In 1992, Mattel was quoted as having a value of $1.6 billion, and it was suggested that the average American girl owned seven Barbie dolls (Lord, 1994)
As a result, over the years, Mattel, Inc. has rewritten history as well as profoundly affected children's play (Macdougall, 2003)
American Girl. This category of brands include American Girl Today, The American Girls Collection and Bitty Baby (Mattel, 2004) 2
American Girl. This category of brands include American Girl Today, The American Girls Collection and Bitty Baby (Mattel, 2004) 2
Since that point, however, Mattel has not only remedied the situation with its Chinese suppliers but has had a strong record. The company moved proactively to institute changes to its suppliers' ethics policies, and has become more dedicated to enforcing its mandates (Magno, 2008)
The company realized this early and took steps to ensure that such problems would not happen. This means exerting more pressure on and control over suppliers than most companies would have to (Barboza & Story, 2007)
Mattel has in the past had some reputation issues, often to do with Barbie and body image. Concern among parent groups is one thing, and challenging enough, but academic studies have found that Barbie can have a negative effect of the body image of young girls (Dittmar, Halliwell & Ive, 2006), and this is something that has to concern Mattel because it creates negativity surrounding the company and its flagship product
Yet, the brand does have sporadic success that the company can build on. For example, the Barbie brand recovered with a 17% increase in sales globally last year, and the company had strength across all of its brands, pointing to the enduring strength of the company's brands (Egan, 2011)
The biggest gains were in the emerging regions of Asia Pacific and Latin America. In particular, Mexico and Brazil have been cited as strong markets for the company (Kell, 2011)
The brand has been successfully extended a number of times, such that an entire family of products exists with the Barbie brand. As an example of how powerful the brand is, the company was able to piggyback on the success of the Hunger Games movie with a Barbie co-branded product, and it did the same thing with the Twilight series of movies, indicating that Barbie is a major brand in merchandising such that it adds value even to the most successful of franchises (Ng, 2012)
It is unlikely that this trend will be reversed any time soon, given the supply and demand conditions for petroleum. Oil prices have been quite volatile in the past few years, and this volatility is expected to continue, or even worsen, over the course of the next few years (Ready, 2011)
Children are switching to video games at younger ages, and there is intense competition for the business that does remain. Mattel, for example, has a costly lawsuit ongoing with MGA Entertainment over its Bratz dolls (Skariachan, 2011)
Other key threats are with labor conditions, given that the company contracts out a lot of production to the developing world -- China, Southeast Asia and Mexico -- where labor laws are poor. The company would come under significant fire in particular if its toys were made with child labor, as occurred at one Indonesian supplier in the late 1990s (White, 1998)
Additionally, the regulations that do exist are often challenged by industry through lobbying to reduce the impact of such regulations on the free market. (Danitz, 1997, p
In short, this slattern effigy my daughter opened on Christmas morning (we do Chanuka and Christmas at the Goldbergs') was a gum-snapping, six-inch-heeled, F-me-pump-wearing ho. Fo sho. (Goldberg, 2007, p
And in 1785, two years before the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, Samuel Adams, of Boston Tea Party fame and then governor of Massachusetts, signed a law to ban all kinds of food adulteration in that state. (Janssen, 1987, p
Marketing evolved through a commodity focus (farm products, minerals, manufactured goods, services); an institutional focus (producers, wholesalers, retailers, agents); a functional focus (buying, selling, promoting, transporting, storing, pricing); a managerial focus (analysis, planning, organization, control); and a social focus (market efficiency, product quality, and social impact). (Lazer & Kelley, 1973, p
16) In comparison to regulations of tangible products, such as those that exist where commerce is transacted and products are exchanged insurance regulation has traditionally been resolute that the federal government has the dominant power, as many insurance transactions occur across borders. (Lencsis, 1997, p
Aristotelian ethics also underscore courage as the catalyst that galvanizes a decision away from merely being aligned to expectations of the broader society to one that forces acuity of ethical and moral insight be applied (Heinze, 2010). Honesty The capacity of a person to attain a level of authenticity and transparency determines the ability of influence they have, both form an emotive and cognitive basis (Gordley, Cecil, 1998)
There are many applicable scenarios in the Mattel case, where managers could have acted with courage and defined an ethically-oriented culture and in many cases chose to violate both laws and ethical guidelines. Aristotelian ethics also underscore courage as the catalyst that galvanizes a decision away from merely being aligned to expectations of the broader society to one that forces acuity of ethical and moral insight be applied (Heinze, 2010)