The global branding of Barbie has caused headaches for Mattel in China. Barbie’s Shanghai hangout may glitter pink femme girl from a design standpoint, but Chinese insiders say Mattel has missed the mark defining Barbie’s brand platform in China.

New pictures from Karl Lagerfeld celebrating Barbie’s 50 anniversary are designed to pump up Barbie’s reputation. “Barbie & Ken” starring Baptiste Giabiconi will be available at Colette from the 9th until the 28th of March 2011.

It seems that at age 50, Barbie is reconsidering her single-girl status, at a time when 41% of eliglble Chinese women, average age 30, can’t find a man that pleases them. The study of 2 million respondents was conducted by the the China Association of Marriage and Family Studies (CAMF), the Committee of Match-making Service Industries under the China Association of Social Workers and the Baihe.com, a major Chinese match-making website.

Barbie in Shanghai

When Matel opened their first super modern Barbie flagship store in Shanghai in 2009, all 35,000 square feet conceived by Slade Architects celebrated Barbie the single woman with a tiny waist and large breasts.

Mattel wanted a store where “Barbie is hero”; expressing Barbie as a global lifestyle brand by building on the brand’s historical link to fashion. Barbie Shanghai is the first fully realized expression of this broader vision. Mattel worked with BIG, the branding and design division of Ogilvy & Mather, to develop creative concept, identify project location, explore featured activities and identify creative partners. via ArchDaily

Slade was committed to feelings of youth and the possibilities of an unapologetically girlish outlook, regardless of age, stating the the Barbie brand play space was designed to communicate optimism and possibilities as key expression of core Barbie values.

In a January 2010 article for Forbes, Shaun Rein tried to explain the Barbie playhouse underperformance in China. Supporting Barbie’s expansion initiative in China at a time when sales were growing by 15%, Rein questioned Mattel’s wisdom of building a stand-alone store when Chinese prefers malls.

Traffic congestion is terrible in Shanghai, creating a strong preference for single-location shopping.

Forbes doesn’t fault the targeted demographic of middle-class Chinese women between the ages of 24 and 32, young working women with money who theoretically wanted to ‘be Barbie’. Chinese women now account for about half of all household income in China, up from 20% in the 1950s.

Woops, writes Shaun Rein for Forbes.

Barbie made the mistake of paying too little attention to local consumer tastes. Chinese women tend to like cutesy, girlish pink clothes (think Hello Kitty), not the sexy and skimpy kind Fields designed. Odd as it sounds, Snoopy-branded clothes, cartoon logos and all, are hot sellers for women entering the white-collar workforce.

It seems dubious that Ken is the answer to Mattel’s challenges at their store in Shanghai, if Forbes writer Rein is correct in his assessments.

When Barbie and Ken broke up in 2004, Russell Arons, vice president of marketing at Mattel in 2004 hinted that the separation “may be partially due to Ken’s reluctance to get married. All those bridal Barbie dolls in toy chests around the globe are really just examples of Barbie’s wishful thinking, he explained.”

Ken just wasn’t ready to commit, and Barbie decided to go it alone. Ken was always arm candy anyway. Some press suggested it was good to finally admit that Ken was gay.

Ken Roars Back

Press reports are that Ken is trying to get Barbie back. The plastic man was seen in New York this week, at Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker Street in the West Village where he made a cupcake especially for Barbie.

Magnolia Bakery helps Ken woo his favorite doll with the creation of the “Barbie” Cupcake: a classic vanilla or chocolate cupcake iced with Barbie’s favorite shades of pink buttercream and sparkling sugar crystals, topped with a white chocolate heart inscribed with a special message from Ken.

You, too, can Woo the one YOU love with the “Barbie” Cupcake. Available exclusively at Magnolia Bakery in New York and Los Angeles from January 28th - February 14th.

Is this just a marketing ploy, or is Ken serious about Barbie this time?

Through various new-media outlets, such as Facebook, YouTube and Foursquare, Ken is looking to win back Barbie. A YouTube video shows Ken signing up for Match.com, only to find Barbie already listed.

The video has a lackluster 11,000 views.

Made for Each Other? Ken Finds Barbie on Match.com

I’m thinking that I smell something rotten in the state of Denmark in this Ken pursuit of Barbie.

Consider this idea:

A study has found that by the beginning of the next decade 24 million men in China face the prospect of not being able to find themselves a bride, with the country’s one-child-per-couple policy having led to the abortion of many female fetuses. via Digital Journal

Couple this stat with the reality of today’s Chinese young women can’t find men they like — insisting that they won’t compromise in a husband. You have a recipe for more than a tasty cupcake. Chinese men will either share a wife or practice increased rates of bride abduction.

Barbie’s Marriage House in Shanghai

Imagine that Barbie relents and takes Ken back. Forget that Mattel hasn’t done so well figuring out their merchandising strategy in the Shanghai store. The Chinese government becomes their quiet partner in marketing marriage to Chinese women.

The wedding can be held with great fanfare in the Barbie store in Shanghai where marriage is every Chinese girl’s dream. Maybe Barbie even has her own Chinese dating for marriage website.

The Chinese government isn’t strong-arming its women into marriage but seducing them with Barbie’s dream of a great life with a perfect Ken guy, who supports their independence.

Mattel is happy because the Shanghai store is now an Asian marriage destination, Las Vegas style and Barbie is the merchandising ‘it girl’.

Stockholders win, too. Indeed, I believe this Barbie and Ken reunion may have a bit of international espionage behind it.

The question is, will the girls fall for it in China? And what about the American girls? It’s my belief that with fewer jobs being created in America, the Mama Grizzlies will be pressing women to refocus our attention on the nation’s children, while dad goes to work.

Bottom line, could America’s dream girl Barbie sell out women’s emancipation world wide in a major role reversal?

In 2000 Barbie was running for president. In 2011 it’s all about Ken. Am I the only one who is concerned here — or have I been listening to way too many Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck rants about liberal American women?

I would hate to think that Karl Lagerfled carried the day — not that I have anything against marriage as long as the bride is really willing. Anne