After the disastrous Quarter 2 earnings report for American Girl, Mattel said this about what's next for the brand and it's turnaround:
"The American Girl turnaround is on track with product introductions and new pricing architecture coming in the second half of the year. In addition, our new digital consumer engagement platform, which is launching this fall, will offer a simplified, engaging experience and fresh new content that will drive the brand forward. We recently announced a new leader for American Girl, Jamie Cygielman, who brings over 30 years of experience in innovation, marketing and business development, as well as deep knowledge of the toy and entertainment industries. We will share more about the progress of the turnaround under her leadership later this year."
"We have a new leader at American Girl, Jamie Cygielman, who is well-suited to lead the brand. We're really excited with her experience, both in fashion, in beauty and particularly in toys. American Girl, as you know, is a long-standing and really, generational franchise with an incredibly strong legacy and loyal fan base.We really have identified, as I've talked about, several key pillars in the transformation strategy. And some of the highlights and the initiatives I'm really excited to share this fall and certainly in the next quarter. We are evolving our website into a digital flagship. I've talked a lot about that that will be a completely new digital consumer engagement platform.We're concentrating on a mobile-first focus. There will be new payment solutions, simplified shipping tiers and that's all actually rolling out as we speak. We're going to be enhancing some of the retail experiences that we have, particularly in our flagship, so I encourage everybody to start to visit our stores. You'll see great new enhancements, both in experiences and some of the character immersions that we're going to be doing.We are also introducing a new line architecture. Part of the brand transformation has been to infuse freshness into the line at a more frequent pace. So you're going to see some new product, differentiations in value, both at opening price points and really ultimate gift experiences. And then last but not least, really working hard on a rise content strategy, which we'll be able to share a lot more soon.So while it's going to take time to implement these changes and certainly achieve the desired outcome, this franchise is such an incredible valuable and important part of Mattel's portfolio and we really do remain confident about its turnaround."
I'm excited to see all the new things that AG has in store!