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Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Since We Asked Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Readers Choice 2006 Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Our Valley Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend June 24, 2006 Remodeling Barbie Mattel president toys with Barbie's image By Abigail Goldman Los Angeles Times Barbie's new dad is searching for the doll's missing wow. Mattel Inc.'s Neil Friedman has the tall order of revitalizing what is still America's best-selling fashion doll and perhaps the toy industry's most iconic product. The trouble is, he's at least the third person in the last five years to have that responsibility, and so far nothing has worked. An industry veteran who went from leading the company's successful Fisher-Price line of toys eight months ago to heading up all of the Mattel brands, Friedman thought he saw part of the problem. "Barbie lacked focus, lacked vision — even a true, cohesive advertising campaign," Friedman said in his first interview about his plans since becoming president of Mattel Brands in mid-October. "It was pretty obvious that there wasn't any excitement there. There was no wow. Barbie should always have a wow." The sales numbers showed it. From a peak in the late 1990s, sales have been in almost continuous decline. Advertisement Within a month of becoming Barbie's caretaker, Friedman and his new hand-picked head of the girls' division, Chuck Scothon, ordered everyone who worked on the doll out of the office. The team of more than 50 people were assigned homework and told to report to a hotel in Anaheim, Calif., for a two-day meeting about what the long-suffering but top-selling fashion doll should be. They called it "brandstorming." Then Friedman held a review of the products the company expected to show for this year's holiday season. He found that in many cases, the company had gotten away from the basics. The Barbie line, Friedman said, was pretty and well designed. But it was unfocused. Too much of it wasn't fun, and Barbie too had moved away from the tried and true. "There isn't a fashion doll on the market that doesn't have a brush or a comb if it has hair. It is a classic play pattern," Friedman said. "We had some that didn't." With most of the line set 12 to 18 months in advance, there was scant time for major changes for the 2006 line, so Friedman and Scothon tweaked and added. Plans for the 2006 Barbie styling head, a classic hair-play toy, allowed girls to add colored highlights to the doll's hair. But that was about the only new thing the doll had to offer. Friedman's team quickly suggested an additional feature and now, at the touch of a button, the doll's hair "grows" out of its head. The Barbie Dream House got lights, sounds and a detachable third floor. The Barbie Van became the Barbie RV with lights, music and a spa tub. For the longer-term changes, the group began with the results of the "brandstorming" — what Scothon called their "North Star" — as they came up with the plan for 2007 and beyond: "Dream big in pink heels." The new mantra is supposed to be a reminder that Barbie can be anything, not just the princess she mostly has been in recent years. She still loves fashion but has a sassy, girl-centered attitude. That led the team to a broader and more feature-filled line, with singing and dancing Barbies who bop along to a beat, and pompom Barbies who twirl and flip. There are Barbies for the youngest girls that are easier to dress and a new bride line with a glittering ring, a cake that turns into a play set and a doll hidden inside a floral bouquet. Part of Barbie's problem has been that kids are growing out of toys at a younger age, choosing electronics instead of dolls. For Barbie, which once appealed to girls as old as 8 or 9, that's meant a much smaller audience of the under-5 set. Although he's not ready to write off girls older than 6, Friedman said he could dramatically boost the Barbie business even without them. Give kids enough fun products and they'll buy the six to eight different Barbie dolls that girls used to buy, Friedman said, rather than the one or two Barbies they've been buying for the last few years. 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