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The Disney Brand
Marketing Doctor To Disney Brand: Manage Your Tweens!
Today is an excellent time for the Marketing Doctor to take a look at “Brand Disney.” Part of the reason Miley Cyrus (see yesterday’s post) matters is because Disney is experiencing a kind of rebirth of its brand and finally hearkening back to its roots as an innovative company that meets its target market where they live!
It’s not clear if it’s all Bob Iger’s doing (Disney’s new CEO pictured above with Mickey) but something has definitely changed! Sure, the Disney/ABC brand is racking up impressive ratings with Desperate Housewives, Lost and Ugly Betty, but most impressive and important is the teen/tween entertainment revival that is building legions of new fans. Click here to read The Economist’s take on the Disney story and here for an interview with Bob Iger on CNN Money.
Part of the reason seems to be that Iger is giving each division more creative control. It’s said that Eisner –the former CEO— was all about his own creativity and Iger lets division heads make big creative decisions.
That might be a good strategy for unlocking creativity, but as always the Marketing Doctor’s concern here is brand. And what astonished me about the Cyrus scandal is that Disney even let it happen!!! A looser kind of management might be great for creativity, but it is lousy for branding –and, fact is, Miley Cyrus and Vanessa Hudgens (the High School Musical star who had those other high profile photos a few months back) are extensions of Brand Disney and part of the Disney product lines –like Buick and Cadillac for the GM global brand!
Disney created these products and needs to manage them with a strategic marketing plan that keeps Brand Disney front and center! This takes active management! Disney’s products –their stable of entertainers and stars— should be treated like the old studio system’s –they’re part of the business, not free agents like most actor celebrities these days. And the old studio system used to strictly manage its stars!
Hey, it ain’t easy to manage personality brands. It’s hard enough to manage non-living products. I can only imagine trying to make egos the size of Texas understand that it’s not all about them! But maybe they can explain it by saying that it’s about the star product’s target market and how their won’t be a target market anymore if the star doesn’t meet its needs!
Now maybe that kind of studio system approach isn’t possible these days –and, of course, the higher the profile of your stars, the more they’re going to demand freedom to buck this kind of strict brand management— but Disney has got to make sure that they can’t be “surprised” by their stars like this again!!! And with the “wholesome” Jonah’s Brothers band getting set to make it even bigger with their own film, I hope Disney gets on top of this pronto!!!
And a trivia follow-up on the Miley Cyrus photo flap. Did you know this bit of history about David Cassidy (courtesy Wikipedia): “Rebelling against the squeaky-clean character of Keith Partridge, Cassidy shocked his young fans by posing nude in the May 11, 1972 edition of Rolling Stone magazine…” (who was the photographer? You guessed it) Annie Liebovitz! They say he’s done well in Europe and England since, but his career in the U.S. was effectively derailed!
Remember, it’s always easier when you keep branding in mind! Yes, I said it again!
TODAY’S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY –
Keeping your brand healthy takes active management!
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