Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in American International Toy Fair in New York on March 9, 1959, which is also used as Barbie’s official birthday. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration. A standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall, giving a height of 5 feet 9 inches at 1/6 scale. Barbie’s vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). First Barbie Doll put on sale was dressed in black and white zebra striped swimsuit.When the Barbie doll was presented at the New York International Toy Fair in 1959, all the big buyers, including the major American store brands were unimpressed and refused to buy any.
Even a living Barbie also exists. Valeria Lukyanova is the Eastern European model – Famed for her porcelain face and Barbie-like proportions.
succession of trials and tribulations
The first part of Ruth Handler’s life is a succession of challenges. Born Ruth Moskowicz in Denver, Colorado, in 1916, she and her family were Polish Jews who had earlier immigrated to the United States. The youngest of 10 children, she could not attend university and initially found work as a secretary. She married Elliot Handler in 1938 and together they traversed the ordeal of World War II, which affected all of the United States. Then came financial hardship for the young couple, living in California with two children. At the time Ruth was 30, but she had a huge ambition for her life and a big vision for the Handler family. She encouraged her husband to use his design skills to create a company manufacturing plastic objects. Mattel was founded in 1945 and success quickly arrived. Behind the scenes, Ruth’s creativity, energy, intelligence, willingness to take risks and determination worked wonders. While she didn’t take the title of president until 1967, these qualities made her the real leader of Mattel.
One of Ruth Handler’s rare qualities was her visionary ability to anticipate. She was able to analyze subtle signals in the marketplace, identify potential innovations, and develop strategic breakthroughs.
For example, Mattel was looking for an original way to promote one of its first toys, a plastic machine gun. While toys has previously been marketed to parents, who chose them for their offspring, Ruth had the idea of speaking directly to the end users, as such. The approach was the Mickey Mouse Club television program, which Mattel sponsored in 1955. After seeing the program, thousands of children asked their parents for the new toy, a reversal from the traditional process. While this idea may seem unremarkable to us in the 21st century, it was a clear break in the marketing dogma of the time.
The idea emerged during a trip that the family took to Switzerland in 1956. In the window of a Swiss shop Ruth discovered a sex-symbol doll with a generous shape, Bild Lilli, based on a cartoon character created for the German tabloid Bild. Ruth immediately understood the marketing potential of the doll, and took several back to the United States.
When Ruth Handler presented her new concept to the head of a major American advertising agency, he stated: “It has no chance of succeeding. You’re joking”. Mattel’s executive committee – composed entirely of men except for Ruth – also opposed the idea. She not only imposed the project, she persuaded Mattel’s R&D department to make a doll that would be sold at cost, with profits coming from the sale of clothes and accessories.
At the same time, the innovation of a product whose profit comes from consumables (in this case, accessories) was born. We have here a stimulating break: the doll is sold at a very low price to capture a market and the profit is generated by the sale of accessories. This business model has now become the norm in many economic sectors.
Speaking directly to children
When the Barbie doll was presented at the New York International Toy Fair in 1959, all the big buyers, including the major American store brands were unimpressed and refused to buy any. While many entrepreneurs would have given up, Ruth Handler decided to sell her doll directly to consumers. A major publicity campaign was launched, which resulted in the worldwide success that we know today.
For the next decade Ruth Handler was instrumental in Mattel’s rise. However, in 1975 she and her husband resigned after a financial scandal. She died in 2002 and Elliot in 2011. Mattel and Barbie live on, however, its earnings reaching a five-year high in the first quarter of 2019, and Barbie continues to prosper, with sales up 12 per cent.
Yet on the 60th anniversary of her creation, Ruth Handler’s contributions aren’t as well-known as they should be. She was an independent, creative and powerful woman, and a model of female leadership. And ultimately, a much more interesting and important model than Barbie doll herself.
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