A Character Slap in the Face
By Jim Douglas
Just last month, Disney Consumer Products division chairman Andy Mooney gave an interview to The Oregonian in Portland, a city that knew him when he was head of marketing for Nike. In the interview, Mooney criticized the way his division was run before he came to Disney.
"The first thing you (sic) really got to fix is the quality of the product," Mooney said, echoing comments he's been making ever since he was brought in to report to former chairman Bo Boyd in 1999. Although he's had nearly five years to make a meaningful impact on the division, we can now see the fruits of his labor by walking into any local grocery store:
Disney paper towels.
Mooney is the same person who told Business Week in 2003 that "we're focusing on making great products." He publicly decried "character slaps" (putting a random image of a Disney character on a meaningless product) as something that would never happen under his watch. And now he has overseen the devolution of Mickey Mouse to meaningless brand icon who now hawks paper towels.
Just a few years back, Mooney routinely gathered his troops to tell them that the Consumer Products division had grown stale, that it needed to create new meaning for the Disney "brand," that it needed to scale back the number of licensees and products it created in order to focus on the most important, profitable items. In these meetings, Mooney would stress the need for Disney products to emphasize the company's storytelling heritage.
Maybe I'm thick, but I'm missing the story that connects Mickey Mouse has to paper towels.
Sure, there have already been things like Disney Band-Aids and toothbrushes. Though they may seem to fall into the same character-slap category, one can follow that these products bring a little touch of Disney to items that small children need and use frequently. Mickey's smiling face on a Band-Aid might well bring extra comfort to an "owie".
Now, Disney diapers were hardly a respectable end for some of Walt's best loved characters. (One can imagine Donald getting the assignment with a... "Wak!"). Still, there was some connection to kids there...
But I'm at a loss to remember the last time a 3-year-old decided to grab the 409 and spray down the kitchen counters or pick up Fido's mess.
The paper towel packaging does nothing to try to establish some sort of connection to the characters - there's no cute story on the back about how Mickey loves to clean the kitchen, or how Minnie toils to keep her countertops sparkling. Rather, there's Mickey on the package in a few random, meaningless poses along with a giant, bold "Disney" logo on the store shelves - right next to the Bounty woodsman and the Viva brand.
True, this is only one product among thousands that Disney's licensing division creates. But it speaks volumes about the lack of creativity, the lack of leadership and the lack of long-term vision that Disney's current management regime has.
On one hand, they're selling the Disney Stores, the only day-to-day immersive Disney experience that the average consumer can have these days, claiming that the long-term strength of the "brand" doesn't support the expense of operating a retail chain (even though Eisner bought off on the concept as a money-loser because of the goodwill it generated for the Disney name).
On the other, they're randomly slapping Mickey's image on paper towels.
The Disney-branded cereals moved in this direction a few years ago. Cap'n Crunch, Mr. Whipple and the Trix rabbit may be great advertising icons, but few could argue that Mickey Mouse transcends them. After all, you don't see global entertainment destinations being created around, say, the Gorton's fisherman. After 70-plus years, Mickey Mouse - the most famous cartoon character in the world - has been reduced to their level.
Under Mooney (and the notoriously hawk-eyed Eisner, who must have seen plans for these Disney paper towels), the care that Disney management has lavished on Mickey and the gang for nearly 80 years has been rendered meaningless. Or maybe it isn't Consumer Products that creates these deals at all, but Strategic Planning and Strategic Alliances. The bonding of corporate global entities before product consideration.
Carping about a product this cheap, this disposable (quite literally), this meaningless and this unimaginative may seem frivolous at first glance. But the trend holds great potential to undermine the faith consumers have in the Disney name and characters. How can they justify spending $50 a pop at Disneyland to see that guy who's on their roll of paper towels? How can they have affinity for characters they use to wipe up food and vomit?
Yet you can't find Mickey's classic films on the Disney Channel... and managers wonder why kids today "don't know Mickey." Often times, they've never truly met him. And who's fault is that?
Maria Gladowski, a Disney communications manager, told Potentials in Sept. 2003, "You really want the products to be reflective of your brand." When they cynically slap Mickey on some paper towels, you have to wonder exactly what they think of their much-discussed "brand" after all.
Remember, these are the people who are making decisions that are supposed to grow, protect and nurture the Disney name and characters into the next decade and beyond. That makes me more worried than ever, because they're making a mess that even all the Disney paper towels in the world can't clean, no matter how happily Mickey's smiling up at you from the muck.
Is toilet paper next?
By Jim Douglas
Just last month, Disney Consumer Products division chairman Andy Mooney gave an interview to The Oregonian in Portland, a city that knew him when he was head of marketing for Nike. In the interview, Mooney criticized the way his division was run before he came to Disney.
"The first thing you (sic) really got to fix is the quality of the product," Mooney said, echoing comments he's been making ever since he was brought in to report to former chairman Bo Boyd in 1999. Although he's had nearly five years to make a meaningful impact on the division, we can now see the fruits of his labor by walking into any local grocery store:
Disney paper towels.
Mooney is the same person who told Business Week in 2003 that "we're focusing on making great products." He publicly decried "character slaps" (putting a random image of a Disney character on a meaningless product) as something that would never happen under his watch. And now he has overseen the devolution of Mickey Mouse to meaningless brand icon who now hawks paper towels.
Just a few years back, Mooney routinely gathered his troops to tell them that the Consumer Products division had grown stale, that it needed to create new meaning for the Disney "brand," that it needed to scale back the number of licensees and products it created in order to focus on the most important, profitable items. In these meetings, Mooney would stress the need for Disney products to emphasize the company's storytelling heritage.
Maybe I'm thick, but I'm missing the story that connects Mickey Mouse has to paper towels.
Sure, there have already been things like Disney Band-Aids and toothbrushes. Though they may seem to fall into the same character-slap category, one can follow that these products bring a little touch of Disney to items that small children need and use frequently. Mickey's smiling face on a Band-Aid might well bring extra comfort to an "owie".
Now, Disney diapers were hardly a respectable end for some of Walt's best loved characters. (One can imagine Donald getting the assignment with a... "Wak!"). Still, there was some connection to kids there...
But I'm at a loss to remember the last time a 3-year-old decided to grab the 409 and spray down the kitchen counters or pick up Fido's mess.
The paper towel packaging does nothing to try to establish some sort of connection to the characters - there's no cute story on the back about how Mickey loves to clean the kitchen, or how Minnie toils to keep her countertops sparkling. Rather, there's Mickey on the package in a few random, meaningless poses along with a giant, bold "Disney" logo on the store shelves - right next to the Bounty woodsman and the Viva brand.
True, this is only one product among thousands that Disney's licensing division creates. But it speaks volumes about the lack of creativity, the lack of leadership and the lack of long-term vision that Disney's current management regime has.
On one hand, they're selling the Disney Stores, the only day-to-day immersive Disney experience that the average consumer can have these days, claiming that the long-term strength of the "brand" doesn't support the expense of operating a retail chain (even though Eisner bought off on the concept as a money-loser because of the goodwill it generated for the Disney name).
On the other, they're randomly slapping Mickey's image on paper towels.
The Disney-branded cereals moved in this direction a few years ago. Cap'n Crunch, Mr. Whipple and the Trix rabbit may be great advertising icons, but few could argue that Mickey Mouse transcends them. After all, you don't see global entertainment destinations being created around, say, the Gorton's fisherman. After 70-plus years, Mickey Mouse - the most famous cartoon character in the world - has been reduced to their level.
Under Mooney (and the notoriously hawk-eyed Eisner, who must have seen plans for these Disney paper towels), the care that Disney management has lavished on Mickey and the gang for nearly 80 years has been rendered meaningless. Or maybe it isn't Consumer Products that creates these deals at all, but Strategic Planning and Strategic Alliances. The bonding of corporate global entities before product consideration.
Carping about a product this cheap, this disposable (quite literally), this meaningless and this unimaginative may seem frivolous at first glance. But the trend holds great potential to undermine the faith consumers have in the Disney name and characters. How can they justify spending $50 a pop at Disneyland to see that guy who's on their roll of paper towels? How can they have affinity for characters they use to wipe up food and vomit?
Yet you can't find Mickey's classic films on the Disney Channel... and managers wonder why kids today "don't know Mickey." Often times, they've never truly met him. And who's fault is that?
Maria Gladowski, a Disney communications manager, told Potentials in Sept. 2003, "You really want the products to be reflective of your brand." When they cynically slap Mickey on some paper towels, you have to wonder exactly what they think of their much-discussed "brand" after all.
Remember, these are the people who are making decisions that are supposed to grow, protect and nurture the Disney name and characters into the next decade and beyond. That makes me more worried than ever, because they're making a mess that even all the Disney paper towels in the world can't clean, no matter how happily Mickey's smiling up at you from the muck.
Is toilet paper next?
