Marketing: why Disney buys Marvel
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Disney acquires Marvel When Spider-man is needed to capture the elusive boys market August 2009 News of the week – Marketing Executive MBA – HEC Lausanne 2009-2010 Michael Eich [email protected] GNU General Public Lice istributed under the GNU General Public License
Transcript of Marketing: why Disney buys Marvel
Disney acquires Marvel
When Spider-man is needed to capture the elusive boys market
August 2009
News of the week – Marketing Executive MBA – HEC Lausanne 2009-2010
Michael Eich [email protected]
GNU General Public LiceDistributed under the GNU General Public License
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The Walt Disney Company
World's largest media and entertainment conglomerate Strategy : “To build on company's brand equity among
very young children and carry that through their lifetimes by way of theme parks, movies, television and multi-media outlets”
Historical development by diversification
Media Networks
Parks and Resorts
Studio Entertainment
Consumer Products
Interactive Media
$000 $20,000
$38bn revenue 2008 split by business segments
Disney Factbook 2008
Eric Bradlow, Wharton Marketing professor
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Disney's first move towards boys
Traditionally weak presence on boys market
In 1990s recognition of gender divide problem Lauch of boys-friendly products
Movies : 1995 "Toy Story", 2004 "The Incredibles", 2006 "Cars", 2007 "Pirates of the Caribbean"
Cable channel : 2009 "XD Channel"
“We realized that a true headquarters for boys has been missing from the marketplace” co-chairwoman of Disney’s Media Networks division 2009
• Disney remains weak on the segment teenage males
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Boys market
Juciy but elusive market $50bn spent annually by 6-14 old boys * Different consumer behaviour than girls
Harder to reach Spend more time playing video games and sports than
girls Boys don't respond as much as girls to products based
on a single movie Development of dedicated medias : cable channels
and magazines
* The New York Times
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Marvel Entertainment
Ronald Perelmann, former CEO of Marvel• 225 employees
• Revenue 2008 $205 mio
• Created in 1933
• 5000 characters
“A mini Disney in term of intellectual property”
• Leader of US comic books
• Licensing = 80% of revenue
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Marvel : the missing pieces
Toddlers Kids Teenagers Young adults
Male
Female
Disney segments
Marvel segments
Segmentation based on family life cycle
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Leverage characters across channels
VideoComics
Cartoons
Merchandising *
Movies
Computers games
Parks & ressorts
XD Channel
* not fully managed by Disney
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When you can not do it, buy it
Disney has huge resources and artistic power but cannot replicate Marvel's universe
• Universe too different Marvel : dark, rough, macho Disney : nice, fairly-tale, family
• Credibility takes time Most Marvel characters : over 10 years of history Born on ink and paper first, then appeared on
screen
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A merger : potential risk of culture clash
• Disney : keep-off approach Marvel will stay in New-York and will not move to
California, Disney's place Marvel will have a large autonomy Did the same with Pixar
• “Marvel's culture will be safe in Disney's hands”
How to keep Marvel spirit?
John Lasseter, Chief Creative at Pixar
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Conclusion
• “Nobody can produce and market franchises better than Disney, and nobody has the extensive library of characters that would make great franchises that Marvel has”
• “Disney is thinking here of long-term, not short-term benefits. This move helps its build an impressive arsenal of content that can be monetized across the globe, in multiple technology and entertainment platforms, whether now or in the future”
Stan Lee, Marvel's Chairman Emeritus
Institute of Media and Entertainment
