The brothers Walt and Roy established the Walt Disney Company in October of 1923. They started in a small animation studio that has developed to be the largest animation studios in Hollywood. In the mid nineties, Walt Disney had a vision to create a wonderland park that contained all the characters in his cartoons. The Walt Disney Company mission is to become world leaders in providing and producing entertainment and information through which the company can develop the most creative, profitable and innovative entertainment experiences and associated products worldwide. The mission of making people happy is evident in the diversity of products and entertainment the company produces. The company also aims to create a strong brand portfolio. The company, therefore, uses the four P’s of marketing to realize profits and implements them differently in all its branches around the world.
The company, its affiliates and subsidiaries, lead worldwide in diversified family entertainment and media. Walt Disney Company is divided into five categories of business, which include studio entertainment as such as Pixar animation studios and Walt Disney animation studios, Disney consumer products, parks and resorts, media networks such as ESPN and ABC television. Additionally, the company has Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG), which offers entertainment to children and families. The mission statement has, however, received a lot of criticism with the argument being outdated. This is because it is already the primary manufacturers of merchandise and services in the entertainment market worldwide. Therefore, its mission statement is to maintain its existing position.
Additionally, Disney’s Media Networks contributes the largest revenue generator among the business categories. Proposed mission statement is aimed at maintaining the previous principles as well as ensuring there are changes according to the demands of the target market. In addition, the proposed mission aims to promote the core values that founded the company. The company lacks a published vision statement due to the diversity of the business since it is difficult to integrate the various services it offers in the market (The Walt Disney Company 2009).
The company operates in different countries worldwide with the four key countries being Japan, France, the US and China. These countries have theme parks with France having the Disneyland Paris Resort, Japan the Tokyo Disneyland Resort, China Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and United states the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort. The Hong Kong resort is the smallest which consists of the theme park, two hotels, retail, dinning and other facilities. The current marketing situation the company puts into consideration is to sell more products to the current customers, continuous promotion, expanding the market places and improving and value addition to existing products. The company is heavily dependent on family orientation, which makes it, successful because Disney world has activities that all family members can enjoy (Hamilton 2003). The Disney Company utilizes the four P’s of marketing which are product, price, promotion and placement.
In product strategy, the company has numerous products that attract people and the theme parks worldwide that flock with visitors daily. The aim of product strategy is to provide variety, quality, unique services and good packaging. Disney continues to offer services to consumers through the website, television, parks and resorts and cruise lines. In addition, Disney tries to develop structures that fit the cultures of the areas in which they are situated to make the consumers feel comfortable with the services and products. The Disney cartoons are evidently recognized by children in comics and from the television (Ferrell & Hartline 2011).
Moreover, Disney resorts offer parades and other park attractions such as Astro Blasters and Tarzan’s Tree house thus, making the characters more real. This gives the company a competitive edge against the competitors. Disney customizes its products especially in Japan and China to sit the market in these countries. To improve their product accessibility, the company is expanding to digitalize their contents and offer online relations with customers. This will develop customer loyalty since children will have better access with new technology to play games, watch movies and shops for products (Ferrell & Hartline 2011).
Promotion strategy is aimed at increasing awareness, customers and sales of the services and products that Disney offers. Walt Disney relies on advertisements through commercials to sponsor the company. The company sets aside over two million dollars for advertising and advertises movies more than the resorts in the US. The company is well aware of the seasons of the year and promotes products to ensure profit realization all year round. In low peaks, the company offers low priced rooms, tickets and free tickets sometimes. In summer, there are many commercials about Disney land and offers of reduced prices for a family vacation packages (Hamilton 2003). Disney’s promotion strategy targets both parents and children because its products cut across all ages. Disney also rewards its loyal customers, and this helps to maintain their consumers thus fulfilling its marketing objectives.
Disney prices of products and services are not low, but in comparison to other products that competitive companies offer and the quality of the products, the price is fair. Disney targets high and upper, middle income earners and hence the range of prices. The pricing is in various categories such as adults, children and seniors which is persons above the age of 65. Ticketing is also in different categories such as regular days, peak days and special days. There are also annual passes for access in the theme parks. The prices of products and access to the park in different countries is reliant on the demand of the services and goods that Disney offers because most are customized to fit the cultures of the customers (Kelly & McGowen2012).
Placement or distribution strategy of Walt Disney is to place the amusement parks and resorts in areas where there is a significant influx of people hence the location of parks in Tokyo, Florida, California, Paris and Hong Kong. This makes the brand to be more recognizable by people. Disney has products distributed around the world with more than 200 stores, eleven theme parks some owned and others co-owned by independent individuals in three continents (Kelly & McGowen2012).
The company carries out measurement of the four strategies through the sale of tickets, access of the website and sale of goods and services in all the regions it is located. A survey is also carried out to measure consumer awareness of the brand. The measures help Disney to analyze which marketing strategy works best in terms of increasing profits and which one does not.
References
Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. D. (2011). Marketing strategy. Australia: South-Western Cengage
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Kelly, M., & McGowen, J. (2012). The World Marketplace: Business without Borders. In
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The Walt Disney Company. (2009). (n.d). Investors annual Report. Retrieved from,
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