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                                                    A Winner in the Toy Business

Who was born sometime in the 1950s and still looks like a teenager forty years later? Her name is Barbie and she is the best-selling doll in the history of toy manufacturing. She isn't very big, about 40 cm tall, but unlike most dolls, she doesn't look like a baby. This may be the secret of her success. Perhaps young girls love her so much because she embodies all the (1 establishing expand exposed enable experts exports features ensure they would like to have when they grow up: a pretty face, a perfect figure and long beautiful hair. Whether you think Barbie is beautiful or not is a matter of opinion, but it is a fact that this American doll is a best seller worldwide. And she is also very popular here in the Gulf. This is why Mattel Inc., the toy company that produces Barbie, has announced that it will open a regional office in Dubai in May of this year. Last week, Jonathan Hughes, the company's manager for (2 establishing expand exposed enable experts exports features ensure , visited Dubai and talked about the plans. He said that Mattel wants to (3 establishing expand exposed enable experts exports features ensure its market share in the Gulf, and eventually, they hope to become the largest toy supplier in the area. Mattel will start, he explained, by (4 establishing expand exposed enable experts exports features ensure a big central supply warehouse in Dubai. This will (5 establishing expand exposed enable experts exports features ensure that the products are always easily available to any shopkeeper. If a toyshop runs out of the dolls, the shopkeeper can simply call Dubai instead of waiting for a new shipment to arrive from the United States. Because the Barbie doll has been so successful in the Gulf, Mattel wants to (6 establishing expand exposed enable experts exports features ensure customers here to buy other Barbie-related products like Barbie clothes, cars and dollhouses. These new items will be available soon and are expected to sell well. And the company announced another idea: Mattel is looking for local businessmen who are interested in using the Barbie label to sell their products. For example, locally manufactured food items, school supplies, or children's books could carry Barbie's name or picture on them. How would Mattel benefit from this? Well, a lot more people would be (7 establishing expand exposed enable experts exports features ensure to the name Barbie, and this might cause them to buy more dolls. It would help advertise Mattel products. And what would you get out of putting Barbie's name on your product? You would get help and advice from people who are (8 establishing expand exposed enable experts exports features ensure at advertising and marketing, and maybe Barbie would bring you a little of her amazing success: Last year she was sold in 140 different countries and she earned her makers1.4 billion dollars!

-- from the Khaleej Times, April 1996