How To Turn A Headwind Into A Tailwind & Accelerate Your Category Dominance, Just Like Disney
How relevant are Disney princesses today?
Dear Friend, Subscriber, and fellow Category Pirate,
How relevant are Disney princesses today?
In our last letter, we shared how to think about designing a category breakthrough in the Roaring 2020sâand how to capitalize on tailwinds. But what happens if you donât have a tailwind at your back? Or worse, what do you do if your business is caught in the eye of a headwind?Â
What then?
For just shy of a century, one of Disneyâs defining characteristics was its dominance in the âprincess storyâ category.
(1937)Â Snow White
(1950)Â Cinderella
(1959)Â Sleeping Beauty
(1989)Â The Little Mermaid
(1991)Â Beauty & the Beast
(1992)Â Aladdin
(1995)Â Pocahontas
(1998)Â Mulan
(2009)Â The Princess and the Frog
(2010)Â Tangled
(2012)Â Brave
(2013)Â Frozen
(2016)Â Moana
(2018)Â Ralph Breaks the Internet
But look carefully, and youâll notice a gap between Mulan in 1998 and The Princess and the Frog in 2009.Â
The tried-and-true âdamsel in distressâ storyline had come under fireânot directly, but as a result of other changing winds in the political climate. The early Disney princess storylines elevated beauty as the main source of value of the Disney princess. But the way the world was changing, and the rate at which womenâs rights were being pushed to the forefront of political discussions, had turned an accepted belief in preceding decades (âA womanâs primary value is in her beautyâ) into a rejected belief. And this was not a message parents wanted to teach their daughters. We can see signals of this change in even a few key moments in history:
In 1997, Madeleine Albright became the first female secretary of state (opening the door for girls to see politicians as âmore than just menâ). Pirate Christopher once interviewed âMadam Secretaryâ on stage in front of 4,000 people⌠But thatâs a whole other storyâŚ
Then, in 2005, congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which was the first law to officially ban a specific type of abortion procedureâpushing womenâs rights further into the spotlight and accelerating the publicâs dialogue around the subject.Â
And in 2006, Tarana Burke started the MeToo movement to raise awareness for women who had been abused (before the term went viral in 2017 after actress Alyssa Milano accused Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault).Â
One of Disneyâs most powerful tailwinds had turned into a headwindâand they had to pivot as a result.
Thereâs a reason Disney didnât touch âprincess storiesâ for that decade.Â
The category was changing.Â
Our guess is, they didnât want to be on the wrong side of history. And when Disney did begin producing female-led animations again, the company steered in a completely different direction. The Princess and the Frog features a black princess (the first of any Disney animation). Tangled, originally titled Rapunzel, was changed at the last minute to âmarket the film gender-neutrally.â Brave features a strong female lead character who âmust rely on her bravery and her archery skills to undo a beastly curseâ (not a manâs kiss). Frozen is about a princess who sets off on a journey, not to find a prince, but her estranged sister. And Moana represents Disneyâs commitment to forgoing the âdamsel in distressâ narrative by creating a strong-willed female character who is responsible for saving her Polynesian village.
What they ended up figuring out was the true power of a Disney story was about transformation, and less about princess fantasies and the idolatry of feminine beauty. And what audience members wanted were to feel like they had the power to transform themselves, just like the characters on screenâbe it from a person of poverty into a princess, or escaping the destiny of being âonly a wifeâ and becoming instead a warrior leader.
In that same decade, Disney made some of its most iconic acquisitions in company history.
On the heels of scooping up Miramax for $60 million (1993) and Capital Cities/ABC/ESPN for a whopping $19 billion (1995), Disney began an acquisition spree usually reserved for high-growth technology companies.
(2001) Fox Family Channel, $2.9 billion
(2006) Pixar, $7.4 billion
(2009) Disney becomes an invested partner in Hulu
(2009) Marvel, $4 billion
(2012) Star Wars, $4 billion
Coinciding with an internal shift in the types of stories Disney produces, the company accelerated its M&A activity to step into leadership positions in other adjacent categories by purchasing the leaders, all the while staying true to the âpower of the transformationâ narrative thread.Â
This is arguably Disney executive chairman and former CEO Bob Igerâs claim to fame.
Imagine for a moment youâre Bob. The year is 2005, and youâve just been prompted. The problem is: technology is eating the world. Disney princesses are out. This thing called YouTube is whatâs quickly capturing the attention of kids and teenagers. And even though the company has generated double-digit earnings growth for shareholders, you know leaning on Disneyâs legacy characters and stories is not a growth strategy for the future. The world is changingâand changing fast.
Instead of trying to rebuild Disneyâs brand name by competing in other entertainment categories, Bob did what all great CEOs do: he bought what couldnât be built.Â
This is how category kings and queens think about M&A. They accelerate their leadership positions by buying new, growing thingsânot old, dying things.
Bob didnât sit his team down and say, âI think we need to invest more in next-gen animation.â He bought Pixar.Â
He didnât call a Wednesday meeting, bring in a few storyboards, and exclaim, âItâs time we create a Disney superhero.â He bought Marvel.Â
And could you imagine if he sat his executive team down and said, âI want to take on Star Wars. I want to beat them at their own game.â? They would have thought he was crazy. âYou want to take on the most iconic sci-fi storyline of all time? Star Wars fans are like disciples. Itâs a religion!â Instead, he bought Star Wars, and its category leadership position.
What Bob didnât do was try to strong-arm Disney into any one of these adjacent categories. He didnât do what RedBull did in the cola category (RedBull Simply Cola), or what Google did in social networking (Google+). That is to say, a full frontal attack with a âbetter productâ strategy.Â
Hereâs how those acquisitions panned out for Disney:
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