Adgully Exclusive | India is an exceptional market: Rahul Bhowmik, Mattel India

I know of a couple of girls, being as old as 25 (gulp!), who still enjoy the company of their Barbie dolls. To me, it is just not right. It is morally wrong. Integrity goes into dumps, is what I believe. I am of the view that, at even 10, you're too old for a Barbie doll. But then, that's just me. And I am wrong. Because, I too have played with toys till I was as old as 20! I've held a Hot Wheels Dodge Challenger and rolled it on my bed, on the floor, everywhere ' with my throat making sounds of a gorgeous V8 engine. A friend of mine ' fellow motoring fanatic ' has a collection of almost 500 scale model cars, a lot of them comprising of Mattel and Matchbox miniatures. This passion sees no bounds, and now, I can relate to girls' fascination with the Barbie doll.

One Mrs Ruth Handler is to be credited with making the most famous doll, Barbie, come to life. Ruth was Elliot Handler's wife. Elliot Handler and Harold "Matt" Matson founded Mattel (Matt + El) in 1945. Barbie was introduced in the market in 1959.

Adgully met up with Rahul Bhowmik, Head - Marketing, of Mattel India to understand what it's like to work with the world's biggest toy maker. "It's the most exciting job that you can think to have," is what he said. This raised our eyebrows and a list of questions just got listed in the mind, so we got talking a bit more.

Educating us on the history of Mattel, explaining what makes them more than just toys maker and later elaborating about its India operations, Bhowmik said, "The reason we say it's not just toys is because besides Barbie, which is our flagship brand for young girls, we have Hot Wheels, which is the number one vehicles brand for boys. We also have Fisher Price which is number one in the infantry and preschool space and in addition to that we have a whole line of what we call the games and puzzles."

Speaking of games, did you know Scrabble is one of world's top ranking games? And it is Mattel to be credited for popularising this lovely, intellect-enhancing game. Scrabble has just celebrated its 60th anniversary.

We took the conversation on a different tangent and spoke of Mattel's competition. Though Mattel is the market leader by a fair margin, newer entrants like Ty toys are becoming a cause of concern for Mattel. Take the facts ' the Westmount, Illinois based Ty Inc. has already penetrated in as many as 20 countries.

But Bhowmik doesn't look fazed as he counters that, saying, "There are two ways of looking at it. If you look at Mattel as a bunch of brands, not a corporate, we never market as Mattel. We always market as Barbie, Hot Wheels or Fisher Price. So, I think Ty toys can definitely come in. We have had other competitors in the past, but the fact of the matter is that in a market which is extremely cluttered and has a lot of players, Barbie still goes on to record one of her best years in her 51st year of existence. I am not really worried about it. So players may come and there will be something that will always engage in a child's curiosity but it will be short. We were there yesterday; we are here today and will stay on."

Mattel is the global leader when it comes to the toys market, but in India, the picture is a bit unclear, primarily owing to the fact that there is no authentic survey report or audit data available. This prevents Mattel calling themselves as market leaders in India. Had there been a Nielson report or ORG mark, we could've had a clearer picture and things would've fallen in perspective for everyone. It is so vague that Mattel's rival brand, Funskool, would have a different view of how the market is. It is all a game of guesstimates.

Bhowmik recognizes that the gap between the US and Indian market is narrowing, however, he is quick to state that the market maturity in toys industry is not just about the size; it has a lot to do with how parents perceive toys to be. Today, parents buy toys for their kids because the kids pester their parents for that. The day when parents understand that toys are not just to act as "shut up' value for kids, things are going to be far better and different from the current state. "The day the parents understand that games like Scrabble and several products from Fisher Price can help in building mathematical and vocabulary skills of a child, that's the day I would consider, irrespective of the size of the market, India as an evolved toy market."

Adgully asked Bhowmik to share the SWOT analysis. This is what he had to say:

As far as marketing strategy goes, Mattel does a lot of events, the most recent being a week-long program with Tara Sharma and WWE champion Khali. As the holiday season sets in, Mattel is working towards introducing brand new products and expects the year to give great returns.