Business Memo

Date: January 19, 2016

To: Marketing Manager

From: Germaine Bridges, Marketing Associate

Subject: Marketing Strategy for Disney Franchise Disney Princesses

Over the past century, Disney has created a plethora of memorable characters, each unique in the way they inhabit the imagination of children and also in the way it carries its own franchising significance. The Disney Princesses have been a successful franchise for Disney CEO Robert (Bob) Iger. The original line-up consisted of Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine. Today, the line-up has expanded to include Mulan, Pocahontas, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, and two new princesses are added with the released of Frozen. The Walt Disney Company is a market-oriented corporation, meaning they assume that a sale does not depend on an aggressive sales force but rather on a customer's decision to purchase a product (Lamb, 2014).

Disney marketing strategy does not put a lot of effort into promotion. Instead of working on promotion and advertising, Disney focus their marketing strategy on products and services differentiation. As mention by Lamb (2014), “because cost competitive advantages are subject to continual erosion, product and service differentiation tends to provide a longer-lasting competitive advantage. The durability of this strategy tends to make it more attractive to many top managers” (p. 24). The next means of marketing for Disney is distribution. Disney is partnering with companies like Sephora to come up with clothing lines and cranking out a huge variety of Disney Princesses products (The Walt Disney Company, 2015). Furthermore, Disney was clever enough to group the princesses together into a royalty conglomerate, increasing the exposure of all the princesses. Disney had several decades to establish the princesses and already had quite a following for the princesses themselves.

The Disney Princesses franchise has released apparel, home décor, toys, books, television...