Barbie is a doll intended for the use of children's play, manufactured by Mattel Inc.  Barbie was created in 1959 by Ruth Handler who named the doll after her daughter Barbara.  Ken was later introduced in 1961, also named after one of Ruth's children (2012).  Ruth's idea to invent a adult-like doll for children to play with was created after watching her daughter play with paperdolls, giving them adult-like rolls.  Ruth went to Mattel Inc. with her idea and on March 9, 1959 Barbie was introduced to the world at the American Toy Fair in New York City (2012).  Barbie has grown tremendously over the years with thousand of different barbie's available to the public.  Mattel Inc. has been the manufacturer since the day it was created, and has continued to produce the Barbie dolls to date.

Barbie's popularity has expanded into movies, books, games, etc.  The Barbie logo is put on several children's products such as back packs, lunch boxes, bedding, etc.  While there are thousands of adults who collect the dolls, the target audience is definitely children.  The supply and demand varies for each individual Barbie.  For example a Barbie such as Doctor barbie may have millions of barbies available to the public.  Meanwhile, the tatoo barbie or the millenium barbie had a limit on how many were produced, making them more expensive to purchase.  The demand for these products increases depending on the time of the year.  At seasons such as Christmas time, the demand increases as millions of little girls have Barbies on their wish list.  The primary stage of production would be producing the materials needed to create the dolls.  "A modern Barbie doll has a body made from ABS plastic, while the head is made from soft PVC" (2012).  The secondary stage is the production of these Barbie dolls by Mattel Inc.  The final stage of production, the tertiary stage, occurs when the Barbies are distributed to stores which sell their product to the customers.  When the first Barbie was sold it cost only $3.  Now Barbies can Range anywhere from $12 to $200, sometimes spending thousands of dollars if the barbie is from an older or limited collection.  The fixed costs for the production would be the cost of the factory and utilities.  The variable costs include the employee wages, fabrics and packaging supplies, to name a few.  As sales increase, the variable prices for Mattel will also increase.  "Mattel's Boys and Girls brand, which contains its Barbie and Hot Wheels lines, reached $1.36 billion in fourth-quarter gross sales, a 7% increase from a year ago" (2007).

The strongest competitor Barbie has met is the Bratz dolls produced by MGA Entertainment.  "In 2004, sales figures showed that Bratz dolls were outselling Barbie dolls in the United Kingdom" (2012).  Another strong competitor that has arose is the Moxie Girls also by MGA Entertainment.  The competitive advantage Barbie has over these companies is that they were the first adult-like doll to enter the market.  Mantel offers such a wide range of dolls, and various outfits, making them easily interchangeable.  Barbies have continued to succeed because they try to appeal to all types of individuals by creating several different types of barbies.  They have Hispanic and African American barbies, among other nationalities. They listen to the complaints by the consumers and try to accomodate thier needs.  There is even a wheelchair barbie to appeal to the disabled.  The main weakness for Barbie is the controversy it receives about the figure of the doll.  Some consumers believe that the unrealistic figure ot the barbie doll leads girls to diseases such an anorexia and bullemia. Over the past 53 years Barbie has expanded into a worldwide known brand appearing in movies and TV shows such as Toy Story and the Simpsons.  The popularity has increased over the past 50 years and will continue to do so as children are now playing with their parents dolls.


References:

Powered by Barbie and Hot Wheels, Mattel Profit Soars.  2007.  http://www.forbes.com/

Barbie.  2012.  http://en.wikipedia.org/

The History of Barbie Dolls.  2012.  http://investors.about.com/