The Branding of Disney

In short, Disney does it right. When they do something (any type of endeavor - movie, merchandise, theme parks), they go all-out, delivering a high-quality product with very few flaws and gaps. I think a perfect example of this is their Pixar division, which produces the most well-made animated films of the last 10 years. Cases in point:
Toy Story
A Bug's Life
Toy Story 2
Monsters, Inc.
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles
Cars
Ratatouille
WALL-E
Up
In total: 22 Academy Awards (Up hasn't earned any yet) and $5 billion of worldwide gross earnings.

I recently spent 4 days (and nights) inside Walt Disney World in Orlando. We were the for the 2010 UCA/UDA College Cheer and Dance National Championships, which is hosted by Disney World. We stayed at the Disney All-Star Music Resort, which is a family-friendly, affordable option for people who want to stay inside the park.

The Crimson Girls by our hotel pool, which is shaped like a guitar:

Disney certainly has it all figured out, from airport transportation (bags delivered directly from
baggage claim to your hotel room), to park-to-park transportation (free busses that run every
20 minutes), to park admission (scanned park-hopper passes individualized with fingerprints of
the pass holders).

But one thing I admire over all others is Disney's branding abilities. It's incredible how many times we saw those uber-recognizable mouse ears inside the parks. Kids incessantly begging their parents to buy them Mickey paraphernalia, and most of the time, they get what they want. Here are a few examples of things I saw - people spending money to give Disney some free advertising. :)

A dancer in her Goofy hat, which she HAD to have - $29.99

Another dancer in her Mickey antennae headband (sparkly and pink) $6

Mickey/Minnie souvenir balloons - not sure how much, but I probably saw 300 kids carrying these.

A few girls in front of Mickey's "Fantasia" hat:

And of course, what's more iconic than Cinderella's Castle?

Even the milk cartons are branded!

Everything inside Disney is done in grand, regal style. Princesses must train for months before they can be "Belle" or "Cinderella." Characters go through a rigorous training process to ensure the brand's authenticity. Costumes are all in prime condition (you would never see Pluto's tail ripped or looking "used" like Butch's often does). And I believe this attention to detail is part of what makes Disney so recognizable and lucrative. Park workers clean up litter 24 hours a day. An underground series of tunnels takes "non-costumed team members" from place to place inside the park, so they are not seen by guests.


Not to mention, Disney is the King of Package trips. Just to see how long it would take, I looked up the costs for a family of four to vacation in Disney World. For under $3,000, a family of four could vacation there for 5 nights, 6 days, including 6 days of park tickets, airfare, and airport transportation. While I wouldn't call that "cheap," it isn't as much as I would have imagined, especially for so many days! And it took me all of 12 minutes to book on their website, which was fun and easy to navigate.