Introduction The Walt Disney Company is an American diversified multinational mass media corporation. It is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. It generated US$ 42.278 billion in 2012. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, and established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into live-action film production, television, and travel. The Walt Disney Company operates as five primary units and segments: The Walt Disney Studios or Studio Entertainment, which includes the company's film, recording label, and theatrical divisions; Parks and Resorts, featuring the company's theme
The Walt Disney business model lies in the diversification of their business portfolio. They cover all sectors of entertainment, in addition to their well-known parks and resorts. They own major television networks like ABC and ESPN, and movie studios like Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilms. They meet their customer’s needs in a variety of ways in order to deliver value. Disney has a great management system because they are able to deal with each part of their corporation so effectively. Their slogan “Where Dreams Come True” epitomizes their attitude towards delivering value to the customer. The managers and employees are the primary inputs but Disney operates in such a wide array of entertainment areas that it is hard to identify all of the inputs. For example at their amusement parks, Disney buys food and souvenirs from their suppliers and then sells them to their customers to deliver value. When it comes to television, they buy all of the equipment along with the television rights to deliver value through a twenty-four hour sports cable channel like ESPN. The more viewers the show has the more money they are able to charge through advertising dollars. Disney prides itself in having diverse suppliers; they believe this leads to the most innovative and cost effective approach. Disney also dedicates itself to supplier sustainability; together they develop sustainable business practices and methods of delivering products and services.
This paper will analyse a recent period of strategic change at The Walt Disney Company which began in 2005 with the appointment of current CEO Robert Iger. The company began to experience halted growth during the late 1990s. The former CEO Michael Eisner had been successful himself in the late 1980s in changing the company during what is known as the Disney
Today, the Walt Disney Company is highly diversified - it is divided into 5 major business segments: Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Media Networks, Consumer Products, and Internet & Direct Marketing. Since this paper stresses on only one strategic business unit of Walt Disney, Parks and Resorts, the following discussion of the elements of marketing mix will be with respect to this SBU only.
The Walt Disney Company is considered to be one of the most active family entertainment companies in the world. Primarily Disney became known as an animated film company and a cartoon creator. Later, the company expanded its range of activities into other markets through the Disney stores and theme parks around the world. The Walt Disney Company’s key objective is to be the world’s premier family entertainment company through the ongoing development of its powerful brand and character franchises.
After the first quarter of this year, the ABC network “income at broadcasting increased 35% to $240 million” (The Walt Disney
Walt Disney 's cable networks group owns and operates ESPN, Disney Channels Worldwide, ABC Family and SOAPnet networks. ESPN is a multinational sports entertainment company that runs 8 twenty-four hour TV sports networks. ESPN networks reach customers in 62 countries and territories in four languages. ESPN also owns 16 international sports media outlets, which enlarges as well as enhances its appeal adding positively already massive audience but showing the ability to successfully penetrate international markets. The company 's ESPN cable network had a subscriber base of nearly 100 million consumers (Marketline 2014).
The next competitive strength includes Walt Disney's cable networks, broadcast television networks, television production and television station operations. Unit 2 represents Disney’s highest performing unit. Disney owns numerous domestic and international networks. Disney itself sees its Media Networks as being a profitable unit for them
One of Disney’s greatest strengths lies in its diversification. The Walt Disney Company is in and of itself a very diverse organization, with holdings in film production, amusement parks, cruises, hotels, performances, and toy manufacturing. However, even within its film production, Disney is incredibly diverse. What started out as a singular entity, Disney Bros. Cartoon Studio, has grown into a massive conglomerate of animation studios, entertainment universes like
The Walt Disney company can be seen as a highly diversified company. Over the years, it has pursued a wide range of diversification strategies that we can enhance:Horizontal integration: obviously, Walt Disney has invaded several markets, diversifying its offer to many fields. In 2000, we can find five big main fields of action where Walt Disney operates: Media Network, studio entertainment, theme parks and resort, consumer products and internet and direct marketing. Moreover, each of these categories is itself divided in other categories characterized by the
The media network component of Disney Corporation includes broadcast and cable television networks, television production operations, television distribution, domestic television stations and radio networks and stations. Some notable cable network businesses include ESPN, Disney Channels Worldwide, ABC Family, and SOAPnet. Disney’s broadcasting business includes a domestic broadcast network, television production and distribution operations and eight owned domestic television stations.
As highlighted in the above section, Welt Disney Company is composed of four major business segments which are consumer products, media networks, studio entertainment and parks and resort and has cable television network and 11 theme parks around the universe among other components. From books, games, apps to toys, Disney consumer products and interactive media
The following paragraphs will discuss the corporate strategy of Walt Disney Co. in regards to the current strengths and weaknesses of business diversifications as discussed in “Disney Stresses ESPN to Allay Cable Fears” (Fritz, 2016).
In differentiated organizations, corporate executives can increase their upper hand by increasing the energy they put forth in different areas of their business. The Walt Disney Company increase their value over numerous business entities throughout the company. There value in the chain comes across several different avenues in amusement parks and resorts, video stimulation, and consumer shopping divisions utilizing the Disney name and wholesome family excitement. Product movement sharing and support in all aspects of the quality chain enhances their marketability for movies, then coordinating characters, attractions, and items for amusement parks, retail locations, and indexes.
Walt Disney or often refer to as “Disney” is the United State based multinational mass media and entertainment company. It is the second largest media corporation in the world after Comcast Corporation by revenue (Wakefield 2014). The company was invented through its animated characters in 1920s by broadcasting via cable television and expanded into other forms of businesses within entertainment industry with the ultimate goal to bring joy into the family households (The Official Disney Fan Club 2015).