In an attempt to reduce excessive packaging and create an unwrapping experiences that was best suited for their demographic, Mattel conducted a little market research to observe how girls were attempting to open the painstakingly complicated packaging, and then spent some time with their designers and engineers to come up with a solution that both saved them money and increased the overall unwrapping experience – all while ensuring that Barbie safely made her trip over from China.
After observing that most girls attempted to just “pull and tear” Barbie from her package, the design team decided they needed to streamline the unwrapping process. The first step was to ditch the sharp plastic outer cover. Because packaging is often also used to store products, they opted for a “resealable top with easy-release glues and a perforated back. ”
And instead of meticulously untwisting the tie downs that holds the doll to the paper backing, the designers opted to switch to a plastic staples that enable girls to liberate Barbie from her backing by simply tugging at her.
Where plastic staples were not appropriate, they resorted to stitching her down with plain old thread and using low tack glue (like that used for magazine inserts).
All and all, the new packaging reduced the time it took to remove Barbie from her packaging by 70% and cut costs by using few and less expensive materials.
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