Barbie Gets a Facelift: The Tale of a Web Makeover

Selling to Kids, August 23, 2000

For a gal in her 40s, Barbie looks better than ever. But her Web site, until recently, was definitely showing its age. Experience is important, but stale content and all-too-familiar design can be a handicap on the Web.

Mattel put up a standalone Barbie site about two years ago, realizing the importance of creating a separate Internet presence for each of its brands. But the site was showing its age, and the company realized it had to update the look and content in order for Barbie to capture girls' attention online.

The project, which Mattel will only say was a multi-million dollar effort, resulted in a redesigned Barbie site. The new Barbie.com includes easy navigation, kids-only games, and activities like a Barbie Shoe Hunt (Concentration with a Barbie twist) and Barbie's Closet (where kids design a story for Barbie by choosing her activities and outfits). The site made its debut July 26, and while specific numbers had not been released at the time of press, traffic has quadrupled, according to measurements by Net Genesis.

In an exclusive interview, Christina DeRosa, Mattel's VP of Web site and media content for the Barbie division, talks to S2K about the redesign. She can be reached at 310/252-4476 or derosach@mattel.com.

S2K: How did you decide it was time to redesign the site?

DeRosa: The old Barbie.com was targeted to a very mixed demographic, all jumbled in one place - kids, parents and collectors. The new Barbie.com was developed against our core audience of girls 4 to 12. It was important for us to make the site more of a destination site where girls can go and play.

S2K: How did you uncover what that demographic wants in a Web site?

DeRosa: We compiled a group of girls and their moms, over 100 in total, and asked what they like about the Web, what they don't, what they're uncomfortable with, what they'd like to see.

We found the things they like to do are draw, read stories, do puzzles - they have very traditional play patterns.

We asked ourselves, how do we take advantage of that and transition it to the Web? We used the Concentration game in the Barbie Shoe Hunt, we added a puzzle section and we developed Barbie's Closet for quintessential play.

S2K: As you built the site, did you continue to look to kids for their advice?

DeRosa: There were three rounds of focus groups back in November of last year. We hired Cheskin Research, which has done a lot of research in this field. They worked with us starting about six months ago and recruited a panel of girls who would stay with us through building the site.

We have 26 girls from three U.S. cities - we call them our Board of Directors - and we send them stuff every two weeks. When you have a fashion section, you talk to adults and they want to call it "Fashion Frenzy." A little girl says, "What's frenzy? Call it 'Fashion Fun.'"

S2K: What concerned the parents?

DeRosa: Parents were very concerned with safety. Because of that, we have no mechanism for girls to send emails, we don't have chat rooms and we don't have registration, so we don't collect personal information.

S2K: One of the most frustrating things about the Web for parents and kids is that it can sometimes be difficult to navigate. How did you solve this problem, especially since you're targeting the site at girls as young as 4?

DeRosa: One of the hardest things to do for kids is design a navigation system that they understand inately. For example, a girl of 6, she's just beginning to read, plus it's hard to read on a screen. You have to deal with dexterity issues, manipulating the mouse with small icons. When we put something up that is more pictorial based, it's much easier for girls to feel comfortable. We use big circles that are easy for them to click on.

We had fathers emailing, saying, "My daughter's been on the site for so long and hasn't called and asked for help."

S2K: Another problem kids often encounter on the Web is activities that require downloaded software tools in order to participate. Barbie.com does require a few downloads. How did you determine where to draw the line?

DeRosa: We looked at penetration rates of different technologies. We've only used Flash and Shockwave. We worked with Macromedia as one of their 20 corporate partners. We didn't use anything new and revolutionary - these technologies are in 80% of homes.

S2K: There are big differences between a 12-year-old user and a 4-year- old user. How did you balance content?

DeRosa: In games, we incorporated three levels: one for the youngest and three for the oldest.

Secondly, we took interests common between a 6-year-old and a 12-year- old. All girls like reading, especially reading about other girls. B-Scene is an online magazine and will skew older. Barbie's Closet will skew younger; it's more aligned to traditional doll play.