In 2003, LEGO almost went out of business because they had diversified so much that they lost their way. The company was for sale to the highest bidder. After a lot of soul searching and deep diving, they turned around their business and concentrated on what they do best. They organized and pulled it together, raised the money to save their business and become the 3rd largest, independent toy company in the world and holding fast. Mattel needs to try harder to tap into their strengths, understand what they do well and do it properly.
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I agree with 'don't let marketing run the business'. That has been the undoing of Mattel. I worked for Mattel for many years. After watching and studying the Barbie collector market, I came up with a great idea for Barbie Collector. Pitched it to the Senior VP at the time who loved it and moved it through. Six months later, when this VP left, the marketing person halted the project which was past EA stage and said, 'well, not all of the good ideas can make it through!' and cancelled the slots on the BDO. Now, they had nothing for fall. Marketing has no regard for the collectors who had held up the Barbie Collector brand for decades. It's embarrassing and senseless to see how much control they have over products that they would never even buy anyway.
The company is f—ed. Accept that and move on. Too much ego to accept errors and turn it around.
or sell it
Ynon can still turn her around, I have faith!
Golden statement: “don’t let Marketing run the company. That’s the real problem.”
Leaders without toy expertise too
Smaller is better. It is at this stage real innovation happens. What Mattel is great at having is a structured process. Which everyone follows but from what I’ve seen prevents innovation from happening.
At the 3 different toy companies I freelance for now, they say that they’re not as structured as Mattel, but they have new products that’s doing well in the market. Not having a firm structure in place maybe serving these companies well. I think Mattel needs to get smaller before it can get big again.
If any of you Mattel execs are reading this, break away from the structure. Really become a design lead organization and don’t let Marketing run the company. That’s the real problem.
When BS Stock-on was head of mattel he brought in consultants that told us we needed to concentrate on the “core of the core”. At FP we dropped entire lines, role play, sports, ride ons and lot of other items. We added no new products to make up the 10s of millions of dollars we dropped. That was the beginning of the end of FP being profitable. Having a diverse line of toys helps with the bottom line.
Now we don’t have the staff or finances to get back into those areas, now dominated by other smaller companies.
And to think this entire time we were led to believe that diversity was our strength, only to realize too late it could very well be our undoing. 😩
They need good, competent leadership with an aptitude in toys......