Marketers to leverage brands for girls - retailers focusing on CD-ROM-based interactive entertainment products - Retailing & Entertainment

Discount Store News, Nov 18, 1996

Retailers are turning popular entertainment properties aimed at girls into extensive brand lines that are spawning some innovative products.

One result of this trend is an innovative new wave of interactive entertainment products aimed at girls that is bringing computer play into the third dimension.

This Christmas, titles such as Barbie Fashion Designer from Mattel, The Baby Sitters Club Friendship Kit from Philips Media and Scholastic Productions, and the latest installments in Creative Wonders'growing line of Madeline interactive educational games will be among the first to directly cater to the interests and play patterns of girls.

Barbie Fashion Designer brings one of the world's most famous toys into the multimedia world and then extends that play on the computer into the third dimension by helping girls create dresses that can be printed out in color onto special cloth and then made into a garment for Barbie to wear.

Included in the title is a function in which Barbie "models" the dress the user designed in a 3-D walk down a digital fashion runway.

These features have made Barbie Fashion Designer one of the most anticipated CD-ROM products of the year. But the title's release is also significant because it will be the first time that computer software will cross over into the girls' section of the toy department, with a product that will have the benefit of a brand as big as Barbie.

"We call that our unfair competitive advantage," said Pamela Kelly, vp of marketing at Barbie Media. "The one thing that makes the software stand out from everything else is that there are kids that already know how to play with our product."

Making clothes for Barbie is a long-established play pattern, and introducing the computer just enhances the play, Kelly said.

Barbie Media also produces Barbie Story Maker, which allows girls to make animated stories starring Barbie and her friends. "You can make a movie and loop it so that you can go from the beginning of Barbie's day to the end if you want to," Kelly said.

A third title, Barbie Print and Play, makes personalized stationery and other items.

"It's almost seamlessly bringing Barbie into multimedia," Kelly said of the new CD-ROM line. "Our challenge in the beginning was how do you create a 2-D play experience that is enhanced through the use of the computer." Mattel built upon the play patterns that it knew would work and then was able to create an opportunity for parallel play in 2-D and 3-D with real dolls.

Philips Media also hopes to play on the excitement of the release of Barbie Fashion Designer to help boost sales of The Baby Sitters Club Friendship Kit, said Jim Wilson, director of marketing for Philips Media.

"We're putting a lot of effort behind it," said Leslye Schaefer, senior vp of marketing and consumer products at Scholastic Productions Inc. "There isn't a lot out there in terms of CD-ROM software for girls, and this is really well done."

"The title really takes the best personality of the license and combines it with activities that are either inherent to the license or inherent to what girls like to do, which is creativity, communication, organization, planning and games," Wilson said.

The title is designed to encourage girls to interact with it every day as the ninth member of The Baby Sitters Club, he said.

The marketing effort behind the CD-ROM includes a Web site, an eight-week chat fest on America Online with Ann Martin, the creator and author of "The Baby Sitters Club" books and a toy line from Mattel, Wilson said.

Major marketing efforts will hit in the first quarter at the Big Three, as well as cross-channel promotional efforts at CompUSA and Best Buy, he said.

Promotions will lower the price point of the title to about $25 in many outlets.

The title will be endcappe at CompUSA and promote with a $5 instant rebate: A $10 instant rebate is in the works at Best Buy.

Based on a successful line of fiction books aimed at girl ages 6 to 14, a TV show base on the books currently airs o the Disney Channel and has been helpful in building the brand, Schaefer said.

The Baby Sitters Club was one of the first entertainment properties aimed at girls to be adapted into various media, while being built into a line of licensed merchandise.

A jewelry line is in development to add some new interest to The Baby Sitters Club brand, Schaefer said.

Viacom Consumer Products is building a variety of brands aimed at girls that have spun out of entertainment properties developed by Paramount Studios.

Currently on the front burner are "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" TV show, which developed from an animated series that originally aired in the 1970s, and "Clueless" based on the 1995 hit film and subsequent television show.

Both shows have major toy licensee partners, said Debbi Petrasek, vp of strategic property development at Viacom Consumer Products.

Hasbro is the toy licensee for Sabrina, while Mattel has Clueless. Both companies are planning significant programs for their products for discounters, Petrasek said.