Florida International University The Challenge of Toys for Girls Case Study

• Read the assigned case study located inside your Group.
• After you have read the case study, write a discussion post answering the questions at the end of the case study.

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Case Application 2The Challenge of Toys for Girls

The long awaited release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was quicklyfollowed by a toy market controversy. The absence of the female leadcharacter Rey from action figure sets and a Star Wars-themed Monopolygame sparked a negative reaction from fans. Hasbro said the companyintentionally left Rey out to avoid revealing her important plot role beforemovie goers were able to see the movie. However, a #WheresRey socialmedia campaign quickly highlighted the gender disparity in the toyproducts and Hasbro eventually responded with the Rey figurines.Was this an isolated incident? Unfortunately, the toy industry hasstruggled with gender-related issues for many years, and the sales of toysfor girls have lagged. Even Barbie, who has been around for more than 50years, has often faced a negative public reaction. Many have criticizedMattel for contributing to body image issues in young girls due to Barbie’sunrealistic body proportions. After declining sales, Mattel recentlyreleased new dolls with varying body types. The new options include tall,petite, and curvy-shaped dolls. However, some believe that the Barbie dollstill overemphasizes beauty and is not a positive toy for young girls.Lego has also struggled with creating products for girls. After years of agender- neutral approach, Lego created products to target girls in the1990s. However, this move had little success as some noted their girlproduct line was just a pink and simplified version of what they consideredtheir boy line of products. In 2012, the company released a new line of“Friends” Lego sets targeting girls. The “Friends” line did grow sales;however, the sets were criticized due to their limited functionality andemphasis on gender stereotypes. The sets featured a pastel colored salonand swimming pool and suggested a life of leisure for the femalecharacters. Lego finally had some success with girls in 2014 after itintroduced the Research Institute line of figurines that included119 ?professional women such as an astronomer and a chemist, but this was alimited edition set offered only for a short period of time.Toy sales have trended down over the last 10 years, and some suggestthat failure to sell to girls impacted this decline. The toy industry doesn’tseem to understand what girls want, often emphasizing a homogeneousimage of girls who like the color pink and princesses. Parents areconcerned, many believing the toys that are most available to girls such asthose related to makeup and homemaking only work to enforce genderstereotypes that may affect girls’ aspirations. Furthermore, while boys areexposed to toys that emphasize exploration and invention, boys also seethe girl toys that emphasize that caring for babies and homes is girly andundesirable for boys.Why can’t toy companies figure out how to create toys that both parentsand girls love? Is the problem the lack of women in the executivemanagement ranks of the toy companies? Lack of women in leadershiproles is a problem across many large companies. According toCatalyst.org, while 45 percent of the labor in S&P 500 companies arewomen, they only make up 25 percent of executive positions and hold only20 of the 500 CEO slots. A quick look at the management teams at theLego Group, Mattel, and Hasbro shows a similar pattern. While womenmake up almost 30 percent of Hasbro’s top management team, womenmake up just about 10 percent of Lego’s executive team and all five ofMattel’s top leaders are men.There is an opportunity for toy companies to grow their sales in the girlmarket; however, to do so the toy industry needs to rethink their approachto the girl category. This kind of change is at a strategic level, andtherefore top leadership matters. A more gender-balanced managementteam could better understand the female customer base and driveinnovation to create toys that parents want to buy for girls.

Discussion Questions

5-18. Consider the toys you played with when you were young. Whatdo you think of the toys that were marketed to girls?

5-19. Do you agree that gender diversity at the management level at atoy company could help a company strategically?

5-20. Why do you think there are so few women in executiveleadership positions in toy companies?

5-21. How could toy companies improve the gender diversity of theirleadership teams?