Brand innovations in The Walt Disney Company
Let me share with you an article that I prepared for Marketing Conference while I was studying Branding back in Russia. This article is about successful story of the most kindest and lovely brand The Walt Disney.
Walt Disney, the founder, was an eminent American artist, director, producer, and creator of the animated series. He got 29 “Oscars” and the government’s highest civilian award the U.S. – “Medal of Freedom”. He created the world’s great children’s amusement park “Disneyland”. And nowadays Disney is not just a brand for animated films studio, but it is a whole world of entertainment for millions of families.
Ideas that changed the world
In 1934 Walt decided to empower animation and began production of his first feature-length animated film. No one believed that the film without live actors will be able to interest the audience as a great movie. The film was shot for 3 years, $1,499 million dollars was spent, but it paid off, as “Snow White” for a long time was “the highest-grossing film of all time.” Since then, full lenght- animated films is the most profitable product of Disney.
In 1954, the Disney Company began producing television programs and became the leader of black and white and then color television in the United States. The first television hit series from Disney was “Disneyland”, stayed on the screens for 29 years. A year later was the début of the famous show “Mickey Mouse Club”.
The idea of Disneyland Park occurred to Walt Disney when he visited parks and zoo with his daughters. He came up with the idea of building a place where adults and their children could go and have fun together. The first “Disneyland” was designed in 1955 in California. For the first 25 years over 200 million people visited the park.
Timeless characters. All references to the topic or the age of the films were removed. It allows releasing movies or series again every ten years, without fear that they are obsolete. In the next fifty years repeated rental tapes brought millions in revenue.
The strategy of “Disney” is to produce the maximum number of branded content, using the power of the company. For example, when a new film is released the company produces the toys of the main characters, computer games, books, mobile content, music, DVD and a large number of products in various categories.
The success of the Walt Disney Company lies in the genius of its founder, his unusual innovative ideas that were ahead of their time. Walt Disney created and formed in the minds of the audience a clear image of its unique characters, which are still popular and recognizable brands. Almost every character of his cartoons is an independent brand, which now is controlled by the company. All the characters are out of time and remain relevant for many years, which is a merit of Walt Disney.
Nowadays The Walt Disney Company is the world leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise. Brand “Disney” is in Top-10 most expensive brands and has annual revenues more than $ 38 billion.
Brandstalk2you (Olga Eletckaia) for the University Conference “Economics. Business, Youth” (Nov 2013).
Citation: The Walt Disney webpage http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/
In the 90's and early 00's, there was a bit of a brand crisis as Walt passed on. As the brand was associated with his name, how could the brand live on? Check out this presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/ishanparekh/brand-management-walt-disney-case-study
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