Would Anyone Pay to Have a LIVE BARBIE for Their Daughters Birthday Party?

I think there would be a market as well, if the price were right, I would hire her for my daughters 3rd birthday!

I certainly think there is a market for it. I'm sure my daughter would love the idea. She had princess Tiana at her 3rd b-day and was quite thrilled with it. I would tell your friend, if she's interested in such things, to maybe put up a website or a FB page and run an add in KC Parent (or some other publication). I'm thinking she could easily make $60-100/hour for an appearance. At first she may just have to work word of mouth but if she's good it won't take long for the mom community to talk. She could also contact local mom's groups (preschools, churches, etc.) and pass out flyers with her info on them.

I had a friend hire a girl who comes to parties as Cinderella. The kids loved it, she stayed in character the whole party and all the little girls loved having a princess to take their picture with and read stories to them. I'm sure kids who are into Barbie would love this, too.

My friend hired a princess for her daughters bday. They got to take pictures with her wearing a special princess crown. The kids all went nuts for it.
I don't see how it would be any different. You could come up with different themes too, since Barbie has so many professions, and hobbies lol.
When my friends want to get the word out about their businesses they have all of their friends "like" their business page on face book, then their friends friends see it and so on. I have everything liked on my page from bows and tutu's to real estate and photo studios.
Good Luck =)

I can definitely see the marketability of such an idea. I have no idea if there are copyright or trademark laws in play here, but she would probably want to make sure that she can use the Barbie name, logo, image, etc. without any legal ramifications. It's one thing if a little girl wants to dress up as Barbie for Halloween, and could be another thing entirely if someone wants to set up a business and earn income from dressing as Barbie. If my little girl was crazy about Barbie, and I was the kind of mom who would pay for Barbie to come to her party, I would probably be willing to pay around $20 an hour.
Oh, and make sure your friend makes it clear in her advertising that she's not jumping out of any cakes for bachelor parties!:)

I didn't want the plastic Barbies in my house, much less a live one.

It's no different than paying a person to come to the party as one of the Disney princesses, which happens all the time. If your friend likes doing it and has done it before, I say go for it. Appearances like that are usually between $50-100, and often a tip on top of that. Since it's a friend, maybe you can get it on the lower end of the range.

If she's looking to promote it and create a business out of it, have her look into getting business cards, fliers or other promotional materials on vistaprint.com You can usually get 250 business cards for free (just sign up for the promo emails) and often all kinds of other stuff free too. All you pay is shipping.

She should also create a website so people can find her if they are doing internet searches. She can advertise through local MOMS Clubs, meetup groups, and preschools as well.

I hired a batman for my sons 4th bday and he wasn't cheap! So absolutly there's a market for it. Not sure how to promote it however