Headquartered in EI Segundo, California, Mattel is one of the world's largest toy companies, and is a leader in the design, production and sales of children's products. Mattel's main brands include the most popular and best-selling fashion dolls Barbie and Hot Wheels, Matchbox, American Girl, Radica, Tyco R/C and Fisher-Price brands, including Little People, Power Wheels and a range of educational toys.
In mainland China, Mattel has five branches in Shenzhen, Dongguan and Foshan. Mattel Toys Technology Consulting (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. was established in 2000, located in Henggang Town, Shenzhen.
In 2015, the domestic toy retail market was 65 billion yuan. In recent years, the Chinese toy market has increased by about 10-15%. At present, there are 222 million children under the age of 14 in China. It is estimated that after the implementation of the two-child policy, 20 million new babies will be added each year. The growth rate of the domestic toy market will accelerate in the next two or three years.
First, a handful of toy empire is still losing money?
Toy company Mattel announced its first-quarter earnings, with sales of $736 million, down 15.4% year-on-year. The loss expanded to $113 million. This quarter is the biggest quarterly loss of Mattel since 2002 and the largest decline in sales since 2009.
The decline in revenue was mainly due to a large backlog of stocks during the holiday season last year. Mattel had warned about inventory problems last year, but this time the results showed far more serious than it and Wall Street expected. Barbie’s sales fell by 13%. This is the second quarter of Barbie sales decline. At the beginning of 2016, because of a series of adjustments by Mattel, including bringing more skin color and body shape to Barbie, the brand revived. However, the good times did not last long, and the sales growth momentum only lasted for three quarters.
In the first quarter of 2017, of all the toy types, only the four-wheel drive toy Hot Wheels was growing, and others were falling. Fisher-Price sales of even preschool toys fell by 9% , mainly due to poor sales in the US market.
The good news comes from the Asia Pacific region, where sales in the region rose by 17%.
In 2016, Mattel’s performance was not very good. In contrast, rival Hasbro harvested the highest sales in 1994, mainly because of the Disney Princess collection that was “grabbed†from Mattel.
Hasbro's profit for the quarter was $68.6 million, an increase of 41% year-on-year. The financial report did not disclose data on the Chinese market, but revenue in the Asia Pacific market fell by 1% year-on-year.
Looking at Mattel’s second-quarter sales of 975 million yuan, the loss has shrunk to $43 million. For details, see the form.
Second, Mattel Classic - Barbie
Speaking of Mattel, Barbie must be mentioned.
In 1916, Ruth Handler was born in Denver, her parents were Polish immigrants, and she was the youngest. When she was 19, she came to Southern California and soon married her boyfriend in high school.
In the mid-1940s, Ruth Handler opened a company with her husband, specializing in making wooden picture frames. Her husband designed the shape and she was responsible for sales. In 1945, the Henderson couple and his friend Mattson teamed up to build a toy company, Mattel.
In those days, the children's toys were dolls. One day, Ruth Handler suddenly saw her daughter Barbara playing a paper-cut doll with a little boy. These paper-cut dolls were not the kind of baby babies that were common at the time, but teenagers, each with their own occupations and identities, and their daughters. Very addicted. “Why don’t you be a mature doll?†Handler’s brain was inspired.
The road to achieving this inspiration is hard. The name of the doll she designed was first called "Lily", which was launched in 1955 by a German toy company that she acquired. However, "Lily" was dressed as a slutty and sexy wild woman, not a "pure and beautiful doll", which is far from Ruth Handler's original idea.
Later, with Ruth Handler's insistence, with a woman's carefulness, then Ruth invited the costume designer Charlotte Johnson to design costumes for Barbie. In 1958, Barbie doll was launched and patented. This kind of doll will change an era, she is different from the previous doll. She is an adult, her limbs are slender, fresh and moving. Although she is very good, she is wrapped tightly by beautiful clothes. Her face still reveals mystery like Marilyn Monroe, although it is only 11.5 inches high.
In 1959, "Barbie" participated in the New York Toy Fair, which became a turning point in her "life". Everyone was attracted to her: perfect body, "39, 18, 33" measurements, golden hair, fresh appearance, and beautiful costumes with several drawers. No one has ever seen such a toy. "Barbie" shocked the world, and the world also knew Ruth Handler.
For Ruth Handler, "Barbie" is like a family member, because the name is named after the daughter Barbara. Not only that, Ruth Handler also found a boyfriend "Ken" for "Barbie", this is the name of her youngest son.
Whenever these names are called, Ruth Handler feels very kind, because she and the "Barbie" family have become one.
Just listed, I sold 350,000 orders and flew like snowflakes.
The first Barbie dolls were made in Japan and made their debut in the United States in 1959. The name of the exhibition was "Barbie - a role model for girls." But what Ruth expected, "Barbie" was not snapped up, but was met by a toy dealer. After all, she is a brand new thing, an adventure, dealers are not willing to do so, just a few of them. However, the market proved that Ruth’s judgment was correct. The “Barbie†placed in the corner of the dealer’s shelf was warmly welcomed by the children. More and more people started to buy this kind of fresh and happy toy, especially small. The girl, who is extremely keen on this, sold 350,000 in the first year.
In 1960, the dealers completely changed their minds, and the order flew to Mattel like a snow flake. It took the company a few years to meet the demand for Barbie. In 10 years, the amount of public purchase of Barbie reached $500 million.
However, while "Barbie" was widely welcomed by the public, it was also criticized by various parties. Some critics say that Barbie is too "sexy" and too "perfect" to set an unrealizable goal for the little girl. The end result is that they hurt their self-esteem and make them feel inferior to their looks and body. But Ruth does not think so. She said that "Barbie" is the idol of a girl. The idol is naturally perfect. The little girl does not feel inferior because of her idol.
To prove that "Barbie" is not an empty vase, but a professional woman. Ruth has designed more kinds of "Barbie", she has more identities, can be doctors, astronauts, women entrepreneurs, police officers, athletes, and even UNICEF volunteers, so far, She has more than 80 occupations; she can be Chinese, Indian, black, and there are 45 ethnic groups that she speaks; her pets now have more than 40, and the first pet is called Dancer. Ma; she has her own boyfriend "Ken", which is named after the son of Ruth; she also has her own three sisters, namely, Qiaobi, which was launched in 1964, and Shixixi, which was introduced in 1922. Xiao Kaili, who appeared in 1955.
This is an ordinary toy, but it is so real. On the one hand, she is incredibly beautiful. She is a "thousand-faced girl". On the other hand, she is so close to us because she has the same self as any little girl. The preference. As a market image, "Barbie" is so successful. According to Mattel's statistics, an 11-year-old American girl may have 10 Barbie dolls, and the same age French girl has five. In addition to children, millions of adult women buy Barbie. “For them, she is not just a doll, no matter how old,†Ruth said. “She has become a part of them.†And Barbie’s collector Even more men and women: a Barbie doll that was priced at $3 in 1959, if it is well preserved, may now cost $5,000.
The total sales volume of the best-selling countries in the world exceeds 1 billion.
Since the birth of the first Barbie, it has been continuously improved and innovated. The shape of the Barbie doll has been corrected and improved over 500 times, and it has become what it is today. The recent appearance is based on the famous American Chinese athlete Guan Yingshan. In order to make "Barbie" have beautiful fashion, about 1,500 pieces of clothes have been produced since 1955, and about 100 new Barbie clothes are launched every year. Now Barbie is sold in 150 countries and has a total sales volume of more than 1 billion. This American girl between the little girl and the adult woman is the best-selling toy in the world toy market and has become the beloved of men, women and children all over the world.
Now, Barbie is 59 years old, but she is still young. She lives longer than the once-popular broccoli doll and teddy bear. No one knows why this is, even her creator, Ruth Handler, cannot explain. Someone asked Ruth Handler: Why did Barbie perform so well? She just smiled and replied: "I am a marketing genius." However, Mattel also produces many other types of toys, not only one is better than Barbie, but also a lot of death. It should be said that Ruth's original inspiration gave the doll a permanent life. She is close to life and truly creates the "Barbie" of the "Babie" for the children.
Barbie's success brought a lot of wealth to Mattel. When Ruth was 50 years old, Mattel had dominated the highly competitive toy world, which controlled 12% of the US $2 billion toy market. Ruth said: "At that time I already had my career, my husband, my children and Barbie and Ken. I am at the top of the world."
In 1970, Mattel's new director began diversifying the company's products and no longer focused on producing toys, which ultimately led Ruth and her husband to be forced away from the company business they created. In 1975, Ruth resigned as president and left the company she and her husband founded. Ruth began her second venture. In 1976, Ruth founded a new company, but not a toy.
In 2002, Ruth died of illness. Although the mother of Barbie has left us, the Barbie doll she created is still popular.
Third, in order to consolidate its status as a toy giant, Mattel has laid out so many
Mattel currently has five main brands in China, and Barbie is just one of them. In addition to this, there are Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, Mega bloks and Thomas & Friends. . In China, the focus of our marketing is to build these five main brands. In addition to our entertainment products, such as Octonauts (submarine small column), Boodies (Bodi) is also very popular in the Chinese market. â€
1. QQ and Mattel reached a strategic cooperation "social IP" strong release
On October 19th, 2016, QQ and the world's largest toy company, Mattel, jointly held the "QQ & Mattel Strategic Cooperation Conference".
In the cooperation between Tencent QQ and Mattel, Mattel has launched the series of toy products in addition to QQfamily image. As the world's largest toy company, Mattel will use the strong offline channels to rapidly popularize QQfamily image and toys. At the same time, QQ's strong traffic and support in the social relationship chain will also help, so that QQfamily IP will grow rapidly.
Li Dan, general manager of Tencent's social network business group marketing department, said that the launch of the image toy is part of the strategic cooperation between the two parties. With Mattel's rich IP management experience and QQ's strong social resources, QQfamily will gradually mature as an IP, and the ecology will become more diverse. In the future, it is also possible for both parties to jointly launch smart toy products based on the QQ social relationship chain. According to reports, Tencent QQ will launch nearly 100 comics and multi-season animations featuring QQfamily in 2017, and plans to launch with Tencent Pictures.
(Peter Broegger, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Mattel)
2, the world's largest toy company Mattel and Alibaba cooperate to play artificial intelligence, covet China's 50 billion toy market
Mattel announced on February 15, 2017 that it has entered into a new strategic partnership with Alibaba Group.
Mattel said in a statement that Alibaba's understanding of Chinese consumers will help Mattel customize its targeted marketing and product strategy. With 440 million active buyers on the e-commerce platform, Alibaba will help Mattel meet the growing and ever-changing needs of Chinese consumers for toy products.
As part of its strategic partnership, Mattel will not only sell products through Tmall, but will also use Alibaba's media ecosystem to develop and promote learning resources and educational content to help parents and children gain more from playing with toys.
At the same time, Mattel will not only sell products through Tmall, but also use Alibaba's media ecosystem to develop and promote learning resources and educational content to help parents and children gain more from playing with toys.
In addition, Mattel will work with Alibaba's artificial intelligence experiment to develop new and innovative products. Product development work will start immediately, and the first batch of products is expected to be available in the middle of this year.
3. Mattel and Fosun jointly established a children's play club
On June 14, 2017, the famous American toy company Mattel announced that it has signed a joint venture agreement with China Fosun Group. The two companies will collaborate to establish a children's play club, which will combine the advantages of Mattel in children's play and the advantages of Fosun's Mediterranean Club in customer experience to serve Chinese children and families. The joint venture is still subject to approval by the Chinese government.
Under the agreement, Mattel will integrate its child development curriculum into the game services provided by the club, and the Club will use its expertise in operating the children's club to provide event design, process innovation and training for the new company. stand by. The club will provide consumers with a variety of educational and play experiences. There are both children’s independent projects and parental arrangements.
4. Mattel, a brand of Mattel, signed a cross-industry strategic cooperation with Shanghai Sangun Group.
July 18, 2017 —The world's leading creative company, Mattel, held a “warning warmth in the world, starting with the first peace of mind – 2017 Fisher's Three Guns Joint Product Launch Conference†in Shanghai, China, and announced its famous baby brand fee. Snow and China's national underwear manufacturer Shanghai Sangun (Group) Co., Ltd. reached a strategic cooperation.
This series of projects and cooperation has established Mattel as the market leader of choice for licensors. For a long time, Mattel has provided comprehensive support to its partners with its rich authorized resources and long-term commitment. At the same time, as an advocate and innovation leader of early childhood development, Mattel continues to work with partners to promote the healthy growth and development of Chinese children through innovative, cross-disciplinary and multi-channel strategic cooperation.
5. Mattel wants to open thousands of early education centers. Can this change the Chinese toy market?
On July 27th, Mattel announced that it has completed the formation of a joint venture company with China's largest online maternal and child baby tree, and will establish and operate thousands of community chain early education centers across the country.
According to the announcement, Mattel and its brand of baby toys will work with Baby Tree to develop an early education framework, curriculum, syllabus and classroom materials. Baby Tree will use big data to determine the strategic location of the Early Learning Center. It is said that the opening process of the Community Early Learning Center in the six major regions of the country has been initiated. In the end, the community early education centers that the two sides will cooperate will reach thousands.
This is one of the series of high-profile actions of Mattel in China since the announcement of the cooperation between the company and the baby tree in March this year to create an online early education content platform.
The shift in the concept of consumption and the market to be released by the second-child policy is the reason why the global toy industry giant is strategically inclined to the Chinese market. A frequently mentioned figure is that in the milk powder market and the diaper market is much larger than that of the United States, the toy market is only one-third of the size of the US.
Indeed, compared with the usual "play", Chinese parents prefer to improve their children's education level. Early education is an important part of education. According to the Prospective Industry Research Institute "Early Education Industry Development Prospects Forecast", China's early education market belongs to the sunrise industry, which is in the period of rapid development. In 2017, the size of the early education market will exceed 200 billion yuan, and the market potential is huge.
However, compared with the strong demand of Chinese families, the distribution of early childhood education institutions in China is still uneven and resources are relatively scarce. Mattel’s resources are undoubtedly more useful.
6. How does Mattel compete with LEGO in the $2 billion building block toy market?
Although Mattel, the US toy manufacturer, still ranks first in the global toy brand in 2016, its ambitions do not stop there. In the past year, Mattel has been actively developing its building block business, and hopes that its building block brand Mega Bloks will fully develop in the building block market, surpassing the building block toy giant Lego.
In 2016, Mattel's total sales for the year was approximately $6 billion, exceeding Lego's total sales of $5.4 billion. But in the building block toy market, Lego's position is still difficult to shake - in the US toy market, for every $10 in building block toys, $8 is for Lego. The market share of Meco is only 11%.
The toy company, which started with Barbie dolls, is facing the dilemma of Barbie sales falling for several years – the perfect Barbie without any flaws is no longer the favorite toy image of children. Mattel must begin to develop a new profitable product line.
Mattel put his gaze on the toy building blocks. In 2014, Mattel spent $460 million to acquire the Canadian building block brand Mega Brands, a move that was seen as the starting point for a massive quest for a tempting cake in the building block market.
Since the beginning of this year, Mattel has announced a number of cooperation with Chinese companies, including a strategic agreement with Alibaba, cooperation with Tencent in QQfamily IP-based toys, cooperation with Fosun Group to open a play club, and cooperation with three guns to develop their children's wear. product line. After the appointment of Margot Georgiadis, the new CEO of Google’s executives, Margot Georgiadis has proposed that Mattel will change from a traditional game maker to a “child-oriented company for the future†and announced a high-profile growth plan in the Chinese market last month. : To achieve 3-4 times of current performance by 2020.
Of course, in the layout of Mattel's competitor Lego is not idle, it is to open the Chinese market with the puzzle.
Lego, the toy market giant, also opened factories, experience stores and theme parks in this emerging market. In November last year, the first LEGO Asia factory was officially put into operation in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. The Lego theme park will open in Shanghai as early as 2018. According to Yaguo Gao, general manager of the Lego Group China and senior vice president of the group, Lego will also invest more energy in China's third- and fourth-tier cities, and the Lego Discovery Center is expected to open more stores.
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