American Mass Culture
Week 5
Disney,
Consumer Culture, Brand Meaning, Consumption, Identity
1 . Quiz
2. Ketchup
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Week 5 Quiz + Disney
American Mass Culture
Disney,
Consumer Culture, Brand Meaning, Consumption, Identity
This week we learn…..
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHrYDL9LkIQ
Introduction:
Discussion
• 1930s – Walt Disney
begins thinking about building a city
• Realizes every Mickey
Mouse toy is an advertisement for his cartoons – realized the concept of
“Synergy”
Discussion
• Now everyone in marketing
realizes that those childhood toys and experiences, in adulthood, become the
desire to enter into the world of that identity, to become the meaning of the
brand
• Disney began
understanding this before any other big brand
Discussion
• This strong consumer
desire to become one with favorite pop-culture products is exploited by every
one of the superbrands — from Nike to Viacom to the Gap to Martha Stewart – as
they use synergy-based lifestyle marketing
Discussion
• Disney is the best: Michael
J. Wolf, a famous management consultant to big companies like Viacom, Time
Warner, MTV, writes:
“I can't begin to count the number of times
that people who run consumer businesses have confided to me that their goal is
to create the broadbased success that Disney seems to bring to every project
and every business it touches.”
Discussion
• Or as Shaq put it in his
own marketing efforts:
Everyone wants to be…..
“…..like Mickey Mouse."
Discussion
• Disney invented modern
branding
Discussion
• Walt Disney Company
created the model for the branded superstore, opening the first Disney Store in
1984.
• Such branded stores, in
expensive locations, often lose money. But they create brand image and help
spread the idea of the brand
Discussion
• Disney also created the
branded holiday – not merely resorts, but also a Disney cruise ship line, which
goes to Disney’s privately owned island in the Caribbean.
• Even Nike has a
sports-themed cruise ship line….
Discussion
• Branded towns, too:
Disney owns Celebration, Florida, a Disney branded town.
•
http://tinyurl.com/7hs6w4c
•
The irony of Celebration: (from No Logo)
There are no other brands allowed either. But as one critic says, “it is private space
that pretends to be public” since everything is under Disney’s control, from
the size of the roads to the shape and color of the buildings.
History
• "Animation can
explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most
versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass
appreciation."
-
Walt Disney, Founder, Walt Disney Group of Companies.
• "Disney boldly
diversified into television, commercials, music, comic strips and amusement
parks at a time when other studios could think of little but celluloid"
History
• As noted before, Walt Disney
invented the ideas of brand management, merchandising campaigns, and brand
extension into other product fields
History
• In 1927, Disney created
the highly successful Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal Pictures.
• He left Universal over a
copyright dispute and in 1928 invented Mickey Mouse
• With third Mickey
cartoon, Steamboat Willie, Disney introduced synchronized sound. Very
Popular http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4
History
• In early 1930s Disney
experimented with animation that created emotions, and experiences
History
• In 1938, with the film Snow
White, the first-full length animated picture, he became the first
producer to have a complete merchandising campaign for a film.
• It became the
highest-grossing film of all time.
History
• He started Mickey Mouse
Clubs for children which offered them games and prizes, to cement their loyalty
to the company.
History
• In early 1940s he began
to imagine the first theme park, Disneyworld, with rides and Disney-themed
products
• But Disney spent the
1940s doing war-related propaganda for the government
History
• In the 1950s Disney
became a major name in television
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_r4BxI3BVg
• Note role of TV in
creating brand synergy between TV, movies, and toy and other products
History
• In 1950 Disney released
Cinderella, a huge hit, which led to opening of Disneyworld in California in
1955
• Walt Disney became
confident in TV as a medium to promote his movies, when other companies were
afraid of the new technology
History
•
1960s Disney moved into live-action films with Swiss Family Robinson,
The Absent-Minded Professor, and one of the greatest movies ever made, Mary
Poppins.
• MP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b-Z0SSyUcw&feature=related
•
SFR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjDUFFMmLN4
History
• Walt died in 1960s
• In 1971 Disney World
Florida opened
•
Walt’s son Roy dies in 1970s. Company begins to lose its direction and
intelligence – it turned down Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET
History
• Early 1980s Disney was
more concerned with real estate and recreation than entertainment
• The company was dying. In
1983 the Bass brothers bought 25% of Disney and installed new management team
headed by Michael Eisener
History
• From 1983 to 1987, annual
revenues more than doubled, profits nearly quintupled, and the value of Disney
stock went from $2 billion to $23 billion.
• Expansion depended
largely on a wide array of business activities in which the new management team
aggressively exploited the Disney brand name, such as the stores
History
• 1990s = Disney Decade
• Disney bought many other
companies, including ABC and ESPN
• Released The
Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991)
and The Lion King (1994), most successful animated feature
ever produced, resurrected its movie power
• Late 1990s saw Disney
begin to sink again, but after Eisner was forced out (in Shrek Lord
Farquaad is thought to be Michael Eisener) Disney grew with Pirates of the
Caribbean (2003) and Finding Nemo (2003),
• TV: Disney
experiences continued success with TV hits such as Desperate Housewives, Lost, Greys’
Anatomy,High School Musical, and Hannah Montana
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