News Disney Explores Amazon Prime-Like Membership Program to Offer Discounts and Perks

DCBaker

Premium Member
Original Poster
“Walt Disney Co. DIS -0.31%▼ is exploring a membership program that could offer discounts or special perks to encourage customers to spend more on its streaming services, theme parks, resorts and merchandise, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The program would be somewhat akin to Amazon Prime, which offers advantages such as free shipping, discounts at Whole Foods and a complementary streaming video service for a monthly or annual fee, the people said. Internally, some executives have referred to Disney’s initiative as “Disney Prime,” although that won’t be the name of the program, one of the people said.

Discussions at Disney are in the early stages. It couldn’t be learned how much the company would charge for membership and how long it would take to launch such a program.

By creating a membership program, Disney would be betting it could offer customers more value, prompting them to spend more on the company’s products and services, while providing Disney with a trove of information about their preferences.

The effort is supported by Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek, who has been vocal both internally and publicly about the opportunity for Disney to do more to cross-sell to customers, the people familiar with the discussions said.

“Technology is giving us new ways to customize and personalize the consumer experience so that we are delivering entertainment, experiences and products that are most relevant to each of our guests,” said Kristina Schake, senior executive vice president and chief communications officer at Disney, in a statement. “A membership program is just one of the exciting ideas that is being explored.”

Disney already has a special program for superfans, the D23 Official Fan Club, which costs $99.99 to $129.99 a year and comes with access to exclusive events and merchandise. That program offered members a discounted three-year subscription to Disney+ in 2019. A new membership program would be different in that it would be targeted at more casual Disney fans and customers.

As an early step to better link Disney products and services, Disney is working to enable subscribers to its Disney+ streaming service to buy merchandise associated with some of its shows by scanning a code on the service, people familiar with the plan said. The company expects to introduce that feature as soon as this year.”

 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
This is actually something that makes sense. Whether it is valuable to consumers would of course depend on the price and details of what it involves, but it could be a win-win for Disney to get guaranteed money and certain guests to get discounts on products they might otherwise buy at higher costs.
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
This is actually something that makes sense. Whether it is valuable to consumers would of course depend on the price and details of what it involves, but it could be a win-win for Disney to get guaranteed money and certain guests to get discounts on products they might otherwise buy at higher costs.

Guaranteed money and discounts... sounds a lot like DVC. 🤔 How much would you like to wager that "Terms and conditions are subject to change", and whatever discounts that are offered initially would be scaled back and/or cut out completely within a few years? I'll start at 1 bazillion dollars.
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
Isn't that what D23 is? Or DVC? Or AP? Or Club 33?

I'm so over ever company trying to out subscription service each other.

Outside of D23, those are all parks focused. I'd imagine this is something that would involve not only parks (e.g. ticket or hotel discounts) but also stuff like streaming (D+/Hulu/ESPN+) discounts, movie ticket discounts, possible discounts or free shipping for online product purchases, things like that.
 

doctornick

Well-Known Member
I mean…most of us would end up doing it, I’m sure…

Yeah, this is actually something that potentially interests me. 🤷‍♂️

We don't live close enough or go often enough to warrant stuff like APs (or certainly Club 33, ha!) but we have Disney+ and watch a decent number of Disney films in theaters (particularly Marvel) and buy Disney products on occasion. If I could get discounts on those things that could also provide some reduced rates to visiting the parks, I'd definitely buy in if the money is right. If this is geared towards more casuals, I'd image the price is going to be in a relatively affordable range. Prime is what $15 a month? - would have to be cheaper than that unless it includes D+ or something automatically.
 

DCBaker

Premium Member
Original Poster
The WSJ has updated the article with more information-

“A membership program could help Disney learn more about its customers’ behavior by collecting data about which shows they watched, trips they took and merchandise they purchased. Ultimately, Disney’s goal is to harness that data to make recommendations based on customers’ preferences, some of the people said.

For example, a fan of Star Wars rides at its theme park would get recommended related programming on Disney+. That cross-company effort, which is ongoing, involves top leaders including Mike White, who leads Disney’s metaverse strategy.

In exploring the membership program, Disney has studied Amazon’s program as well as Apple One, which bundles cloud storage, AppleTV+ and Apple Arcade, among other services, for a starting price of $14.95 a month, some of the people familiar with the discussions said.

Disney has discussed adding perks to the membership program from third parties, such as discounts to tickets for Disney shows on Broadway, said one of the people familiar with the discussions.”
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
There’s a rumor about this for dvc members to get perks as well
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