Disney Marketing Strategy Case Study

Disney Marketing Strategy Case Study

Disney is a multinational entertainment and mass media company based in America. The company offers diversified services ranging from television to theme parks. Since its foundation in 1923, the company has continued to expand in other regions, and today it is operating in all corners of the word. Disney success and growth is tied to its marketing strategy, especially its integrated marketing communications. The company’s products are cartoons, television channels, movies and theme parks which are all based on the single unified message which is calibrated with adventure, love, magic, and fantasy (Weber, 2015).Disney marketing strategy is built on the notion that successful marketing should go hand in hand with storytelling (Burns, 2015). Disney tells the story about their brands both in their offline and online activities. All the activities utilize integrated marketing communications to build Disney’s brand name. Disney’s Facebook page is flooded with nice photos, music, and videos which are full of fun, fantasy and amazement. Besides, the Facebook page acts as an avenue to communicate with customers, ask visitors to share their experiences, post the important schedules and events and sell the apps.

Twitter is also an important tool employed by Disney on its online activities. Using the same communication approach used on Facebook and other social media platforms, Disney communicates timely messages and important updates through their Twitter account. For example, important releases like introducing new ride, sale merchandise and popular movies are showcased through Twitter. Both Facebook and Twitter increase the profitability of Disney’s channels besides being consumed daily. For example channels such as Disney-World-Wide, ABC, ESP, sports, movies, and cartoons are widely consumed by families all over the world.Apart from online, Disney has also offered robust offline communication channels to its non-online stakeholders. The company has set out a public relations department to monitor its reputation. Disney works close and cooperates with the government, community, special group interest and media groups to protect its public image. For example, in the event where things in one of the theme parks do not go as planned, public relations unit is always there to save Disney’s reputation rather than leaving the media to report based on their conclusions. The success of Disney’s online and offline activities could not be attained without protection its brand image. Disney has a full-time legal department which monitors both offline and online license infringements. This helps to make sure that people do not use Disney patent and intellectual property rights without its approval.

Based on the above discussions it is apparent that Disney’s integrated marketing communication is chained in both offline and online activities. These are the ideal avenues that the company uses to promote their brand. Disney uses these platforms to tell about their story first, develop and then sell the product. Unlike other companies, Disney starts with the physical product, and then builds the story around the already existing product (Burns, 2015). This is one of the major marketing strategy differentiating Disney from other companies doing content marketing which start by creating the brand story, developing a movie and then building the products around the created story.
Disney builds its brand identity by employing the AIDA concept which stands for consumer Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Through excessive advertising via the internet and traditional media like billboards, newspapers, magazines, radio and television channels, Disney has created a lot of attention to its brand name. Besides, Disney creates consumers interests through public relations. For example, they work very closely with the government and the communities through charitable programs touching on educational and health issues.Disney integrated marketing communication has helped to build desire for the company products. Disney develops consumer desire for their products through fantasy and adventure contained on their movie trails. The desire is influenced by the trail emotions and gives the consumer an imagination feeling about the film. Disney’s movies give the consumer an exciting feeling to know what will happen next and hence influencing the potential customers to develop a desire towards their products and end up making the purchases.

Disney uses the action which is the last element of the AIDA concept through mass communication on both their offline and online platforms. For example, Disney uses its YouTube, Facebook page, and Twitter account platforms to communicate about the new releases and receive feedback on their products in the market. By doing so, Disney is guided by the perception that the consumer is likely to buy products if they see satisfaction feedback from other customers rather than the convincing messages provided by the company.Through integrated marketing communication, Disney gets to know its target market and applies segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies appropriately. Disney segments its market through behavioral, psychographic and demographic strategies and designs a suitable message for each subgroup. Children are Disney’s primary segment who are targeted through theme parks, cartoons, and merchandise. The children content is too influential, and even adults find themselves in the same segment group. Disney variety of products serves different customer groups, and as a result, the company can be said to apply differentiated targeting approach. Disney understands that customers value high quality products and services and hence it uses value-based positioning approach. Disney success and growth since its foundation it could not have been achieved it is not for its comprehensive, integrated marketing communication approach.