Barbie sales drop… but she’ll likely be back on top again

Her impossibly proportioned plastic frame has made Barbie a leader in the toy wars for decades.

But now at 54 perfectly preserved years of age, it appears as though Barbie’s current incarnation is failing to keep the attention of toy-loving boys and girls.

As the Globe and Mail notes, Mattel Inc. has posted a 12 per cent nosedive in Barbie sales over the past three months, following an entire year of poor performance.

USA Today reports that Mattel’s overall second-quarter sales fell by 24 per cent, fueled in large measure by waning interest in Barbie and her ageless boyfriend, Ken.

This is the first time the iconic doll has seen such dismal sales since the 90s, when the Mattel realized Barbie's look needed another revamp.

Also see: Goth Barbie: The answer to our Barbie problems?

There are a couple of factors at play, the paper notes.

For starters, there are too many other toys that may be more appealing to today’s crop of far more sophisticated, tech-savvy young people.

Back in the 90s, the Bratz dolls proved major competition, and today, toys even from within Mattel’s own brand are moving off shelves faster than their original plastic dream girl.

Monster High dolls, a pretty brilliant idea someone came up with to produce the teen offspring of famous monsters and invent an entire multi-platform retail narrative around them, have been selling like crazy, racking up an incredible $500 million in the three years they’ve been around.

Stiff, unbendable competition is also coming from American Girl dolls and the Disney Princess realm.

Also see: Barbie gets (another) real makeover

And no Barbie will never beat an iPad in the battle for a two-year-old’s attention. After all, Barbie is a mere finite object that exists in space and time. Lame!

Part of the issue may also be that our standards are evolving, and parents are less interested in buying their children a toy that conforms to a pretty rigid, old fashioned standard of beauty.

But in the end it still boils down to good old dollars and cents. True to the fickle nature of business, Mattel CEO Brian Stockton tells the Globe that an executive decision to switch shipping and promo to the second half of the year has also led to Barbie’s decline.

Don’t worry, though. Barbie will be back. Like the material she’s made from, she’ll never disappear.