One World Holdings subsidiary, The One World Doll Project’s multi-cultural fashion dolls, Prettie Girls!™, designed to capture the imagination of an increasingly diverse U.S. consumer market (as well as the broader, global doll market), are about far more than raking in the dough this holiday season. Created from the outset to provide young girls from diverse ethnic backgrounds an alternative, these dolls are like the anti-Barbie. Instead of being a cookie-cutter stereotype, Prettie Girls are designed to offer young black, asian and latino girls a more compelling role model. Role models complete with rich, culturally-aware persona tapestries, including aspects like more realistic physical attributes, back-stories, hobbies, goals, and personal aspirations.
The brainchild of Stacey McBride-Irby, who worked with Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) for over 15 years designing a variety of dolls, Prettie Girls are an innovative product in the space which goes after a broader demographic in a very mature and approachable fashion. Instead of simply offering young girls a Stepford Wife cut-out, the product is conceived of and executed in a fashion that fuses aspects like values-based standards and positive life goals with thoroughly modern fashion and beauty trends. Offering girls not only an exciting, attractive play toy, but a window into a potential future self they can be proud of and which really seems appropriately within their reach. Instead of having to admire an unattainable standard that fails to check with their cultural aspirations from afar, Prettie Girls offer a canvas onto which young girls from diverse backgrounds can paint their own story.
This is an unstoppable idea whose time has come and offers consumers a vibrant alternative to the pabulum of Barbie, or Disney’s white-hot Frozen merchandise. The line of dolls has received widespread coverage and acclaim, and the company has secured key distribution deals with Toys “R” Us, as well as a variety of smaller outlets like Texas-based H-E-B Grocery Stores (which has a nice presence in northern Mexico), People’s Pharmacy (which has a strong footing in Belize) and e-commerce multinational, Wayfair (NYSE:W).
A brief look at the lineup says it all:
• Lena (African-American), a confident self-starter, is a beautiful girl who made being smart cool at her school and who has her eyes set on the class presidency, with future aspirations of being a successful entrepreneur.
• Valencia (Hispanic), is a bold and athletic girl who is into nutrition, sports and her family, and who is focused on being the best she can be; with a driving love for all things musical, she is styled as the life of the party.
• Alexie (Caucasian), was born two months early and is rather diminutive. She has been struggling against the odds since day one, but has a positive “can do” attitude and participates in many extra-curricular activities.
• Dahlia (Middle Eastern Indian), is the joker of the crew, who loves to be the center of attention. With a caring spirit and quick wit, she inspires the Prettie Girls to give back to the community through charity events and is as passionate about recycling as she is about her shelter-rescued puppy, Chance.
• Kimani (African), is an artistic sort who is really into fashion. Praised for her beauty both inside and out, she is a soulful character who is in love with the performing arts and dreams of becoming a celebrity one day.
This is a fully fleshed-out, brilliant approach to the space by OWOO and even has obvious commercial potential for being worked up into a show eventually because the concept branding is so sophisticated. The One World Doll Project™ is set to make serious waves in the sizeable U.S. consumer market of some 23.8M kids under 18 (44.4% of whom are African-American), with an emphasis on girls in the 6-11 year old segment, where the company aims to snatch increasing market share from big players like Mattel and Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS).
The five star review from Time to Play magazine earlier this year (YouTube Video) is just one example of the positive feedback the line has been getting. With a bright media spotlight on the company via huge venues like CNN, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, as well as niche focus from industry venues like The Toy News, The Toy Insider, Haute Doll and Roxanne’s Dolls, OWOO’s Prettie Girls are already a growing fixture of the doll market’s landscape.
Endorsements from the likes of Tonner Doll Company designer and founder, Robert Tonner, renowned in his own right as a leading doll designer, adds serious cachet value to OWOO’s higher end specialty dolls, like their custom dolls being geared towards the 750k plus African-American sorority members of the Pan Hellenic Council Sororities (Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho). This vector will follow up on the success of Stacey McBride-Irby’s 2008 Alpha Kappa Alpha centennial doll, which sold out in less than six months despite a handsome $49.99 retail sticker price. The designer doll collector market is a key aspect to be played off here for OWOO and the company is committed to pursuing this nice market with offerings in the $40 to $50 range.
For more information on One World Holdings’ One World Doll Project visit: www.oneworlddolls.com
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