Disney Consumer Products: Marketing Nutrition to

Children

Worlds Largest Licensor

56% market share of character licensing industry.

Retail sales of $23 billion in branded merchandise

Six lines of Business

Softlines(apparel, footwear and accessories)

Buena Vista Games home & infant hardlines (food, health & beauty,

electronics, and stationery)publishing toys

DCP licensed food products :Mostly Cookies or candy’s

10-year, $2 billion licensing deal with McDonald’s

Retail sales of DCP-licensed food products was

The problem : Dramatic increases in childhood obesity

30% of American children are overweight

And 14% are obese…

Disney is being held responsible for rising obesity epidemic and advertising sugary foods to kids.

saw the controversy as an opportunity to reconsider its entire range of food products

The Big Question : Can Disney provide leadership for the rest of the food industry and use its brand strength to reach children?

Can the company use its “magic” to get children to switch from sugary, processed foods and become lifelong converts to a more nutritious diet?

What are the challenges for DCP? Can it overcome the hurdles to

maintain the brand value?

The Big Question : Can Disney provide leadership for the rest of the food industry and use its brand strength to reach children?

Analysis : there was a gap between what children requested and what their mothers were willing to buy for them

children influenced purchase decisions

Peer pressure and advertisement influence kids.

Moms associate Disney strongly with

magic. And have perception as high

quality and trustworthy products.

Kids want fun graphics and shapes, good taste, and great fun

The products need to make them feel special and must be non-patronizing and Mom-approved.

After Nutrition Audit

The company planned to have all its products brought into compliance or phased out by

2008

Can the company use its “magic” to get children to switch from sugary, processed foods and become lifelong converts to a more nutritious diet?

Worldwide retail sale of : $21 billion

Estimated Value:

Estimated Value:

Disney nutrition guidelines

products would be minimally processed.

have controlled levels of added sugar and contain no trans or hydrogenated fats.

Calories were limited by either adjusting a food’s formulation or its portion size.

minimized the use of additives.

Three approaches toward creating Disney food products

1 . offer products that already had broad appeal !

2 . to take products that were already healthy and make them more “fun”

3. to use packaging to inspire product sampling

Licensing its characters to

Imagination farms

product development strategy

differentiate commodity produce through promotion

create value-added products through product preparation or packaging

develop exclusive produce varieties that would yield more child-friendly foods

Disney Magic Selections

What are the challenges for DCP? Can it overcome the hurdles to

maintain the brand value?

94% food products fail..

1 . Pricing and value

“For these products, affordable equals value, not price”

“We have to deliver quality to represent our brand well.” - Mooney

2 . Legacy

It isn’t useful to ask where are we are today, that’s based on decisions made many

years in the past.

we are focused on developing ‘better for you’ products and how we’re going

to get there - Mooney

3 . Differentiation & Competition

Competition with entertainment brands

Competition with Commodity producers

We believe we can beat the competition

Because they cannot access Disney magic - Mooney

4 . Growth and distribution

“Other retailers won’t turn our products down because of the Kroger relationship”

Their chief concern and ours is that our products are profitable for them - Mooney

DISCLAIMERCreated by Parag Karguppikar,

PESIT Bangalore, during a marketing internship by Prof.Sameer Mathur, IIM

Lucknow.