Summary
The Walt Disney Company is one of the century’s most influential multinational mass media and entertainment cooperation. The company was founded in 1923 and consisted of a tiny recording studio in Hollywood which housed a couple of creative artists headed by Roy O. Disney, a young visionary who was passionate about producing cartoons for the movies (Prusko, 2017). Later on, the company became more extensive and thriving because of its well-performing business models for television shows, immersive theme parks, themed merchandise, cruise lines, live-action, and animated films. Its success made it acquire other leading entertainment companies such as ESPN, ABC, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros. Pictures, and recently acquired 21st Century Fox (Sturgill, 2019). In today’s business environment, Disney’s volume and scope of influence are pretty unmatched.
In 2019, The Walt Disney Company released a new streaming platform, Disney Plus. This platform was majorly focused o making all shows from Disney and Marvel, National Geographic, Star Wars, and Pixar available to the public and accessed from the same platform (The Walt Disney Company, 2019). After its launch, the subscription-based platform had Disney Plus originals, 7500 television episodes, and 500 films of original Disney content. With the introduction of the Disney Plus platform, several external and internal factors have affected its ultimate success. They are also important when it comes to making major business decisions. Therefore, this paper will look at Disney Plus PESTEL analysis and the companies’ new marketing mix recommendations and changes to 7Ps.
Disney Plus PESTEL Analysis
Political Factors
The release of the Disney Plus platform took place at a rapidly moving and exciting time in political history. Even though politics are not directly affected by the platform’s services, the political environment does indirectly affect growing businesses in today’s world (Sturgill, 2019). Any business needs to consider the current state of the political unrest of a country before launching any new product to avoid losses.
Economic Factors
It was important for the Walt Disney Company to consider the pricing, timing, and marketing of Disney Plus. In 2019, before the launch of Disney Plus, the United States economic environment was facing increased consumer confidence in the dollar and low unemployment for its citizens (Sturgill, 2019). According to the United States Economic Outlook (2018), the unemployment rate was at 3.7%, the lowest in history. With so many people enjoying the highest levels of economic stability in 2019, it was a high chance for them to subscribe to Disney Plus after its release. However, considering the economic impacts COVID-19 had on the world, many subscribers could have opted for tough purchasing decisions, thus unsubscribing from the platforms’ services.
Social Environment
The social environment is the most rapidly changing environment and may see uncertain responses from launching any new product or service in the market. For example, the current cultural norms are rapidly changing; women receive more purchasing power, and children can now make purchasing decisions (Ali & Kerpčarová, 2019). With the economic stability in 2019, children were likelier to make Disney Plus subscriptions the best time to launch the platform.
Technological Environment
Today, with the ever-changing digital environment, consumers can enjoy more technological choices. Disney’s decision to launch Disney Plus came at a perfect time; there was a drastic decline in cable television and increased subscribers in companies such as Netflix (Morris, 2018). In addition, technology has become one of the preferred ways of entertaining children, and parents are adapting to the same method rather seamlessly. Therefore, the Disney Plus platform came to a point where the technological environment was quite welcoming and could contribute to its success.
Legal Environment
Entertainment is a heavily regulated industry with various regulations and laws. The Federal Communications Commission laws majorly govern the organizations and operations of Walt Disney. The content produced by the company is required to comply with the quality guidelines, which prohibit explicit content from being streamed to children. Failure to adhere to these guidelines would result in penalties of about $325,000 for the cases reported of indecent content (Sturgill, 2019). FCC guidelines promote a trusting environment for parents to allow their children to watch Disney Plus shows, thus promoting business operations.
New Marketing Mix Recommendations and Changes to 7Ps
For the Disney Plus platform to complement Disney’s existing marketing strategies of providing subscribers with yet another chance to immerse themselves in Disney magic in their daily lives, the company needs a firmer grip on the entertainment sector by making changes to the 7Ps as follows. While making the necessary changes to 7Ps, Disney Plus will likely present enough value to customers to enjoy shows and movies at cheaper rates while also profiting the company.
Price
Walt Disney used data from other competitors to set a price level that follows a competitive pricing strategy (Bhasin, 2019). The price was set at $6.99, which was lower than for most competitors. Some of the changes in the price would be the introduction of allowances and discounts in order to gain a greater market share.
Product
Disney Plus should extend benefits for the purchase of its products to include delivery and credit; the new products should also be tested before its fully commercialized. This increases the probability of the platform making good sales and avoids incurring losses.
Place
Even though Walt Disney Parks are successful worldwide, thus reaching a lot of people and acting as advertising areas of what they offer, the company has not ventured into advertising in the African countries. The company should strive to create more Walt Disney parks across countries in Africa, thus being able to advertise themselves more easily than their competitors.
Promotion
Social media posts should be more relevant to their target audience, and the posts should encourage further actions by subscribers, such as sharing, which would enable them to reach more people. One marketing campaign that stood out was their trailer, which showed clips from very different Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel, National Geographic, and Disney; this idea brought a lot of enthusiasm to subscribers with an emotional score throughout.
People
Their customer service works through the live chat and call option, which offers a variety of options for clients depending on their preferences. To improve their services, the company should provide its sales team bonuses for achieving their individual targets. The hiring process should also include training for its employees, which helps deliver value to its customers.
Process
Disney Plus is available across multiple devices, including smart TVs and smartphones; this is one way of ensuring that it competes with its competitors in offering customers a variety of options to download content that can be watched while offline (Bhasin, 2019). For example, customers may watch their best shows on smartphones while traveling. After an individual subscribes by paying for a particular package, a verification code is processed and sent to the user via email, and a receipt is issued through the email address inbox.
Physical Evidence
The company should set up stores in countries that are not provided with Disney parks to reach more people and offer a shopper-friendly environment to encourage its customers to subscribe to their Disney Plus platform.
References
Ali, E., & Kerpčarová, T. (2019). Family Buying Behaviour: Parents’ perspective of children influences their buying behavior. Web.
Bhasin, H. (2019). Marketing mix of Disneyland Park. Web.
Morris, D. Z. (2018). Viewers are ditching cable for streaming faster than anyone expected. Web.
Prusko, S. (2017). 1st Place:” Behind the Magic: A research collection on the history of The Walt Disney Company”. Web.
Sturgill, J. (2019). Beyond the castle: An analysis of the strategic implications of Disney+. Web.
The Walt Disney Company. (2019). Disney+ launches today—and a new era of Disney entertainment begins. Web.