Yes it has worked for now. All the allegiances have been NEWS released (Google, Quirky, DC) and the stock has risen on hope and promises. But we all know that the blood of the concept, what makes it compelling, what makes it desirable, what makes it a good value will be sucked out in order to meet the cost targets necessary to maintain our executive OVERHEAD. Our economic burden to maintain our VP count at an outrageously high number is still the Mattel norm. All insiders know that a great concept + Mattel's Executive overhead = inferior product or no product (why Disney packed up and left). That equation is STILL IN PLACE and all the hype in the world will not change Matttel's downward path. Stockholders - you have been warned.
10 replies (most recent on top)
When Barbie is selling, company can take risks on designer passion projects that don't have consumer benefits or relationship to the reality of price value parents will pay. When Barbie isn't selling, it pressures all the brands to make up for it.
Disney didn't leave because of inferior product - princesses went to Hasbro because it is now their #1 girls brand. At Mattel, Disney Princesses was 4th after Barbie, Monster High and Ever After High. Which place would you rather be? Totally the fault of marketing but also the designer twins who created Ever After High - the straw that broke the camels back. Irony is it's a failed line for Mattel and lost them Disney business.
yeah, there's a list. sad but true. some of the names i'm looking at, i can't believe are here. others tho, its about god damn time.
layoffs are definitely coming in September. they are already running thru the scenarios now.
Relax buddy. Seems like the only "stick" around here is up your ass.
Inferior product is NOT ON THE WAY, it's here and has been here for awhile if you have ever bothered to look in the toy aisles. It is NOT design nor Marketing's fault. Anonymous 100560-you can make a toy from a stick????? And marketing should sell the stick? To WHOM? Or haven't you thought of that far out? The consumer is very savvy and will NOT BUY SAID STICK. Design at Mattel and FP are very creative and innovative. And Marketing is more than capable. We can again point to inferior and incapable leadership who will not let these groups be innovative because they don't want to pay for innovation AND they are risk averse. (on top of the greed factor). That is who is to blame, NOT MARKETING OR DESIGN. Stop talking about things you know nothing of.....
Inferior product is NOT ON THE WAY, it's here and has been here for awhile if you have ever bothered to look in the toy aisles. It is NOT design nor Marketing's fault. Anonymous 100560-you can make a toy from a stick????? And marketing should sell the stick? To WHOM? Or haven't you thought of that far out? The consumer is very savvy and will NOT BUY SAID STICK. Design at Mattel and FP are very creative and innovative. And Marketing is more than capable. We can again point to inferior and incapable leadership who will not let these groups be innovative because they don't want to pay for innovation AND they are risk averse. (on top of the greed factor). That is who is to blame, NOT MARKETING OR DESIGN. Stop talking about things you know nothing of.....
I disagree with the last comment. As a long time employee I can attest to the frustration that designers are dealing with when it comes to milestone meetings where content and playability is cost reduced because of the edicts coming from up above. Most of them would prefer to put out over the top toys and not these cost reduced pieces of crap that they're ashamed of.
Inferior product is created by inferior designers and moronic marketing partners. If you're good, you can make a toy from a stick. And if your marketing partner had any sense, they would know how to sell the shit out of that stick.
Amen.
Stock was still dropping for about two weeks after the initial layoff in mid-March. By early April, the stock prices began to trend upwards. This happened for a good three weeks, up about $7. But, have you seen the numbers lately? They are dropping back down, in the past two weeks we've lost about $4. A few cents shy of where the price was before the layoffs.