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Disney’s Brand Strategy

by Susan Gunelius on October 1st, 2007

Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) CFO, Tom Staggs, and Merrill Lynch’s (NYSE: MER) media analyst, Jessica Reif-Cohen, hosted a question and answer session at Merrill Lynch’s annual Media Fall Preview event on September 18th.  During the q&a, there was a lot of discussion about Disney’s branding strategy.   Here are some quotes (after the jump) from the session courtesy of MotleyFool:

Jessica’s explanation of the three pillars Disney focuses on to builds its strategy: “One, to invest in quality content using your strongest brands; and two, leverage new platforms and technologies to deliver this product; and three, better exploit international opportunities.”

Tom’s two cents, “Underlying that, really, is a fundamental belief that you’ve got an expansion of consumer choice, you’ve got an expansion of markets around the world, and you’ve got the ability to even further differentiate strong branded content around the world.”

So in essence, Disney’s strategy is to identify its most popular brands and exploit them through brand extensions throughout the world.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Disney fan, but I do think Disney is guilty of over-saturating the market with its branded content to the point where even the best brands become diluted. 

Disney has a history of inundating the market with brand extensions until customers are bored and start looking for the next big thing.  I suppose Disney doesn’t have a problem with reaping the short term profits of a brand then simply moving on to the next one when the first has run its course.  The strategy seems to have worked for them so far, but doesn’t there come a point when the quality of new branded content diminishes? 

Lucky for Disney they acquired Pixar who has a history of creating strong content, but think of all the Disney brand failures (or at least branded products that didn’t meet customers’ expectations) including countless animated films that didn’t draw the buzz and excitement Disney hoped for.  Again, Disney simply sweeps those mistakes aside and moves onto the next one. 

What do you think of Disney’s branding strategy?

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