Essay on Disney: The Walt Disney Company

1. Identify 2 strategic growth initiatives of Disney since Iger joined in 2005 (don’t just limit yourself to items mentioned in the case, utilize the videos as well). Identify the market being served, and the specific products. According to Ansoff’s strategic opportunity matrix, what type of growth strategy is being employed with each of the initiatives?
After Bob Iger joined the Global brand Disney in 2005, Disney experienced another astonishingly rapid development. One of the most outstanding changes is purchasing Pixar Animation Studios and Marvel Entertainment Inc. Iger purchased them as a part of the Walt Disney studios. After then, the Walt Disney Studios made more than twenty five animated films such as Cars, Up, Toy Story, Brave, and so on, and also created an isolated Marvel world. There is a data: every film can bring six hundred million dollars income to Disney. By this way, Disney expand its film market in different countries with diverse new film products, which is diversification strategy. In addition to creating new markets internationally, the Purchasing of Marvel also brings many adult customers to Disney.
Furthermore, the increasing of movie and animation derivatives is another strategy growth initiates. Take Cars for instance. After the hit of this film, Disney manufactured many different kinds of products such as cars toys, film music, story books, and Cars t-shirts. Moreover, Disney also made Cars theme park in Disney Land and Cars game App which can be downloaded and played on cellphones or tablets easily. These new products are provided in present consumer and merchandise market, which is a product development strategy.
2. How does Disney’s cross-platform franchising help create sustainable competitive advantage? What are the disadvantages of the cross platform franchising?
After having the idea of film derivatives, Disney Company set a high standard to create the cross-platform franchising form. Instead of only developing new related products, Disney Company tries its best to satisfy customers’ preference and high requirement. Take Frozen for example. The toys and dolls of the royal sisters Elsa and Anna have same appearance as the characters in the film. The published story books have very fun and interesting stories. The t-shirts with the Snow Queen are made from pure cotton. The film music Let it Go is really awesome and popular. The company also launched Frozen game App and the frozen theme park with same scenery, characters, and plots. Or maybe, Disney can make a series of film to bring Frozen hit and craze again and again. Every successful film can be considered as an original archetype to make other cross-platform products, which is a sustainable competitive advantage and a great guarantee for Disney’s profit.
However, the cross-platform franchising form also has disadvantages because one industry will influence others directly and severely. If consumers have a low likability to a film, it will be hard for company to get benefit from other cross-platform products of this film. Similarly, if an excellent film has a low quality cross-platform products such as a terrible mobile phone game application, consumers’ likability of this film will decrease and the sales volume of the film DVD will definitely decreases, which creates a bad influence in company’s profit.
3. Describe the marketing mix for two of Disney’s franchises. (must discuss all 4 p’s of each Product Strategy, Pricing Strategy , Distribution Strategy and Promotion Strategy)
Disney toys are one of the most important products in Disney. I think the product strategy of Disney toys is worthy of being studied. Every toy has a hard package with one transparent plastic side, through which customers can see the toy inside and be attracted by the design. On the back of the package, there is a super cool film plot printed on. Disney toys are regarded by parents as one of the best gifts for children because Disney toys mean not only a gift but

Show More