Launching a Brand in the United States

The success of a brand is tied to its ability to capture certain values inherent in the lifestyle of its target audience

Updated November 5, 2026

American Girl in 2026: The Little Girls Have Grown Up. What About the Brand?

It's been six years since we last talked about American Girl. In 2026, the brand celebrates its fortieth anniversary and is trying to regain lost ground. During its golden era, the brand recorded millions and millions of annual sales, a figure that has gradually declined along with its popularity. However, after a few consecutive quarters of growth, Mattel decided to celebrate the anniversary by bringing back the eight historical dolls that made the brand successful.

The campaign also targets girls from the 80s and 90s who are now adults and have a Visa card in their pockets. For them, a novel detailing the adult life of Samantha Parkington has even been released, an excellent way to sell nostalgia to those who can afford it. It is more challenging to win over their daughters from Generation Alpha, who have many other toys to choose from. To attract them, Mattel thought of reinterpreting six of the eight historical characters with contemporary clothes and hairstyles, drawing much criticism from fans. After all, if American Girl's unique selling proposition was to tell American history through its dolls, what's the point of dressing a 19th-century girl like any teenager in 2026?

We think Mattel risks repeating past mistakes, when American Girl failed to keep up with its consumers. This time, by trying to follow the tastes of new generations, it might sacrifice what made the brand different from its competitors. In this case, does it still make sense to spend $135 on an American Girl doll?

Article originally published on March 29, 2020

American Girl, an iconic American doll brand, is an example of a product that failed to keep up with the profound changes that have marked the lifestyle of children in America [and also parents..]

Below, we offer an article from 2010 where we described the successful history of a brand in America. Our analysis aimed to highlight the importance of being relevant to certain lifestyles and the values associated with them. What we observed in 2010 was the historical legacy of branding work that American Girl had done in the past, and our article distilled its critical success factors. American Girl is an example of a product developed based on the characteristics of a specific segment of the American market, which for this reason, enjoyed undeniable success in America for years.

In hindsight, we can say that 2010 was the peak of American Girl's success. In the years that followed, American Girl continued to follow its development model and opened six more stores in America but failed to notice that the market was changing. With social networks [which, in 2010, were in their infancy], the way to communicate but also to distribute and sell products changed, and staying anchored to its own monobrand stores was a fatal choice.

The sales for 2017 were $88 million, with a 30% drop compared to 2016, and the impact of personnel and fixed costs is depleting financial resources for new investments in the American market. Reading the analysis made in 2010, it's easy to grasp the strategic flaws in the product's market positioning in light of the almost epic changes that have imposed themselves in recent years. It's a useful read to better understand the reasons behind a brand's success in the American market.

 

The Strength of a Brand in the United States Illustrated by a Line of Dolls: The Case of American Girl

American Girl was born in America as a line of dolls in 1986, and the products offered are much more than just toys. This division of Mattel Inc., known in Italy for marketing very popular products like the Barbie doll, managed to build a strong brand in the United States of America, with its own strategic points that allowed it to sell dolls in America with a significant premium price.

Entering one of the 17 retail locations in America, you sense that American Girl offers the consumer not just a doll, but an experience. And this is the essential part in building a brand in the United States.

The atmosphere inside the store is what every parent would want to raise their child in: calm, orderly, colorful, and never inappropriate. American Girl mainly targets parents, seeking to guide them in educational choices by offering a complete product that lacks nothing: each doll is characterized by a story in which children can project themselves and imagine, and the product is well-designed and safe to use.

All this, in addition to the series of services offered in the retail locations, justifies in the eyes of parents the considerable price of the product, the same price becoming a fundamental element to perceive the product as an elitist and sought-after item.

In the early years when the doll was introduced in America, its high price made it accessible only to a limited segment of American consumers. It appeared as "the dream doll" for little girls of the time. These little girls then grew up, becoming today's women and moms, who have no doubt about the best gift they could give their daughters: American Girl. This also allows the parent to participate in the growth of the young consumer: giving an American Girl is just the beginning of a total experience characterized by different elements.

 

Elements for Building a Brand in the United States

• First of all, the product. The dolls initially launched on the market represented historical characters of great charisma; even today there is a line dedicated to American historical figures like the black-skinned doll who managed to escape the bonds of servitude, the Indian doll who, left without parents, raises her little brother like a mom, the late 1920s doll who survives the great depression with hopes and expectations for the future. On the other hand, little girls have at their disposal an alternative line of dolls presenting different physical characteristics from one another; they can thus be "created" and "accessorized" by the little girls who can thus project their desires and dreams onto them.
• Then, the story, all the dolls are the protagonists of one or more books in which their life is told and their personality described: the choice of the doll strongly depends on the ideals and values told in their story. It's a way to gain the consent of parents, who, feeling they have found a toy suited to the uniqueness of their child, are ready to buy a doll for a hundred dollars and complete it with a series of accessories, clothes, and additional services that are no less costly.
• Then the identification with the product: American Girl aims to make the consumer identify with the doll by providing a line of identical products intended for both the doll and the girl, such as clothing, accessories, and even furniture and arrangements for the children's room. 
• Then the additional services, "peripheral" in marketing jargon, these include cafeteria and restaurant, spa and hair salon, photo sessions, and doll repairs by a clinic present in the retail location. These are services that can be purchased separately from the product but are complementary to it, which, on one hand, allow the parent to spend time with their daughters, playing and having fun; and on the other hand, allow the company to increase its revenue. The offering of these services enables the doll to assume a role within the family, as sharing moments created ad hoc indeed determines the transition from doll to inseparable friend of the young consumer. Moreover, the fact that these services are only available at the American Girl retail location requires that consumers head to the retail location itself: families organize genuine trips to the stores.
• The distribution is done exclusively through strategically positioned retail locations in areas characterized by high demographic flow to ensure control over the product's image and offering. 
• Finally, the educational material and events, American Girl publishes an award-winning magazine for the appropriateness of its content, which is useful for the growth of the product's consumers who can participate with their comments and images in the magazine itself. The dolls that receive the most success from the public can then become the main characters in films produced by HBO and WarnerBros, plus there is a virtual platform available on the website (Innestar University online) where little girls and dolls can play interacting with a protected reality that simultaneously develops knowledge and socialization skills.
   

Conclusion

The idea sold by American Girl is that of a unique and "old-fashioned" doll, different from the electronic and impersonal games that children today are used to playing with. American Girl offers little girls opportunities to gather with other little girls accompanied by their dolls, and age-appropriate materials through which they can learn and grow with values of the past.

All the elements listed above are critical success factors in the creation of the American Girl brand. These are factors aimed at gaining the consent of parents, who are indeed the ones who have the spending power and who ultimately decide whether or not to purchase a certain product. For these reasons, American Girl convinces the parent of the quality of the product and its value, thereby increasing their willingness to pay and offering the product at a price characterized by a high margin.

American Girl has built a brand that alone has a value of about $125 million (2016), thanks to its ability to meet the needs and expectations of parents, to keep its promises by accompanying consumers in their growth. The product offered by American Girl is unique in its characteristics and the services that accompany it; consequently, the consumer's price elasticity can only be very low: considerable price variations do not lead to equally considerable changes in terms of sales. American Girl owes its success to the strength of its brand, its positioning, and therefore the perception that the customer has of the brand itself. The parent is not only interested in purchasing the doll but also in the idea that it represents: uniqueness, reliability, and the sharing of lifestyles, values, and ideals.