’s not how the market saw her.
Perception is half the battle. The way to change perception isn’t about shifting the narrative, it’s about choosing real action that puts validity behind the purpose a brand claims to stand for.
Mattel has been hard at work making changes in ways that are not performative or meant to assuage people of their feelings toward the doll. They put in real work and made changes to the product, the marketing, the partnerships and through social impact alliances.
Over the past decade, Mattel has been focused on introducing Barbies that are more representative and inclusive, featuring over 100 different skin tones, hair textures, face shapes, eye colors and body types. In recent years, we’ve seen the introduction of a Barbie with vitiligo, a Barbie with Down syndrome and a series modeled on inspiring women like Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou and Billie Jean King. A notable shift has come through in campaigns like “Imagine The Possibilities,” which is meant to inspire and empower girls as they dream up their futures and “A Doll Can Change The World,” grounded in research that shows how doll play teaches empathy.
The work isn’t done, there’s no question about it. But progress towards fulfilling their brand purpose of inspiring the limitless potential of every girl is happening.
Catalyzing culture: right story, right time, right collaborators
If there were ever a name-in-lights moment for Barbie, this would be it. Already deeply entrenched in the zeitgeist, reinvention hinges on how it shows up in culture to establish itself in a way vastly different than it has in the past if it’s going to want the audience to see it in a different light.
From an Airbnb dream house to movie poster meme generators to pop-up skating rinks to a soundtrack featuring Ice Spice and LIZZO, Barbie has created a brand celebration, unlike anything we’ve seen in a long time. From official partnerships and promotions to rogue participation, everyone seems to want to get in on the festivities. It’s light and playful and brings us levity at a time we’re deeply craving it. The marketing machine has been hard at work leading with ubiquity as a strategy with no pink stone left unturned.
The celebratory fanfare is just a piece of the puzzle. Partnering with Greta Gerwig plays a big role in reimagining the character and the world she occupies by introducing us to a Barbie seemingly familiar but not. This is part of what draws us to this movie and makes us want to take a second look at the franchise.
It’s strikingly different and seems to hit at just the right time and in many ways is predicated on turning the world Barbie knows upside down, in the best possible way. The story stokes our curiosity and invites us to see Barbie in a new light. It was so compelling, it attracted A-list talent like Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Dua Lipa, Kate McKinnon, Will Ferrell and more. The star power will certainly help at the box office, but the bigger statement is the actors who chose to sign on to a project like this, with a well-known but equally loved and hated brand, believing in the power of the story that Gerwig and team were going to tell.
Galvanizing an audience requires the right time, the right story, the right collaborators. It’s about meeting people where they are and in this case, the most obvious reflection of that may come through in all of their large-scale marketing efforts, but there’s a deeper undercurrent at play around the repositioning of Barbie. Meeting new fans and loyal fans alike in a way that satisfies both by tapping into a larger conversation of why this Barbie and why now.
A brand’s legacy is a reflection of its evolution and the choices it’s made along the way
Often caught between the past, present and future, legacy brands have a harder time making significant, material changes. Barbie has taught us that who you were is part of who you are, but it doesn’t singularly define you.
The brand is young and old all at once and its blockbuster marketing shows us how legacy brands can find their footing in a world ever-changing:
- You can pay homage to who you were and lean into who you’ve become and are becoming.
- Brands want change on a dime, but change takes time when you do it with purpose, intention and authenticity.
- Understand and lean into culture. Don’t bastardize your brand or co-opt the culture, but instead, find that sweet spot for how to be so much a part of the culture, that you’re creating your own footprint in it.
- Fandom is the goal, and it’s earned not guaranteed. If you want to create a franchise and a brand with staying power and loyalty over time, you need to treat your audience like fans and invest in them with that level of dedication.
As marketers and stewards of the brand, every choice we make, every decision point, is etched into the legacy we ultimately leave behind; the story that gets told long after we’re gone, how we’re perceived and talked about, as with any brand, when we’re not in the room. It’s as much about the past as it is about the present and the future we hope to inspire. It’s never too late to make a choice to evolve for the better.
