Question

Identify two different factors in the marketing environment that impacted decisions Mattel made regarding the marketing mix for Barbie. Your two examples should be for two different factors (e.g. you can't use two examples from socio cultural or two from competitive; but could do one from each). You can however have the two different factors impact the same element of the marketing mix (so you might pick economic and competitive as your examples and both might impact price).

Answer 1

1. The social change or cultural differences across the world markets is a socio-cultural factor which impacted the product element.
   Barbie came up with different variants of its dolls as Asian, American, pilot, nurse, teacher, etcetera. The wide range of product offerings was essential to acknowledge the regional and social differences.

2. Distribution channels for the dolls is a competitive factor which impacted the price element.
   Barbie setup different distribution channels to save the cost of distribution so as compete in the price sensitive markets. It had a huge variation in prices to capture the consumers in such a market.