There are, it is claimed, more than three Barbie dolls sold every second – contributing to a worldwide haul of around $3.6 billion in retail sales every year for Mattel’s iconic toy.
It’s no surprise, then, that toy manufacturers have searched long and hard for a doll that might take even a small percentage of that business away from Barbie, when capturing even 1 percent of her sales would result in a $36 million dollar windfall.
Since the turn of the century, a new sector has emerged in the international doll market that may eventually prove to be Barbie’s toughest challenger for the hearts and coins of young girls: Islamic dolls.
HELLO DOLLY. Islamic dolls originated in part from a desire on the part of authorities in the Arab world to stop Muslim girls from seeing Barbie and her Western counterparts as aspirational role models. In Iran, for example, two Islamic dolls – Dara and Sara – were launched in the hope of providing more culturally suitable toys for Muslim girls. But it wasn’t until 2003, when Syrian-based New Boy Toys created Fulla, that Islamic dolls were marketed to the masses. New Boy declined repeated requests for an interview with Communicate.
Within 18 months of her launch, Fulla was the biggest-selling doll in the Middle East – and New Boy one of the region’s biggest spenders on advertising. In 2007, the company spent close to $100 million on marketing, according to Ipsos Stat. The majority was on promoting Fulla (and the figures don’t include sums spent on the Fulla animated TV series). The doll is now hailed globally as the “Arabic” or “Islamic” Barbie.
You might expect all this to be enough to make competitors think twice about trying to challenge New Boy’s dominance. It isn’t.
At last year’s Toy Fair in Dubai, we met two of Fulla’s challengers: Simba Toys Middle East – which hopes its Jamila doll will give Fulla as tough a battle as its European operation’s Steffi Love has given Barbie – and Saghira – a Moroccan company whose eponymous doll was being hawked around by CEO Mounir El Abridi, hoping to find distributors in the GCC. Both companies recognize the size of the challenge they face.
El Abridi says his operation can be considered “door-to-door” at the moment. (“I’m evangelizing the product,” he says.) The only capital comes from him and his brother.
“If [Fulla is] number one – which it is – we’re probably number 99 at the moment,” he says. “But by no means is that a reflection on the quality of our product. Quite frankly, they have a formidable marketing team, whereas we have one person trying to design, market and sell everything. We can’t afford to have ads on TV and radio. There’s a huge, huge difference.”
El Abridi’s plan is a long-term one, based on his undoubted energy and willingness to travel the region to show off Saghira. And with Fulla and others leading the way, he hopes his doll can slip in on their abaya tails. “Frankly, we’re just stumbling along at the moment,” he admits. “I’m well aware that it’ll take a few years to get recognition.”
He is optimistic, though, that there’s room for his brand. “There’s definitely demand out there,” he says. “Many parents feel their children – we’re talking about girls – will be better served playing with a doll that they can relate to. The fact that there’s Fulla and others just reinforces that idea. The more people that go into a certain market, the more demand it generates and the more prominence that market has.”
MONEY ISN’T EVERYTHING. El Abridi can take heart from Chris Becker, head of operations and marketing at Simba Toys Middle East, who – while admitting that New Boy’s big spending has helped it establish Fulla as the market leader (“In terms of sales and bringing product to market, there’s nobody except New Boy that has this power in the market.”) – says he’s confident Jamila can make a mark without needing the cash splashed on Fulla.
“I believe if you have a great product, you need to support it. But if it’s not working without any support in terms of TV ads, or radio, it will not work,” he says. “We launched Jamila in October 2006 with an exclusive point-of-sale promotion in Carrefour. That was all. And we were the fastest-selling doll ever in the UAE in these 10 days. We sold 2,348 pieces.”
Becker hired Artaaj, a Dubai-based events agency, to handle the launch. The agency provided a local model to “be” Jamila and the company set up a tent in the supermarket with the Jamila logo.
The idea of a “live” Jamila proved extremely popular, Becker says. “Children would come to her and ask for autographs. They were really excited to hear her story.” It was a tactic that caused some consternation on the last day of the promotion, however, when the original model was unavailable and a replacement stepped in. “There was one little girl who came back and when she saw the new Jamila she was like, ‘Who are you?’” Becker says. “And the model said, ‘I’m Jamila.’ And she said, ‘You get lost. You’re not Jamila.’”
Fortunately, the launch – cheap as it was – proved successful.
“We never did TV, radio, PR. We just tried to see if the product was working,” Becker says. “The only cost that we had was development [of the doll]. We spent peanuts on promotion. Maybe $5,000. Even the point-of-sale is just cardboard boxes covered with posters. And it looks great.”
QUALITY NOT QUANTITY. To Becker, New Boy’s approach to marketing Fulla is anathema. “We’ve never tried to push a product into the market just by running a TV ad,” he says. “We’ve got our success by merchandising properly. We’ve tried to be innovative and creative and new, and it’s worked out. In my eyes, if they have to put on a marketing campaign like this, they are not successful.”
In fact, he is unimpressed by most of the promotions he has seen in the UAE since his arrival from his native Germany, believing that the majority of companies share New Boy’s failing of throwing money away through a lack of strategic thinking.
“The only guys that I really see doing a proper job over here are P&G and Unilever. With their experience and expertise, obviously they’re doing good stuff with their promotions work. But everybody else, there’s no need to put in all this money,” he says.
He concedes that Simba will eventually need to spend more on marketing if Jamila is to seriously challenge Fulla, but stresses that point-of-sale will remain the cornerstone of the Jamila campaigns. “Having Fulla in the market already, animated and on cereal boxes, should I really try and outspend them by throwing millions at something?” he asks. “No.”
TEETHING TROUBLES. Becker admits he had to learn a few important lessons from the local market when it came to promoting Jamila, though. On the initial run of dolls, Jamil – a male doll – was described on the packaging as Jamila’s “friend.” It was pointed out to Becker that this might not be the wisest way to position the product. Jamil was swiftly promoted to the rank of husband and the happy couple now have two babies – Assad and Amira.
Another significant shift from marketing dolls in Europe is the regional target market. Here, it’s the grown ups who are buying the dolls. “In Europe, pocket money is a great market. Girls go and spend five euros or whatever on dolls or little accessories,” Becker says. “Over here, they go to their parents. The children don’t spend their own money. Only adults are buying the dolls.”
Saghira’s El Abridi agrees. “It’s obvious that the parents hold the key to success for Saghira,” he says. “The parents are the ones who’ll decide if their child can buy a doll. It’s a major purchase, particularly in the countries of the Islamic world which aren’t so rich.”
Both men say that for this reason – and because Islamic dolls are seen as memorabilia as well as toys – Duty Free shops are a vital point of sale for their dolls. “At first we underestimated this,” says Becker. “But 50 percent of our sales are to expats or guys who travel to the Middle East and take it home as a souvenir.”
GROWING UP FAST. With the initial glitches out of the way, Becker is optimistic about Jamila’s potential. There are now several more dolls available in the Jamila line and Simba is investing in brand extensions too. “The success of Jamila in the market has made us go in new directions,” he says. “What can you do with dolls? Bring out accessories, new dresses or whatever.
“But Jamila is a little more than just a doll: It’s our appreciation of the Middle East. Stationery is the perfect tool to carry it further, because it relates to education and everyday life.”
He doesn’t mention the fact that each piece of stationery amounts to a smart bit of free advertising for the brand in schools, but we’re guessing that’s all part of the plan too.
Becker doesn’t believe, though, that the Islamic doll market will ever overtake the market for Western dolls, even in the Arab world. “I believe the market share’s going to grow, but I don’t think it’ll outrun the Barbies and the Steffis and the Disneys because they’re massive all over the world,” he says. “The interest – especially in Dubai – in being Western-oriented is massive. They’re proud of who they are, but they’re still trying to adapt to what’s coming in too.
“We’re trying to establish our niche in the market,” he continues. “It’s not like this will be our main business in the future.”
El Abridi says Saghira – the doll – will be his company’s main business. And he’s not just targeting the Arab world either. He has grander ambitions.
“There are well in excess of a billion Muslims worldwide. Name any country in the world – except perhaps the Vatican – and you’ll find Muslims. And they have kids who may be interested in the product.”
Whether Saghira can draw that interest away from Fulla, however, is a different matter.
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Barbied comments
Eric Clark, in The Real Toy Story, cites a reactionary Saudi poster damning Barbie. “Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures ... are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West.”
In the same book an Arab League official complains that “Barbie wears a bikini and drinks champagne,” adding that Arab traditions should be instilled in children as opposed to “the lifestyle that Barbie represents.”
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