Question:
Discuss about the Walt Disney Company.
The Walt Disney Company is one of the most well-known brands in the world that has a number of businesses under its conglomerate umbrella. It was established by Walt Disney in 1923 in California. Over the years Disney has created some of the most iconic characters ever and has enjoyed huge popularity across the globe, encompassing every age group (Fiascone & Christensen, 2014). However, during the course pf their operations Disney has also faced criticism over poor script writing, low quality production and animation qualities. Poor acting skills have always been a cause for headache of the company’s films. Disney has acquired other iconic companies in recent years with hopes to expand their business and overcome the problems they had been facing. Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm were two of the biggest addition to the conglomerate that gave the company hopes to make a comeback from the slump that hit the company. The following paper is set to look into the matters that are pestering Disney and try to give a feasible solution that would be beneficial to the company’s current condition and help the company out of the unfortunate circumstances as soon as possible (Baxter, 2016).
Disney is one of the biggest and most profitable organisations on the planet. But the biggest problem for the company that has been ailing the business of Disney is the fact that the company has become stagnant and has not evolved. The company has been called to become “too old”: brand fatigue has set in. the characters of the company are legendary but they were all created far long back. Most of the sales of the company still comes from either Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh, the later character being created in 1961 and the former in 1928 (Gonneville, 2013). Not being able to provide the fans with new characters and stories have heavily affected the company’s business. To overcome this, Disney paired up with Pixar Studios, to breathe new life into the company. But legal disputes over the control of the production and the plot led this to be come astray. Acquiring Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm did not help the company as much as it had hoped for either. Recent ambitious projects and movies did not instigate positive force into the functions of Disney. High School Musical 3, Bolt, Race to Witch Mountain, Confessions of a Shopaholic; all failed to meet their expectations. The movies cost Disney a significant amount of money and did not make enough market profit, making the troubles of the company only greater (Graham, Lawrence & Requejo, 2014).
There are several critical questions that the new CEO of the company at the moment. After the legal dispute with Pixar, during the time of the last CEO Michael Eisner, the new CEO had to go through a lot of trouble to persuade the CEO of Pixar, Steve Jobs, to convince Pixar’s President Ed Catmull and creative head John Lasseter to join Disney again on against the promise of giving them full control over the animation and financial controls of the animated movies.
Along with being called “too old”, Disney characters have also been told to be too young as they rarely have any significant appeal to teenagers, who are on the cusp of adolescence and view Disney characters as for the kids younger than them (Wills, 2017).
With so many problems riddling the business and internal operations of the company, the basic and most important question is about how can these be tackled efficiently and what are the correct strategies that can adopted to make sure this period of slump gets over for Disney. The new CEO has successfully re-initiated the Disney-Pixar collaboration after much attempts and a number of promises to Catmull and Lasseter. Still there are a number of other issues that need to be resolved quickly. Disney faces a critical question at this specific juncture of time: whether to expand its operations or to downsize on everything and resolve the financial troubles first.
The company has many strategies as its upcoming projects that are going to hopefully turn the adversities around and make the company see bright days ahead. There are some core plans that the company wants to turn into reality and these ideas are to be manifested in the core ideals of the company: to make the world a happier place for everyone alike (Meinel, 2016).
Theming: Disney understands a basic fact about marketing; making special themes have the power to attract a lot of attention, which in turn is a guarantor of better sales. Without the themes and iconic aspect to Disney’s characters, there is hardly anything special about them (Wasko, 2013). This is the most important thing about Disney and the single aspect that is to be given the most priority to jump start the company’s performance and reputation again. Disney aims to overhaul their Disneyland and other major parks with themes as the guidelines for the purpose. Everything from the rides, to the park decorations will be subjected to a specific theme and every operation and function of those would revolve around the chosen theme (Wills, 2017). Understanding the cash potential of the Disney assets is a major thing to do and this could possibly turn the entire scenario in favour of Disney if these assets are used in an efficient and skillful manner.
A vital thing Disney has to ensure is to reflect its beliefs and ideologies in every function it has. Going back to the roots of the company is the way that has the ability to bring a lot of exposure to the company, as the characters of the company have remained untouched by time. New plots are to be introduced, which would revive the old characters and make them contemporary and valid once again (Meinel, 2016). Disney has to be able to make the customers and fans feel like that Disney cares for them and are still the providers of the happiest things on the planet.
Immersion: Making decisions that would involve the fans in the decision making provcess may be a great way to reach out and communicate with the customers. Making them feel like they are a part of the revival process of the company can make the whole thing much more intimate, making customers and fans want to help in the strategies that would re-energise the company (Bolman & Deal, 2015). Fans can be made to participate in programs and contests where they can create characters of their own. Competitions where the backstories of the lives of these characters can be told by the creators themselves to other fans. The best of these would be selected by Disney that have potential to become the next Disney sensation. The company would then involve these sporadic spontaneous creators and begin investing in these projects. A lot of market appreciation and new market exposure can be gained by this strategy (Meinel, 2016). This would also help the company to evolve and update itself as well as becoming well versed about the current market requirements. The ideas that will not be chosen would lend useful insights about what the customers want, and this can prove to be immensely useful in providing the creative team of Disney with new materials that may result in new stories and characters.
Disney has always been something more than just characters. It has the power to immerse the viewer to be immersed in what is being shown. This engulfing characteristic of the company has to be brought back if Disney wishes to revive its former glory (Olk, Rainsford & Tsungting, 2015).
Setting priorities: Disney has historically been the maker of characters and producers of TV shows that have often made the viewer or the customer feel like a royalty. This ability to treat the customers in a way that they would always cherish is a highly valued quality of Disney that has lost its charisma in the recent years (Zipes, 2016). Disney aims to embark on widespread campaigns that would be a strategic dive to bring this back again and instill a feeling of being loved and attention giving to its customers. Disney movies have always been the place which made fans believe that even the most ordinary person can be a princess. A frog can be the ruler of kingdoms. This fantasy world creation and finding hope even in the most mundane and ordinary is a defining trait of Disney. The campaigns that are thought of would be done in random places: roadside stalls to open air demonstrations as well as targeting the malls (Zipes, 2016). A lot of audience attention is sure to be gained, which would make the people attending, or even the passing by people, these demonstrations feel special, albeit being momentarily.
In today’s world, good customer service is something that has become a rarity, and Disney’s ability to make the customers feel so special is surely going to make people want to buy Disney products once again and visit the theme parks.
Using the myths of the company: However far may the company roam and it may acquire a lot of new materials and characters, but its history is still the most popular thing about Disney. Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Donald Duck are still some of the most popular characters ever to have been created. Disney plans to bring back these timeless classics with new materials. Making the characters up to date so that more of the current young generation can relate to these and not discard them as obsolete (Wills, 2017). Disney has new creative teams and has set up committees that are dedicated towards achieving this particular goal: to make the classic characters relevant again. By updating the old characters, Disney would be tapping into its prime source of market popularity that made the company what it is today.
Disney is once again bestowing its faith and hopes upon its creator and the company views this as almost a guarantee that the company would gain immensely from this as it has over the years.
Shifting focus while keeping the origin at heart: In parallel to reviving and updating the plots and the stories of the classic characters, Disney also has to understand that the collective market demands and people’s choices have evolved. Mickey Mouse is popular, but so is the Incredible Hulk. The company has to invest significant amounts in its acquired companies. Marvel is one if the biggest comics icon today and their live action movies are often a spectacle for many. Children of all ages are attracted towards these characters and even the adults are entertained (Zornado, 2017). This segment of the company conglomerate has to be given high amount of priorities and investment. Marvel Entertainment’s own following and loyal fan base would be exploited by Disney and the movies are going to prove essential to the company’s rebirth.
Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchise copyrights are also owned by Disney. These two franchise are popular themselves. Star Wars characters have their own business as well and they also have many things and products to offer to the customers. A diversification is needed at an earliest so that Disney can focus on many areas at the same time and make use of any possible means to gain its market grounds (Van de Vijver, 2016).
In times of trouble and financial difficulty, it is a logical step to downsizing the company. It helps to cut down a lot of unnecessary costs and help the company to handle a lot more pressing issues. However, Disney has always been the place and company that has shown magic exists even in the simplest of conditions and the supposedly ordinary. That is the reason why the CEO has decided that, and the Board has agreed to, the company shall not undergo any downsizing. The company has endured all the adversities along with its employees and it shall expand and prosper in the same way (Montgomery, 2015). A lot of focus shift is bound to happen, but letting employees go is out of the question. The ideology of being the happiest place on Earth must be retained at any cost. The company will invest heavily in reviving the old characters, as well as focusing on the new acquired companies.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Disney is on the verge of changing their entire operations at the moment and they hope that these changes would be the driving force that would once again take the company back to its glorious years. The company is firm on the decision to keep all its employees during this process to re-establish itself in the market and not lay any employee off. The company’s ideals are still believed in by the employees and that would be the most important thing that would dictate Disney’s every decision in the future as well.
References
Baxter, J. E. (2016). Adult nostalgia and children’s toys past and present. International Journal of Play, 5(3), 230-243.
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2015). Think—Or sink. Leader to Leader, 2015(76), 35-40.
Fiascone, R., & Christensen, M. (2014). Disney & Pixar: Building a Magic Kingdom of Animation.
Gonneville, H. M. (2013). Is Snow White Still the Fairest of Them All? How Once Upon A Time Reinvents the Image of the Disney Princess.
Graham, J. L., Lawrence, L., & Requejo, W. H. (2014). Reviewing and Improving. In Inventive Negotiation (pp. 201-210). Palgrave Macmillan US.
Meinel, D. (2016). Exceptional Animation: An Introduction. In Pixar’s America (pp. 1-43). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Montgomery, C. (2015). Cartoon Wasteland: Remediating and Recommodifying Archival Media in Disney’s Epic Mickey. Media Industries Journal, 2(1).
Olk, P., Rainsford, P., & Tsungting, C. (2015). Creating a Strategic Direction.
Van de Vijver, L. (2016). Going to the exclusive show: Exhibition strategies and moviegoing memories of Disney’s animated feature films in Ghent (1937–1982). European Journal of Cultural Studies, 19(4), 403-418.
Wasko, J. (2013). Understanding Disney: The manufacture of fantasy. John Wiley & Sons.
Wills, J. (2017). Disney Culture. Rutgers University Press.
Zipes, J. (2016). Demystifying Disney: A History of Feature Animation. Marvels & Tales, 30(2), 373.
Zornado, J. (2017). Disney, Pixar, and Neoliberal Nostalgia. In Disney and the Dialectic of Desire (pp. 175-211). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
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