Chapter 18- Sales Promotion & Personal Selling

Walt Disney greatest targets market is young children, but their consumers are the parents, therefore they have to keep up with the generation of kids and their parents.
Disney has constantly come up with innovative ways to intrigue the target market while using consumer sales promotion to intrigue the parents as well. Disney use numerous tools for consumer sales promotion, the company is very big on loyalty marketing programs. Disney used to mail out their catalogs to their loyal customers filled with new products, coupons, and rebates. when making a purchase the customer will simply place a telephone order, but during April 2006, Walt Disney decided to stop catalog circulation and instead geared its focus on online sales promotion in order to keep up with the new generation of children and parents. You can find all of Disney's sales promotions on their Disney store website. Throughout their website you can find special offers, such as, this week most successful offer is "Saving 25% in Disneyland Resort" which can be bought online. Most of the special offers usually consist of like a "3 day park for $199". There are also other offers such as free shipping when spending acertain amount of money on products. Disney is offering Free Shipping on your order of $75 or more which includes a promotional code. Another marketing tool they offer is co-branded bredit cards sponsored by Visa.
They have wide selections of this Disney Rewards Visa Credit Card with different Disney characters imprinted on them, and benefits such as saving 10% on selected merchandise purchases each time the consumer spends $50 or more at Disneystore.com. Disney offers Gift cards that can be used at any Disney Theme Park and Resort Hotel, on Disney Cruise Line, and Disney Stores. Not only does Disney promote their store products, but they also promote their theme parks products. their current promotion on this in Free Shipping with any purchase of Disney Parks Merchandise which also includes a promotional code. Throughout the website you'll find many discount promotional codes for various products. These codes function like coupons but instead of having to print them out. Walt Disney has so many loyal customers that they have created cetain Clubs that they can join. Many young children join D23| The official Disney Fan Club, while many of the actual consumers whom are the parents join the Disney Movie Rewards Club. This club includes a free membership, and its purpose is for member to earn points by purchasing Disney DVDs and Blu- Ray discs, Disney theatrical releases, and eligible Disney CD releases. With these points the club memebers is eligible to win any rewards listed depending on how many points the rewards is worth. Another benefit of being a Disney Movie Rewards Club member is that each member is able to participate in Disney's Sweepstakes.

Currently, Disney has a sweepstakes running to May 2012, called "Disney Power up Sweepstakes" Due to all these consumers sales promotion devices, Walt Disney company does not participate in personal selling. other factors include: most of these products have low values; they are all standardized products; they have many customers; their products are usually easy to understand; and their customers are geographically dispersed. As a result, Walt Disney does not need to engage in personal selling. 

Chapter 17- Advertising & Public Relations

The Walt Disney Company's specialty is in entertainment and animation, the two areas do well in the global market, just because a company has its strengths doesn't mean its going to sell its product without advertising. Advertising is essential, without advertising we wouldn't know about half the products we use.  Disney uses product advertising which is a form of advertisement that praises the benefits of a specific good or service. To advertise a product, a company must first select an advertising appeal which identifies a reason for a person to buy a product. Disney uses the "Fun and Pleasure" appeal to advertise their animated films. The company must choose a style to execute their message. Disney uses the "Mood and Image" executional style for advertising which builds a mood or image around the product such as love, happiness, or inspiration. Like whenever you feel a certain emotion after watching a Disney Trailer, that is the tactics working on the aduience.

After Walt Disney has established how they are going to advertise, they must determine what type of media will best communicate the benefits of their product or service to the target audience and how long the advertisment will run. This is called media planning.


Disney advertises through their own radio station (1560 AM Radio Disney), television, internet, and outdoor media. Of course, each media has its advantages and disadvantages, but Disney has such a powerful brand name and history, they end up having more benefits than losses. Due to this image, Disney can sell almost anything by just putting their famous animated characters on the product. To illustrate the prior point, Disney had teamed up with McDonald's and Mattel toy makers, each time Disney came out with a new film they simply let Mattel make toys out of their "Happy Meal" for kids; which brings Disney more fame and customers. As a result, the child would beg their parents to take him or her to the movie theater to watch the new Disney film the child now knows of, just by eating McDonald's.

Chapter 15- Retailing

Walt Disney retailing aspect composed of strategically chain stores. 210 in North America, 105 in Europe and 50 in Japan. The Disney Store is a specialty store, where you can find Disney consumer products such as toys, clothing, games, DVD's, costumes, books, art & collectibles, home decor, and electronic accessories.

                                                                              

I took the time to visit a local Disney Store myself, its located in Queens, New York at the Queens Center Mall. The lightings was very illuminating, giving off a very exciting and youthful feeling in the store. There's a big screen in the center of the store, which is the theater area and you can control what plays. The control pad has only certain options of video and music for you to play which are Disney animated movie trailers and Disney Radio music.

The store is split up into many different sections to attract both boys and girls. For the girls, there's a Disney Princess section which is broken up into smaller sections of each princess which consists of costumes, shoes, dolls, accessories, and toys. For the boys, there's Cars section which composed of toys based on the main characters of the movie, video games, and clothing. there is also a Pirates of the Caribbean section for the boys, it includes costumes; toys such as plastic swords, pirate ships, action figures, etc; and video games, along with board game as well.

Another section, is filled with plush toys based on almost every Disney animated character ever created. From the original characters: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Minnie, and Daisy to major and minor characters from the animated movies. There is also a section that's more likely for adults, it consists of item used for home decor: such as bedding, towels, throw blankets, photo frames, etc; books; DVDs; electronic accessories: such as clocks and wrist watches, iPod, Ipad, and mobile phone covers; and art & collectible items such as mugs, figurines and portraits. The customer service was very friendly, as i browsed throughout the entire store the employees asked if we needed any help. One particular employee had a brief conversation with me about my favorite Disney character and then recommended me with which toy would satisfy me the most. To test out how "friendly" they really are, i purposely kept denying every recommendation and stated that i was "just browsed." I was hoping to aggravate the employee in order to see her fail to stay calm and friendly, instead she surprised me with a good sense of humor and ultimate patience. In the end i left empty handed because i was just browsing as a marketer and not a consumer.

My overall experience at the Disney Store was very fun and i had a blast. i was impressed with the setup of the store and how each section was with something all age can enjoy. Customer service was amazing, they interact with you and can work with you all the way until your satisfied. i can see now why children would like to go there often not only for the purposes but for the entertainment as well.

Chapter 6- Consumer Decision Making

Everyone follows the "Consumer Making Process", it may not be noticable but it is still followed. Using the Movie "The Lion King 3D," and "Dolphin tale" i can explain how Disney consumer use the Consumer Decision- making process.

      The first stage in this process is the need recognition which is always a desired need when it comes to Disney products. This desire can be triggered by external because of immense advertising or positive reviews.

The second stage is information search which in this case it's internal becuase of all the good memories consumers have of the film of the original "The Lion King." the information source is non-marketing controlled by personal experiances. Disney consumers are the parents and not the children who want to watch the films. therefore, the parents end up considering watching these films because Disney never let them down when they were a child.

Stage three is evaluation of of alternatives which helps the consumer ultimately make their decision in whether they are going to buy the product or not. As of today, Warner Bros. is Walt Disney’s main competitor; in this scenario, a constant comparison is formulated with Disney’s “Lion King 3d” to Warner’s “Dolphin Tale”.

the fourth stage is purchasing. Most of Disney's films are unplanned purchases due to the consumer not knowing about the upcoming film until seeing a preview or an ad. in conclusion, the consumer buys on impulse.

the final stage is the process which is the postpurchase behavior which is the certain outcome which consumers expect from their purchases. According to the Box Office on Sept of 2011, The Lion King 3D scored the for the second week in a row with $22.1 million coming in first place, followed in second is Moneyball with $20.6 million, and Dolphin Tale for $20.3 million. the upcoming four movies releases were no match for the Disney classic and becuase of this success Disney is planning on extending the two weeks release to be long then expected. it is clear that Disney consumers are more than satisfied with the film and there expectation went beyond what has been imagined.

Chapter 5 Part 2- Global Marketing (Culture)

Language is another important aspect of culture that can be a problem for marketers. Marketers uses languages to take care of products names, slogans, instructions, and give out a promotional message to convey their meaning. Disney is an international company that covers culture.


For Example: Japans' animated idol character; Hello Kitty, was made into a similar versions of all the Disney movies. Like Hello Kitty clothes is not torn and more animals are added. From Snow white to Cinderella. With a Hello Kitty version of the classical Disney movies, with language involved, translating in a complicated manner from English to Japanese seems to be a breeze. (Request if you want the translation for the Hello Kitty Cinderella video). Almost all Disney movies are now an alternate version turned into Hello Kitty.

       



Unlike the Russian version, Cinderella is made differently. Like, the clothes is not as raggy and the characters figures are akward. The footage is made to seem very old as well.