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The Maplelea Girls are the Canadian alternative to the wildly popular American Girl dolls. And like the syrup, they are perhaps a little sweeter and more wholesome than those American Girls, with their Hollywood movies and brash invasion of the Canadian market.
Created by Avonlea Traditions Inc., the Maplelea Girls, a line of six 18-inch-tall, Canadian-themed dolls, represent Canada’s geographic and cultural mix with characters such as the budding environmentalist Taryn of Banff in her bright blue hiking boots, hockey playing Léonie from Quebec City and Saila from Iqaluit, sporting traditional kamik footwear (her parka and hat, made by Inuit craftspeople, are optional extras).
Kathryn Gallagher Morton, owner and president, founded the company in 1988 when she began selling products based on the Canadian storybook character Anne of Green Gables. She developed the Maplelea Girls in 2003 and dropped all her previous products. The Maplelea Girls really took off after she created a catalogue and circulated it with children’s magazines, she says.
Today the company’s big challenge is the American Girl dolls, made by Mattel Inc.
After partnering with Indigo Books & Music Inc. in 2013, Mattel launched American Girl retail shops in Canadian malls, including a boutique at Indigo’s Eaton Centre store this summer. In addition to a strong online and social media presence, the toy giant is gaining momentum through movies based on its dolls.
Avonlea competes for the same target market of girls age 6 to 12 but on a much smaller budget. American marketing usually reaches young girls first, acknowledges Ms. Gallagher Morton. “A lot of people still don’t know we exist. And the girls don’t differentiate between American and Canadian, even though the parents do,” she says.
The American dolls are very much online-focused, with games, stories and a virtual world linked to the dolls’ characters. Maplelea prefers to encourage real adventures in the real world, Ms. Gallagher Morton says. “Our dolls are really meant to help girls get out and explore Canada and learn more about the country.”
Based in Newmarket, Ont., the Canadian company has done well with annual revenue of more than $5-million. It sells thousands of dolls each year, plus clothing and accessories. It also plans to step up its own game this fall with the introduction of a seventh Maplelea Girl and by opening a pilot, seasonal retail store in Thornhill, Ont.
Ms. Gallagher Morton estimates she spends about $425,000 annually on printing and distributing 500,000 catalogues. Like American Girl, Maplelea products are mostly made in China, with the exception of a few accessories. The Maplelea dolls sell for $100, a price unchanged since 2003. (Grace, the American Girl Doll of the Year, costs about $150 at Indigo.)
Today most of Avonlea’s sales are made online and through the catalogues. But word-of-mouth is still the best marketing tool, Ms. Gallagher Morton says. The company also sells on Amazon.com to the American market and ships anywhere, though it doesn’t market outside Canada.
The Challenge: How can Avonlea compete with American Girl as it aggressively pushes into the market?
THE EXPERTS WEIGH IN
Michael English, Canada retail merchandising lead, Accenture, Toronto
When people are paying $100-plus for a doll, they’re not really buying a doll. They’re buying an experience surrounding that doll and a membership pass to access that community.
Maplelea could provide a platform that allows girls to share and generates excitement. That’s more in tune with what they expect today; a lot of kids that age are already making their own videos. I just went on YouTube for fun and typed in American Girl. The first three hits were 8-year-old girls talking about the new accessories they had purchased for their dolls. It’s not that expensive to develop a multi-channel presence. Some small companies have created very successful vlogs (video blogs) and have a huge following as a result. Because they’re small, there’s an opportunity for Avonlea to develop that much faster than Mattel could.
It’s great if they want to play the Canadian team, but they’ve got to be careful not to be too historically focused, because kids may not have that sort of interest. You want to have a good balance of educational history with current events. Holidays are an area where Avonlea can be completely different and very Canada-focused in sharing stories and experiences.
Avonlea could also explore partnerships, such as after-school programs, summer camps or popular websites. They could provide material or participate in something like Kids’ CBC or Canadian Geographic. That would be different from the Mattel strategy.
Rebecca Reuber, professor of strategic management at Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Rather than open a destination retail store in a Toronto suburb, Ms. Gallagher Morton should consider a high-traffic location that appeals to both residents and tourists. The dollar is low and we’re getting a lot of Americans visiting now. The Bay on Queen Street has a section with artisans, right in the area where there’s lots of Canadiana. Say an American family comes up for a Blue Jays game and their daughter wants a souvenir; they could take the Canadian doll home. Avonlea could probably capture the Christmas market as well. The airport would be another good location to set up some sort of kiosk.
They might also consider changing the name. It’s hard to say; people aren’t sure if it’s pronounced Maple-lee or Maple-lee-a. The “maple” in it doesn’t convey Canada the way American Girl does for America.
Even if they don’t change the name, they could say, “Maplelea, the Canadian Girl.” Since they’re positioning themselves as the Canadian alternative to the American one, they could be more explicit about that.
Sam Fiorella, a partner at Sansei Marketing and co-author of Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing, Toronto
The first thing I’d do is take a look at their audience. I think there’s a shift happening with young girls who are moving away from those traditional roles that dolls play into. Just based on market research from my clients as well as my own daughter, I’d say the market is moving more toward having strong female characters engaged in a more digital experience.
You have to get the girls involved and take the lead from them. If Avonlea were my client, I’d probably create some type of an online forum that would have their target audience participating in a conversation to truly identify what they’re interested in, what role models they would like to see and how they play.
What American Girl is doing well is creating the ability for young girls to visualize themselves through role playing in the digital space. If you’re going to build out a line of dolls, it really does require a virtual persona and a world that the girls could step into and, ideally, be that character.
Girls are growing up a lot faster today and are much more digitally savvy. They’re looking for that digital experience. For instance, take the Kim Kardashian website for girls. She created an app in which girls can pretend to be Kim Kardashian and live her life. Game purchases have made this one of the top games amongst this exact target audience.
Any company that tries to emulate Old World business models when it comes to not only the stereotypes of what girls like to play with, but the physical business model of selling dolls and accessories without making the digital space a cornerstone of that business model will fail.
THREE THINGS THE COMPANY COULD DO NOW
Partner up
Explore partnerships, such as after-school programs, summer camps or popular websites.
Consider a pop-up
Think about setting up a kiosk in a place that appeals to both residents and tourists.
Do research
Create an online forum that would gauge what girls are interested in, what role models they would like to see and how they play.
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Interviews have been edited and condensed.
An earlier digital version of this story and the original newspaper version incorrectly stated the name of the Maplelea doll from Banff. Her name is Taryn. This digital version has been corrected.