Question

A Toy Company for a New Age: How Mattel Is Reinventing Itself for Modern Consumers This activity is important because customers' lives are defined by the many new products and services developed through scientific and technological advances and by the added features included in these new choices. Companies add value to product and service offerings through innovation. The use of these innovations spreads throughout a market group over time. Marketers must understand how firms develop new products and services and get customers to adopt them in a timely manner. The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of the diffusion of innovations and why and how companies develop new products. Read the case about how Mattel is responding to a changing toy market and then answer the questions that follow. To get modern kids engaged with a toy, it likely requires more than conventional products have offered. A simple doll is no longer enough to grab the attention of young consumers who are constantly bombarded with entertainment options through their mobile devices. For Mattel, this trend suggests the need to reinvent itself as a technology, rather than consumer product, company, even as it continues to expand and differentiate its product lines. With regard to its status, the new CEO of Mattel, who came from a tech background, has proposed that her goal is to define the firm as a "future-proofed kid-experience company" that will focus on digital content, learning activities, and smart toys as its primary value offerings. Mattel will still sell Hot Wheels and Barbie dolls, but the focus will be on how consumers can interact with those products across multiple platforms, not just with the physical items themselves. At the same time, Mattel recognizes that its focus also needs to be on making the toys fun. Many new technology-driven toys seem to prioritize the technology over the fun, such as the Mattel-owned Fisher-Price Code-a-Pillar, designed to help teach children how to code. Although the idea behind the toy makes sense, few children wanted to play with it. Therefore, Mattel now is seeking to better integrate increased and advanced technology into toys that emphasize storytelling, including Barbie, so that young consumers can invent and create their own forms of enjoyable play. These relatively radical shifts come on the heels of some turmoil in Mattel's performance. It fired its previous CEO several years ago and had been functioning under temporary leadership before hiring the current CEO away from Google. Despite a couple of good sales quarters, overall its revenues were falling, and even the conventionally beneficial holiday shopping seasons have been weak in recent years. An excess of inventory after the most recent holidays forced Mattel to offer deep discounts to move the items. Still, its entertainment-related business rose 58 percent in the past year, largely due to the introduction of Cars 3-related toys. Such licensed toys offer lower margins than Mattel's original toys, though, so it is in the company's best interest to produce and sell more original product lines, like Barbie. Accordingly, Mattel has no intentions to stop producing some of its best-known products. Instead, together with its technology orientation, Mattel is seeking to update the image of its dolls, most notably in its introduction of a wider variety of Ken dolls. The 15 new dolls feature three general body types, as well as far greater diversity in apparent ethnicities, skin tones, clothing, and hairstyles. The goal is to appeal better to diverse modern consumers, such as those who might believe that a "man bun" is exactly the kind of style that Barbie's boyfriend needs to sport. Such diversity initiatives also inform the latest line of 12 dolls, designed to represent the top female wrestlers with the WWE. Thus, young female fans can pose their favorite wrestler Charlotte Flair in a flying leap off the ropes or have Nikki and Brie Bella collaborating to bring down an opponent. This line purposefully and explicitly does not feature any men, encouraging girls to embrace new roles that subvert traditional gender stereotypes. Source: 1. Will Jarvis, "Can Ken (with a Man Bun) Help Mattel Bounce Back?," Advertising Age, June 20, 2017; "Beyond Barbie: Mattel Plans Digital Transformation," Advertising Age, June 14, 2017; Danny Vena, "Mattel Struggles as Barbie Gets Dumped," The Motley Fool, July 31, 2017; Sydney Greene, "Girls Can Wrestle, Too: Mattel and WWE Announce New Female Superstar Dolls," USA Today, July 21, 2017; Kirsten Korosec, "How Mattel Plans to Win Over Generation Alpha," Fortune, July 18, 2017.

Name: a toy company for a new age how mattel is reinventing itself for modern consumers this activity is important because customers lives are defined by the many new products and services develop 31174
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Description: a toy company for a new age how mattel is reinventing itself for modern consumers this activity is important because customers lives are defined by the many new products and services develop 31174

A Toy Company for a New Age: How Mattel Is Reinventing Itself for Modern Consumers

This activity is important because customers' lives are defined by the many new products and services developed through scientific and technological advances and by the added features included in these new choices. Companies add value to product and service offerings through innovation. The use of these innovations spreads throughout a market group over time. Marketers must understand how firms develop new products and services and get customers to adopt them in a timely manner.

The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of the diffusion of innovations and why and how companies develop new products. Read the case about how Mattel is responding to a changing toy market and then answer the questions that follow.

To get modern kids engaged with a toy, it likely requires more than conventional products have offered. A simple doll is no longer enough to grab the attention of young consumers who are constantly bombarded with entertainment options through their mobile devices. For Mattel, this trend suggests the need to reinvent itself as a technology, rather than consumer product, company, even as it continues to expand and differentiate its product lines.

With regard to its status, the new CEO of Mattel, who came from a tech background, has proposed that her goal is to define the firm as a "future-proofed kid-experience company" that will focus on digital content, learning activities, and smart toys as its primary value offerings. Mattel will still sell Hot Wheels and Barbie dolls, but the focus will be on how consumers can interact with those products across multiple platforms, not just with the physical items themselves.

At the same time, Mattel recognizes that its focus also needs to be on making the toys fun. Many new technology-driven toys seem to prioritize the technology over the fun, such as the Mattel-owned Fisher-Price Code-a-Pillar, designed to help teach children how to code. Although the idea behind the toy makes sense, few children wanted to play with it.

Therefore, Mattel now is seeking to better integrate increased and advanced technology into toys that emphasize storytelling, including Barbie, so that young consumers can invent and create their own forms of enjoyable play.

These relatively radical shifts come on the heels of some turmoil in Mattel's performance. It fired its previous CEO several years ago and had been functioning under temporary leadership before hiring the current CEO away from Google. Despite a couple of good sales quarters, overall its revenues were falling, and even the conventionally beneficial holiday shopping seasons have been weak in recent years. An excess of inventory after the most recent holidays forced Mattel to offer deep discounts to move the items.

Still, its entertainment-related business rose 58 percent in the past year, largely due to the introduction of Cars 3-related toys. Such licensed toys offer lower margins than Mattel's original toys, though, so it is in the company's best interest to produce and sell more original product lines, like Barbie.

Accordingly, Mattel has no intentions to stop producing some of its best-known products. Instead, together with its technology orientation, Mattel is seeking to update the image of its dolls, most notably in its introduction of a wider variety of Ken dolls. The 15 new dolls feature three general body types, as well as far greater diversity in apparent ethnicities, skin tones, clothing, and hairstyles. The goal is to appeal better to diverse modern consumers, such as those who might believe that a "man bun" is exactly the kind of style that Barbie's boyfriend needs to sport.

Such diversity initiatives also inform the latest line of 12 dolls, designed to represent the top female wrestlers with the WWE. Thus, young female fans can pose their favorite wrestler Charlotte Flair in a flying leap off the ropes or have Nikki and Brie Bella collaborating to bring down an opponent. This line purposefully and explicitly does not feature any men, encouraging girls to embrace new roles that subvert traditional gender stereotypes.

Source:
1. Will Jarvis, "Can Ken (with a Man Bun) Help Mattel Bounce Back?," Advertising Age, June 20, 2017; "Beyond Barbie: Mattel Plans Digital Transformation," Advertising Age, June 14, 2017; Danny Vena, "Mattel Struggles as Barbie Gets Dumped," The Motley Fool, July 31, 2017; Sydney Greene, "Girls Can Wrestle, Too: Mattel and WWE Announce New Female Superstar Dolls," USA Today, July 21, 2017; Kirsten Korosec, "How Mattel Plans to Win Over Generation Alpha," Fortune, July 18, 2017.

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Sacco et al. (2020): "This monocentric observational study contributes to the emerging understanding of the presentation and trajectory of COVID-19 in nursing home residents. This case series showed that frail older adults exhibit relatively few symptoms, and notably less often fever, cough, and ENT signs than younger adults. In this sense, our results are consistent with the few previous studies on symptoms met in older adults infected with COVID-19. It is also consistent with the clinical presentation of other viral infections in older adults such as influenza. Here, the residents exhibited both general and respiratory signs (59% hyperthermia, 49% cough, 42% polypnea) together with gastrointestinal signs (12% diarrhea) and geriatric syndromes (15% falls, 1% altered consciousness). Surprisingly, delirium was less frequent compared to one previous report in adults aged 70 and over (7% here versus 26.7% previously). This may be explained by the characteristics of the present sample, which involved mainly frail older residents with major neurocognitive disorders and behavioral disturbances. Delirium is commonly under-recognized when superimposed on major neurocognitive disorders, especially during the severe stages of the disease since a clear distinction between symptoms attributable to delirium or to underlying dementia proves difficult" (p. 49). (Reference Information: Journal: Maturitas. Volume 141. Pages 46–52. Title of paper: COVID-19 in seniors: Findings and lessons from mass screening in a nursing home. Authors: Guillaume Sacco, Gonzague Foucault, Olivier Briere, and Cédric Annweiler. Year of publication: 2020.) Sugg et al. (2021): "Our spatial-based approach compiled nearly 130 variables from multiple sources to capture geographic variability in nursing homes, community-level socioeconomic characteristics, and cumulative COVID-19 incidence. Results demonstrated that county-level COVID-19 rates, per-capita income, average household size, population square miles, unemployment, and a higher percentage of African Americans, in combination with nursing home staffing levels (LPNs and total staff) and the number of fines issued in 2020, were associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 transmission in nursing homes. Findings from regional models suggested a robust positive relationship between cumulative COVID-19 incidence and county-level per capita income and COVID-19 rates. Our spatial results are confirmed with prior research, which found a higher risk of COVID-19 among nursing home residents in the Northeastern US and parts of the Southeastern US, all locations that were early epidemic emergers in the U.S" (p. 4). (Reference Information: Authors: Margaret M. Sugg, Trent J. Spaulding, Sandi J. Lane, Jennifer D. Runkle, Stella R. Harden, Adam Hege, and Lakshmi S. Iyer. Volume 752, pages 1 to 9. Title of paper: Mapping community-level determinants of COVID-19 transmission in nursing homes: A multi-scale approach. Journal: Science of the Total Environment. Year of publication: 2021.) Crawford (2011): "Once an acute emerging virus such as a new strain of flu is successfully established in a population, it generally settles into a mode of cyclical epidemics during which many susceptible people are infected and become immune to further attack. When most are immune, the virus moves on, only returning when a new susceptible population has emerged, which generally consists of infants born since the last epidemic. Before vaccination programs became widespread, young children suffered from a series of well-recognized infectious diseases called the 'childhood infections'. These included measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox, all caused by viruses, of which only chickenpox remains widespread in the West today" (p. 87). (Reference Information: Publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford. Year of publication: 2011. Title: Viruses: A Very Short Introduction. Author: Crawford, Dorothy H.) Stage et al. (2020): These findings have important implications for national policy for SARS-CoV-2 infection control recommendations applied to school settings. The practical implication of a 6 feet of distancing recommendation is that many schools are unable to open for full in-person learning, or at all, due to physical limitations of school infrastructure. This is particularly true in public school districts, which are unable to limit the number of students enrolled, compared to private schools, which have been able to more successfully open with 6 feet of distance between individuals. Three feet of physical distancing is more easily achieved in most school districts, including public ones, and thus, relaxing distancing requirements would likely have the impact of increasing the number of students who are able to benefit from additional in-person learning. Our data also suggest that intermediate distances (4 or 5 feet) can also be adopted without negatively impacting safety; adoption of intermediate distancing policies might be leveraged as a step-wise approach to return more students to the classroom. (Journal: Modern Medicine. Title of paper: Shut and re-open: the role of schools in the spread of COVID-19 in Europe. Year of publication: 2020). Volume 3. Issue 3. Pages 1-34. Authors: Helena B. Stage, Joseph Shingleton, Sanmitra Ghosh, Francesca Scarabel, Lorenzo Pellis, and Thomas Finnie.) Ouslander and Grabowski (2020): "Nursing homes are a congregate living setting, and despite social distancing measures, including no group dining or activities, most nursing homes have a majority of rooms with more than one occupant and shared bathrooms, facilitating transmission of the virus. Care includes 'high-touch' activities, like bathing, dressing, and toileting, that do not allow for social distancing. Many residents with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment will not be able to tolerate wearing a mask or cooperate with social distancing. Staff and clinicians who come in and out of the building, many of whom work in multiple facilities, can be pre-symptomatic or asymptomatically shedding the virus while passing screening questionnaires and temperature recordings" (p. 2154). (Reference Information: Authors: Joseph G. Ouslander, and David C. Grabowski. Title of Paper: COVID-19 in Nursing Homes: Calming the Perfect Storm. Volume 68. Pages 2153-2162. Year of publication: 2020. Journal: Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.) Findlater and Bogoch (2018): "Many factors contribute to the global spread of infectious diseases, including the increasing speed and reach of human mobility, increasing volumes of trade and tourism, and changing geographic distributions of disease vectors. In particular, human travel and migration (especially via air travel) is now a major driving force pushing infections into previously non-endemic settings. Year by year, there are increasing numbers of international tourists, more international refugees and migrants, greater capacity for shipping by sea, and greater international air travel passenger volumes. Air travel poses a growing threat to global health security, as it is now possible for a traveler harboring an infection in one location on earth to travel to virtually any other point on the planet in only 1–2 days. Infections introduced via travel may be sporadic and have little potential for further transmission, such as Lassa fever introduced into European settings. In other situations, infections introduced by air travel may cause self-limited local epidemics such as Chikungunya virus in Italy. More recently, there are a growing number of examples of infections introduced to a new region that ultimately become endemic, such as Chikungunya virus in Latin America and the Caribbean" (p. 772). (Reference Information: Issue 9. Pages 772-783. Journal: Trends in Parasitology, Volume 34. Title of paper: Human Mobility and the Global Spread of Infectious Diseases: A Focus on Air Travel. Authors: Aidan Findlater and Isaac I. Bogoch. Year of publication: 2018)

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