?? Living in Barbie Land ??

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Newsletter?#20 | Living in Barbie Land

2023: The year of Barbie world domination. In a blaze of Pantone 219C the Warner Bros. Discovery marketing team has taken over. The success of their campaigning is perhaps best summed up in a series of viral tweets that thank the team for (among other things), pink sunsets and Lake Hillier in Western Australia (which has always been pink, but at least now we know why).?

The film’s reach extends far beyond the toy aisle, with more than 100 partnerships initiated for the film’s launch. From AirBnB’s Malibu Barbie Dreamhouse, to a bright fuschia Xbox, a collaboration with luggage brand Beis and a Barbie-pink burger from Burger King Brazil.?

While Barbie doubled down on its brand, Twitter (X) veered in the opposite direction. In a move that led many to question whether the marketing team was even consulted, Elon Musk announced that Twitter was no more. Instead, the company would be X.?

The bigger picture

The Barbie marketing machine and Twitter’s dramatic rebrand have fuelled short-term news headlines. They also speak to longer-running advertising debates.?

How do you connect with consumers??

Barbie was a branded blockbuster. A two-hour long advert for Mattel, Inc. , as well as a whole host of brands who cashed in on the opportunity to put their products in front of a captive (paying) audience. It demonstrates what advertising could look like, moving away from 3 second ads to high-budget content that delivers value to the consumer.?

In a similar vein, on the Inside Influence podcast with Julie Masters , Ben Jones said that his favorite ad was a 4 hour long lofi-backed animated film for the Nissan Ariya. The top liked comment on the YouTube video sums up what the ad achieves: “This is how commercials should be. Not designed to annoy people but provide a pleasant experience which they associate with the product.”?

When creating ads, advertisers could do worse than keep Howard Gossage’s adage front of mind: "Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them; and sometimes it's an ad.”?

Distinctiveness v. Differentiation??

It would be remiss to refer to longer-running advertising debates and not discuss distinctiveness versus differentiation.?

Barbie is a masterclass in distinctiveness. Mikayla Hopkins ’ breakdown of the 64-year old brand’s success highlights several key points. Firstly: this was not a marketing strategy built on communicating the features and benefits of Barbie’s toys. This was a play beyond the toy aisle, and as the proliferation of partnerships underscores, an opportunity to gain relevance in communities the brand previously had little influence over.?

The marketing onslaught “doubled down on repetition, distinctiveness, and consistency.” Barbie-pink is so universally well-known that Mattel could run billboards with no text or visual. Just pink.?

The billboards speak to the powerful potential of playing with brand codes. As Mark Ritson surmised: “It’s a strange but wonderful paradox of older brands that, when you remove their name from packaging or advertising, the first thing that consumers do is fill in the cognitive blank in such a way that salience occurs to a much greater effect.”?

‘Owning’ a color is a feat most brands can only aspire towards. But the value to a brand in doing so is huge. When Tiffany was bought by LVMH for $16 billion in 2021, the group’s Chairman Bernard Arnault referenced the brand’s eponymous blue as intrinsic to its value.?

While Barbie was undeniably boosted by the combined power of heritage and a seemingly unlimited marketing budget, its success points to the power of brand distinctiveness, and the capacity for older brands to reinvent themselves for new audiences by tapping into their history as opposed to disregarding it.?

X marks the spot?

Diametrically opposed to Barbie’s distinctiveness efforts was Twitter’s rebrand to ‘X’. A personal victory for Elon Musk, who failed to rebrand PayPal to the same letter, but bought back the X.com domain name from the company, saying in 2017 “it has great sentimental value to me.”?

While the overhaul was close to Musk’s heart, Twitter’s users were less convinced. 67% had a negative reaction to the rebrand, and the move is estimated to have wiped out anywhere from $4-20 billion in brand value.?

But the move was an attempt by the company to differentiate itself. Announcing the rebrand, CEO Linda Yaccarino outlined a vision for X to become a site for video, messaging, payment and banking.” Is this what Twitter users want?

Even if X can successfully differentiate itself, does this make up for the loss of cultural influence tied up within the Twitter brand??

Forrester research director Mike Proulx underscored the success of the company in not only partaking in, but shaping popular culture. “It has become a verb. That’s the holy grail. This is a brand that has secured a place in our cultural lexicon.”?

Barbie + X = ??

In his most recent mini MBA webinar, Mark Ritson ‘defended differentiation’, arguing that brands have swayed too far away from differentiation in search of distinctiveness when they should be looking to achieve both.?

In Ritson’s eyes, the goal should be ‘relative differentiation’, with marketers prioritizing “attributes and associations that matter to their target consumers.”

For all of its focus on distinctiveness, Barbie also succeeded in shifting associations with the brand.?

While Barbie dolls have been critiqued for projecting an unrealistic, over sexualized expectation of women’s bodies, the film provides a “searing indictment of the current fraught state of gender relations.” Platforming shifts in culture and subverting traditional expectations to build brand value.?

The pendulum might have swung too far, but ignoring distinctiveness and brand history altogether should not be the prescribed route forward. Both elements are needed for success, and while Barbie’s marketing budgets may only exist in Barbie dreamland, the takeaways for marketers have real-world applicability.?

Thanks for reading!