Disney faced criticism for contributing to childhood obesity through marketing unhealthy food products. In response, Disney implemented a two-pronged strategy: 1) Developing "Better For You" nutrition guidelines to reformulate products, and 2) Making healthier foods appealing to children through branding with popular characters. Disney partnered with produce companies to market fruits and vegetables branded with Disney characters. It also collaborated with major retailers like Kroger to develop and sell compliant grocery products. Disney's solution aimed to improve its portfolio's nutrition profile while still delivering an engaging experience for children.

1. A Case Study of Disney Consumer Products: Marketing Nutrition to
Children
The Mouse VS. The Fat

2. IndexHistory
Of Disney
Problem
Definition
SWOT
Analysis
Problem
Solution
Case
Conclusion

3. History

4. 1932-1980
 1923
The Walt Disney company with the debut of Mickey
Mouse.
1932
Disney won the Academy Award for Best cartoon.
1954
Disney debuted its first television program, “the
Wonderful World of Disney”.
1971
Walt Disney World was completed.

5. 1980-2003
1984
Disney began focusing more on films for
television.
1996
Disney purchased media company Capital
Cities /ABC for $19 billion.
2003
Disney became the first studio to surpass $3
billion in global box office receipts.

6. Disney Consumer Products
Soft
Line
s
Buena
Vista
Games
Hard
Lines
Home
and
Infant
Toys Publishin
g

7. DCP’s 3
Licensing
Models
Tradition
SourcingDirect to
Retail(DTR)
DCP: Wanted to focus on product innovation, creativity and
quality, and building relationships with key retailers.

9. Obesity
• In 2004, more than 30% of US children between the
ages of 5 and 9 years were overweight and 14% were
obese.
• Experts characterized childhood obesity in the United
States as epidemic
• social trends such as increased portion sizes, eating
out more often, increased consumption of sugar-
sweetened foods and lack of exercise held responsible

10. Disney
faced
criticism for
contributing
to obesity
epidemic.

11. IOM recommendations:
• Actively promote healthful diets for children.
• Create or reformulate children’s products to
reduce calories, fat, salt and added sugar
• Develop an “empirically validated industry-
wide rating system”.
• Enforce strict marketing standards and
adhere to self-regulatory guidelines
• Avoid linking “nutritionally questionable”
products to popular figures.

12. Disney Reacted Fast
• Reconsidered nutritional value of its
entire range of products.
• Sought to lead the rest of the food
industry in fighting obesity by using
its brand image.
• Recognized need to establish
credibility among parents, children,
nutritionists and authorities.
• Did a corporate level audit of its
entire line of food and beverages and
differentiated products based on
their relevance to their new goals.

13. But can the company
use its magic to get
children to switch from
sugary, processed
foods to nutritious
diets?

14. Product Development
Alternatives with Disney
Pros Cons
Keep Traditional Line
Keeping broad consumers
base.
Preferable by common
children.
Negative public opinion
Not supporting by
government regulation.
Healthy Program Line
Establish good image
Strong Brand
Strong distribution Channel
Preferable by common
parents.
Possible to loss broad
consumers base.

15. SWOT
ANALYSIS

16. Strength
• Good brand image and
revenue
• Extensive exposure
media
• Cooperates with big
retailers
(Kroger and Wal-Mart)
• Consumers spend high
amount of time on
Disney products.
• Licenses the top earning
fictional characters.

17. Strong revenue and therefore strong
capital available for risky venture.

18. Total 9160 million consumer hours spend
exposed to Disney entertainment
activities.

19. WEAKNESS
• No self-manufacturing
facility available to DCP.
• With changing landscape,
licensees not willing to
have terms dictated to
them.
• Brand image of DCP as a
sweets and treats brand.
• Branded foods accounted
for less than 1% of the
children’s market.

20. Opportunity
• High exposure of Toon
Disney, its advertising
cartoon-only channel.
• Licensing of most valued
products.
• Top earning fictional
character from its brand.
• Great brand image and
character awareness among
children, who are the
initiators and mothers, who
are at the top of decision
making hierarchy.

21. Licensor of top ranked product with worldwide sale exceeding the next ranker
by more than 3 times.

22. Value of top two characters more than twice that of any
other brand.

24. Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop and WB are some competitors of Disney who are challenging
it, both in the entertainment segment and consumer products segment.

25. TOP RATED US BASIC CABLE NETWORK SINCE 1996
By 2005,unit sakes of darling clementives
Increased by almost 25% after the DORA &
SPONGEBOB character were added to
the product packaging.
In 2006,Nickelodeon announced plan to
extend its fresh
Fruit and vegetable line to apples, pears
and cherries,soyabean And carrot and
apple dips.

26. SESAME WORKSHOP
In 2006, Del Monte food signed a licensing
deal with Sesame workshop.
Preschoolers’ consumption of broccoli increased
By 28% when branded with sesame street
character.

27. In 2006, Ready Pac ,a produce company
that packaged , washed and cut ready to eat
fruits and vegetables signed a licensing
agreement with Warner Bros.

28. Warner`s bugs bunny , Tweety and
Tasmanian Devil character are
featured on cut and ready-to-eat snack
single-serving package of fruits.
They also marketed carrots and celery served with
ranchdip or peanut butter.

30. Disney’s solution was
a two-pronged
approach.
1) Improving its product
line on a nutritional
basis.
2) Making the food
appealing to children
and delivering on the
Disney promise of
“magic”

31. Better for You
Guidelines
• DEVISED BETTER FOR YOU
NUTRITION GUIDELINES
BORROWING FROM THE FDA’S
DIETARY GUIDELINES, WHICH
PRESCRIBED OPTIMUM
CONSUMPTION LEVELS FOR
FOODS AS WELL AS CALORIC
INTAKE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR
CHILDREN.
• ARRAYED ITS PORTFOLIO OF
PRODUCTS INTO FIVE
CATEGORIES: MAIN MEAL, SIDE
DISH, SNACKS, DRINKS AND
TREATS, WITH CALORIES
ALLOCATED TO EACH CATEGORY.
• UNDERTOOK A GOAL TO BALANCE
ITS PORTFOLIO SO THAT 85% OF
ITS PRODUCTS COULD BE
CLASSIFIED AS MAIN MEAL, SIDE
DISH, SNACK OR BEVERAGE AND
ONLY 15% COULD BE
CATEGORIZED AS TREATS.

33. • Before officially implementing its
nutrition guidelines, DCP
audited 2,100 of its food
products.
• Reformulated some products
and shrunk portions for others;
as a result, by September 2005,
75% of its U.S. products
complied with its nutritional
standards.
• Planned to have all its products
brought into compliance or
phased out by 2008.

34. Demographic Segmentation :
Age : Children and
adults
Gender : Male and
Female
Psychographic : Lower class,
Middle class,
Upper class
Behavioral
Segmentation:
Taste, Fun and
Magic
Geographic
Segmentation:
Europe and
U.S.A
Disney effectively segmented its consumer base before launching its new product line.

35. IMAGINATION FARMS
• Disney began licensing its characters
to Imagination Farms, a national fresh
produce marketing company founded
specifically to serve as a licensee to
DCP, in March 2006.
• DCP and Imagination Farms used a
three-pronged product development
strategy.
• Disney Farms produce was sold in
major supermarket chains, including
Albertsons, Safeway, Supervalu and
Wal-Mart at a competitive wholesale
price.

36. Disney and Kroger
• DCP developed a broad range
of products with Cincinnati-
based Kroger Supermarkets.
• Disney and Kroger sized the
opportunity at $250 million in
annual revenue and used focus
groups and Nielsen data to
validate the categories and
products they had selected.
• Together, they selected grocery
that supported Disney’s efforts
and fit its Better for You
nutritional guidelines.

37. 12% market share with
max. no. of supermarkets.

40. Encircled products are opportunities to grow for Disney and Kroger as they have reasonable
Private label Mainstream share but contrastingly less Better for You share

41. Other Ventures
• In January 2005 the
company launched a 15-
item range with Carrefour, a
France-based international
supermarket group.
• In March 2005 introduced a
10-item line with Metro,
Europe’s second largest
retailer after Carrefour.

43. Changing children’s perspective and their habits will be an uphill task for Disney
The company will need to closely collaborate with other stakeholders
Advertising and Marketing will continue to remain the key to this strategy as they
will influence the mindset of the consumers the most
However, if Disney succeeds in effectively fighting the obesity epidemic and sets a
leadership example, it will witness unprecedented brand loyalty in its future.
Its sales will also drastically increase and it is a question of when, not how, given the
fact that the world is becoming increasingly health conscious.

44. Disclaimer
Prof. Sameer Mathur
Indian Institute of Management , Lucknow
Marketing Professor: August 2013 – Present
McGill University
Marketing Professor: July 2009 – July 2013
Carnegie Mellon University
Ph.D. in Marketing : August 2003 – June 2009
These slides are created by Divyansh Khare, ISM Dhanbad, as part of a
Marketing Internship under Prof. Sameer Mathur.