Learning to live without Barbie

After the dismal earnings report yesterday and the comedic and sad attempts to create buzz worthy news (man-bun Ken, WWE dolls) and the loss of foundational partners like Monster Jam, in recent weeks, it's clear we haven't seen the bottom of the stock yet.

While I applaud the changes M-Go is FINALLY making, there is a fundamental elephant in the room that we all need to face. Mattel needs to learn how to live without Barbie.

Simply put, the concept of fashion dolls is no longer about buying a doll and getting lots of accessories to go change outfits. It's not even about buying multiple dolls anymore. It's about living out the stories of the character - and Barbie doesn't have any. In all the content that's been developed, she's never very interesting because things happen AROUND her and never TO her. This isn't compelling and without it - without deep storytelling to make the toys more than just plastic - she's going to continue to decline. It's been happening for over a decade and without the other doll lines to hide her weakness, she becomes the poster child for all that is wrong with Mattel's business model.

Mattel HAS to bolster the margins and penetration of it's other brands and make them more profitable (and not by just raising prices - duh!) because Barbie will not last forever.

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Like! That may be best for now--- cut costs.

The value of the company as is will not appreciate. The best option is to extract value by having an activist take it over and fix(redundant offices, expensive overhead, move out of ES, sell some pieces).

you all placated the liberal mom movement with new "more realistic" bodies and sales continued to decline. You then take THAT misguided and failed direction and do it again to Ken, and the stock declined. When are you all going to just admit that Barbie is over? In a world where fashion dolls has evolved into character dolls, there isn't room for a doll like Barbie who has no character.

Stop robbing the other brands of advertising, investment and focus by artificially propping up a concept that the world has already moved on from. Nothing you do will turn around Barbie.

Hats off to LMcK and the indian chick (forget her name) both supposed to be SOOOO smart and professional. The entire Barbie team is entitled and without a clue as to how to reinvent the fashion doll category. So proud of you two, watching the flames just get higher and higher as the single brand that makes real money at Mattel, burns like hillbilly bonfire.

Man-buns?! C'mon, 3-6 year old girls don't even care about Ken, no matter what you do to him. He's a 3rd act bit player in a 2 act play.

Sadly the layoffs always effect the real workers not the over paid morons that got us here. Incompetence gets rewarded here as long as you are in the AKC aka the a.s kiss..g club.

Hasbro is laughing all the way to the bank and I sure don't blame them as they really know how to run a successful company that actually knows how to really nurture/inspire true creativity & innovation unlike the top heavy cancerous environment that is now MattHell.

Sadly layoffs will happen. It's the only thing they know how to do reliably to improve the bottom line. Clueless about real demand growth, long term brand building or meaningful new business development. How many quarters now has Mattel demonstrated this same incompetence!?

Though it could simply too late for some of these brands, like Am Girl, that Mattel burned out trying to drive short term results.

Which were both extremely profitable before MattHell acquired them, imposed the high overhead wasteful margins/boondoggles in order to support top heavy Evp's, SVP's, VP's & Directors which in the end ruined their profitability going forward while all misguided upper management gets promoted/raises while failing miserably.

"If it's Mattel it's Hell".............new vision statement.

Zero accountability, nice. Get ready for layoffs peons which will be coming soon from an unnamed source as there is no other recourse.

Please, please, please, just spin off Fisher-Price and American Girl.

Just finished reading the Q2 results spin/propaganda given by the 3 Stooges which always seems to be crafted the same. Numbers were met, we're up single digit growth according to plan, but wait....we're actually down, but going to get better. Promise cause we're going to have a great second half.

What a crock as no mention of stock now down below $20 and the dividend is down as well but not to worry cause I just hired yet another SVP, this time of IT, probably a close friend, who's going to make it all better.

BTW, the cost reduced crap Cars 3 product is not selling to the 300mm expectations but that will get better as well. Laughable.

Thread regarding Mattel Inc. layoffs

Learning to live without Barbie

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