What Do Barbie, Taylor and Me Have In Common?

Well, Barbie seems to have recently reminded us is that a persona, a woman over 60, can generate a billion dollars of value from a movie…while perpetuating a multi-billion-dollar brand. She is a woman that can be more than pretty or smart, but can morph into various jobs, sports, roles while solving numerous problems and be a beacon of light for young children, teens and adults of all ages. Of course, Barbie is not real…she is a doll, a figure, a self-actualized character in a recently super successful movie.

Taylor Swift, by contrast, is real. Like all singer-songwriters, she emerged slowly. But as her music began to take off, her managers/producers/record label posed conflicts for Taylor. Bottom line, she took matters into her own hands and built the single most successful recording/performing brand in history. She personally nets $15million per performance. She has multi-night stops at the largest, newest, stadiums all around the world. She helps to create jobs and business/ revenue opportunities in every city where she performs. A multi-billion-dollar franchise…she even tipped her 50-person stagehands/truckers/helpers/crew $100,000 each the other evening as a personal thank-you for help at her LA stop. Need I say more? She seems to embody Barbie.

So, what the hell does all this have to do with me? Once upon a time, while I was attending UCLA’s Anderson School to earn my MBA, I landed and for two years kept a summer job in market research at Carson-Roberts, LA’s largest ad agency at the time (later acquired by Ogilvy) I was taught how to conduct & run focus groups for Mattel’s Barbie business …qualitatively exploring the wants and needs of mothers and daughters and their relationship with Barbie. 

Upon graduating with my MBA, I accepted a great job in account management at (what was then) the world’s biggest, most prestigious ad agency, Y&R in New York. There, I rose through the ranks helping to pioneer “integrated marketing communications” (e.g., advertising, PR, sales promotion, digital, experiential, social, sponsorship, etc.) while growing the brands of several Fortune 500 clients (e.g., General Foods, Bristol Meyers, Chase, etc.). But then, Ogilvy knocked on my door (at the suggestion of its Creative Director) with an opportunity to run half of their LA office including Mattel’s “Barbie” account. I happily accepted.

Working closely with Mattel’s product folks (including its CEO, Ruth Handler), my Agency creative & research team dove into the history and potential future of Barbie. Our extensive market research and qualitative analysis explored the emerging career desires, lifestyle options and aspirations of girls and their parents. Among other things, what emerged was their desire to compete equally with men for various jobs…as an executive, scientist, architect, doctor, lawyer. CEO and so forth. And bring with it, a female perspective equally valued by both sexes. 

In a nutshell, we and I captured a glimpse of the future…self-aware women in professional graduate programs, women rising through the ranks in major corporations, women expressing themselves freely and being treated equally throughout the world…and now we see it with our female children (I have two successful daughters), we see it in corporate life (I promoted more than a dozen women to very senior/top management roles and came to recognize their valuable perspective, partnership and feedback), we see it in sports (tennis, golf, etc.), politics, fashion, the arts and in the home…and we see it in all the various working “Barbies” bought around the globe. And of course, we see it in Taylor Swift and her millions of followers (women and men) every time she puts on a concert, distributes an album and does well by doing good...

So, as you know, my firm, bob wolf partners/TPG, advises marketers/advertisers on how best to optimize their Client/Agency Relationship(s). And if you follow Barbie, no doubt all your female/male relationships, decisions and outcomes might be better optimized!