Why Barbie failed in China?

Mattel opened a $30 million, six-story flagship Barbie store in Shanghai with great fanfare. With its retail a sale growing by 15% in China in 2009 Mattel was right to look there for revenue growth for its Barbie brand. It targeted the right age and socioeconomic group. Middle-class Chinese women between the ages of 24 and 32 are especially optimistic. Their incomes kept rising to where they now account for about half of all household income, up from 20% in the 1950s. 

Chinese women tend to like cutesy, girlish pink clothes (think Hello Kitty), not the sexy and skimpy kind Fields designed. Odd as it sounds, Snoopy-branded clothes, cartoon logos and all are hot sellers for women entering the white-collar workforce. So far sales at the Barbie store have been disappointing. The product positioning and style just aren't what Chinese women want. The pricing hasn't fit the market too.  it is a different story, the dolls from Japan or korea which are lovely, cute, baby look, are more welcomed, that's something with the taste of toys. in that case, barbie doll has not the biggest market share. 

All is not lost for Barbie in China, however. Young girls still clamor for those dolls and other products. Barbie has a fine future in China, but if she wants to make the most of it, she will need to rethink what Chinese girls and young women want, as well as how they shop. While looking at the ads of the Barbie doll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytq0Ed_5FJk they have tried to put the cultural essence as well as the feelings of the children and parents’ love but somehow they failed to reshape the doll for China. Chinese women are not as taller as Barbie looks and its shape makes the parent offended to put before the children.