O.K. I admit it. I had the original Barbie doll. Yes, me - entreprenuer, mother, wife, businesswoman, here it goes.....baby boomer...yes, I had the original Barbie doll.

Barbie turned 50 on March 9 (that is the day she made her offical debut) and baby boomers around the world realized just how old they were getting. This date is considered to be her birthday officially.

I'm admitting my age here along with a few other things. When I was a little girl (not giving away how little) my mom and dad bought me my very first Barbie doll. Now at the time, this was a very unusual doll.

You see, up until Barbie came on the scene, all of my dolls (along with my two sisters' dolls) were little baby dolls. You know the kind. The ones you fed, changed, put to bed, etc.

Well, then along comes this doll, unlike anything I had ever seen before. She was all grown up with an evening dress, makeup, hairstyle...wow...like having a big sister and watching her get ready for a date and wishing you were all grown up like her.

Apparently, when Barbie first came on the scene, she actually caused quite a stir. The big guns at Mattel didn't think she would fly - they thought she was too racy or too "grown up" to appeal to the younder girls. But the creator and inventor of the doll, Ruth Handler, had a different vision.

Ruth Handler originally got the idea by watching her own little girl, Barbara, play with paper dolls. She realized that little girls liked to play "grown-up" and hence, the Barbie doll was created.

Now realize that this happened at a time when dolls were babies, not women, and the idea of an adult fashion doll was out there to say the least. But Ruth believed in her vision and pushed forward; against a lot of backlash and disbelievers.

The doll, which has become a cultural icon as well as a fashion icon wore a black and white zebra striped swimsuit (I remember it well) and signature topknot ponytail and was available as either a blonde or brunette.

Barbie's popularity can be gauged by the fact that over 350,000 Barbie dolls, manufactured in Japan, were sold in the first year of production. It is estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide (yes, a billion with a 'B') with Mattel claiming that three Barbie dolls are sold every second.

Those are staggering statistics by any stretch and I am sure that the sagging economy has taken its toll, even on Barbie, but the success of this doll cannot go unnoticed.

So what does all of this have to do Attraction Marketing as stated in my title. Plain and simple. Any student of attraction marketing knows that you need to appeal to your audience.

Niche market, targeted audience, offer them solutions, be solutions providers. All buzz words in the world of internet attraction marketing. This type of marketing is currently taking the network marketing industry, along with many other businesses, by storm. It is the "new" way of marketing to your customer or prospect.

But it seems that Ruth Handler had a handle (pardon the pun) on this type of marketing over 50 years ago. She realized what many people did not at the time; that you need to appeal to your audience. She wanted to appeal to little or young girls and realized that the solution was to provide a doll that gave them the ability to "play grown up".

Playing grown up was and is every young girls fantasy and Ruth realized this long before anyone even heard of the word attraction marketing. She tapped into their wants and desires and provided them a solution.

She didn't realize it at the time, but she was applying all of the principles we internet attraction marketers so fondly refer to as "solutions providers".

She provided a solution to a problem that young girls were having. They had no other way to play grown up except to watch their big sisters get ready for a date or to go out with friends. They had all of the baby dolls in the world available to play "mommy" but in their heart and soul they wanted to be "big" girls.

Ann Sieg, in her new report Attraction Marketer's Manifesto emphasizes exactly this fact. That to be successful in today's world, you need to do many things differently, one of them being targeting in on a niche market.

Finding your niche, providing solutions, offering value and then branding yourself so others see you as a solutions provider.

These are all of the reasons that attraction marketing is becoming the only way to market in today's world and today's economy. People do not want to be pitched to anymore. They want value, solutions and education. This is the new way to market in the 21st century.

Ruth Handler figured this out over 50 years ago. What took the rest of the world so long to catch up?