Designer fashion teen

Barbie raises the bar; the success of Fashion Designer has forced vendors, retailers to rethink girls' software

It's a Barbie world, even in the realm of software. Last spring, Barbie Cool Looks Fashion Designer was the number-one children's entertainment software title in Canada - including boys' titles. In fact, girls' software is the fastest-growing segment in the entertainment and edutainment categories. Consumers, vendors and retailers are finally taking girls' software more seriously. But how serious is girls' software?

"If you went into arcades, video stores, software sections of stores or even trade shows (two years ago), it was all black, it was all dark, it was all violent - very, very boys-skewed," says Staci Starr, product manager, Mattel Media, with Mattel Canada Inc. in Mississauga, Ont.

Mattel decided to build on popular brands in the toys area and bring them to computers. Barbie Cool Looks primarily targets girls ages five and up, and Mattel recently released Barbie Jewelry Designer and Barbie Nail Designer for the same age group. The company is now venturing into the "tween" market - ages eight to 12 - with Fashion Magic, which will allow girls to design their own tattoos, iron-ons for tank tops and create barettes and charms.

"Nobody really has the strength of the Barbie brand. You'll never find that out there - the recognition, what Barbie means," says Starr. "As the market gets larger and becomes more established . . . I would venture to say that people will want to come into the market, given that we've established it."

Purple Moon, an entertainment software company that develops titles for girls eight to 12, has been researching the girls' software market since 1992 as part of Interval Research Corp. When it began its initial research, the industry's attitude was that girls didn't like computers or computer games. But the company believed there was no intrinsic reason why girls wouldn't like computers - instead, the content and types of titles on retailers' shelves simply weren't appealing to girls.

Purple Moon developed the Rockett series, which allows girls to make decisions for characters that will affect their personal lives. The company is introducing Starfire Soccer this month - a sports title designed specifically for girls.

The girls' software category started to emerge in 1996. At that time, there were about a dozen titles, which sold US$26 million in the U.S., according to PC Data. In 1997, there were 35 titles, and sales reached US$64 million. This year, Purple Moon expects the category to have 50 to 60 titles, and will reach sales of US$135 million. A number of new players - traditionally from the toys area - are entering the market, such as games guru Hasbro, and Lisa Frank, a stationary and stickers company.

"There are a number of different products out there for five to eight year olds, and they tend to be a creativity or productivity type of product, where you're making a sign or banner or nail polish," says Karen Gould, corporate communications manager with Purple Moon in Mountain View, CA. "For older girls, there are some titles out there that tend to focus more on traditional teen topics like boys, shopping, make-up, dating. For eight- to 12-year-olds, there really isn't much out there."

While the Learning Company specializes in educational titles for boys and girls, director of marketing Karen Davidson sees a need for a wider range of products. She praises Purple Moon's "wonderful" products that focus on social development.

"Then there's just the pure entertainment, the Cosmo Virtual Make Over kind of products. I know there's a lot of controversy out there, but at the end of the day, if it keeps girls interested in the computer," she says. "I think there's tremendous value there."