Be-Bratz vs Barbiegirls.com, who will win?

Become A Member Of Be-Bratz.com™!Be-Bratz.com™ is the place where you get to Be Bratz™ in a Bratz™ World! Being Bratz™ is all about expressing yourself and your passion! We believe in true friendship, accepting others and above all being true to yourself!When you join Be-Bratz.com™ you can create your own Bratz™ character, her personality and fashions, keep her and your pet happy and healthy, decorate your own room, interact with other Bratz™, and much more!

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Lookie, lookie who is live now. Unforch, for yours truly, I’ve not bought one of those… dolls… yet (sigh), but I’m looking to soon.

Okay, so here’s an interesting thought…

I was hanging out this summer with some close family friends. Their daughter, Kalie (like my lil sis), and her friends are those cool, trendy girls who are always done up to perfection, have all the boyfriends, are the star athletics, and are looking forward to their freshman year of college this fall. She’s 18. And low & behold, what does she tell me? She loves barbiegirls.com!

Why? Because the avatar system. It’s one of those kitschy things upper high school kids love to tackle (for my class it was sesame street stuff, like retro cookie monster t-shirts, or big bird backpack patches, or Oscar key chains, etc). Anyway– so Kalie and her friends all made barbiegirl avatars of themselves that they were using all around social networks (like me and my south park viking that I’m so fond of).

Success! Success! Barbiegirls was such a hit with SOOO many audiences. It was ALSO free, cute, and part of a beloved brand girls grow up with (I STILL look for my barbie alarm clock from the early 80’s that says “Hi, Barbie. Hi, Ken” and yammers on with song about waking up).

So, what I find interesting is… what’s going to happen with be-bratz.com. Are they going to be simply happy with only a devoted audience of doll-buyers? Barbiegirls is open to all– especially the girls who may not have money to buy the 30$$ doll. Of course there are moms out there that will shell out the cash needed to buy the doll + USB port. But that limits your community audience. It’s like that darn Munchiz device– like a Tomagotchi, you could have your own pet & Bratz doll, etc. Star Farm bought me one (oh, the awesomeness of research). The darn thing was UBER complicated, and ultimately, didn’t sell as well as it might have.

I, of all people, have NO problem with a brand wanting to build a community based on the REAL fans– quality vs quantity. LOL. But seriously– an outside observer can’t help but notice that Bratz & Barbie girls have been battling for stats & popularity for quite a few years now. Seems odd they’re going to limit their audience during this time where “Stats” “Page Views” “Unique Users” and “Average time spent on site” are like the BUZZ words of success.

At least the “Bratz” movie is coming out soon. That should help revv the doll sales… perhaps? I’m interested and waiting to see the breakdown of age groups as they happen. I’m thinking: 7, 8, 9, 10 year olds buy the dolls, right? But the movie seems to target the 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 year olds (we can toss in 16/17 bored kids for good measure). But those upper ages– going from Jr High to High School are NOT going to buy the dolls, or are they? I’m thinking… um, no. They’re JUST going into adulthood (or in THEIR eyes, adulthood). The last thing they want is to buy a girly toy for kids, reminding themselves and others that they’re still “children”. Yikes.

I mean, I could be perfectly wrong about all that– but, I have to say– I was the crazy kid at the age of 12/13 who still liked playing with barbies (hey– I went to Montessori, we’re weird kids; plus, I had to work my stories out SOMEHOW, right?). And I can tell you– friends give you the WEIRD EYE if they think you’re still playing dolls in your tweens. And that was back in the 80’s/90’s when kids weren’t so damn socially advanced as they are now.

Anyway– At least Be-Bratz will cut down on the random creeps drifting into the community (large barrier to entry, as i like to say). And, according to it’s parent info– it’s uber safe (I can report more once I’ve a darn doll).

The last thing I want to leave ya with is the interesting comparisons of the two main pages:

Interesting…no?

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