In the beginning, my thoughts were to research about
marketing to children and how consumerism is changing the culture of childhood.
This led me to reading about “new nostalgia.” It can be described as a
marketing tool of reintroducing past popular products, such as toys to a new
generation of kids. Thus, my direction shifted and then became more focused
with helpful advice from our professor in regard to choosing a relevant, iconic
type of toy, such as Barbies or a classic theme park such as Disneyland.
Thereafter, I chose Disney Princess. I read about how Disney was experiencing
financial trouble in 1999. The Disney princesses’ Snow White, Cinderella,
Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, and Mulan were marketed as a package. This
brilliant marketing campaign saved Disney’s lackluster sales. The Disney
princess brand now supersedes Mickey Mouse as being more popular (based on
sales) and has flooded the children’s market with dolls, costumes, books,
videos, and gadgets etc. I will be examining how Disney reinvented itself with
the princesses.
I can't say I'm surprised that the Disney princesses are more popular than Mickey Mouse--he doesn't seem to get a lot of spotlight anymore. It's hard to think that Disney ever experienced any financial trouble since they're so popular nowadays. Your topic is very different from everyone else's and I look forward to reading it. Since you're going to examine how Disney reinvented itself you should explain the situation Disney was in before the Disney princesses bailed them out in the introduction of your essay. The only thing I would be concerned about regarding your topic is that there won't be any scholarly articles. Have you found any research specific to your topic?
ReplyDeleteI think that studying Disney’s development and selling of princesses will be really interesting. You don’t seem to have a very clear direction you’ll be going with your paper, though. Here are a few questions that you might consider in your paper: What has been effective in marketing the princesses to children; why are they popular? What has been effective in marketing the princesses to parents; why were the princesses allowed to become popular? How have the princesses allowed Disney to shape popular culture? In what ways to the princesses reflect cultural myths that are already pervasive in society? How have these cultural myths changed over time?
ReplyDeleteInteresting topic, and it's consumed in popular culture!!I think there will be a lot of facts that you can get for this, and it might take some digging up to find out more about disney, but I think that you'll do just fine! One thing is do you have your final research question? Make sure that it's narrow enough for you to make your paper more concise and organized. Great job.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I liked your presentation. It’s interesting to think even believe that Disney was having financial problems, they don’t seem like they would because of all the marketing for Disney characters they do. This sounds very interesting and fun to write about. One question I have is how are the new Disney princesses doing compared to the princesses over a decade ago? Are they creating more revenue or are the old Disney princesses better?
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, but I remember you stated you altered your topic from Disney Princesses to how Disney as an entity reinvented itself over the years. I didn't get the chance to mention to you about something I think might be extremely relevant to this particular topic, which is that Disney is simply buying out everything. Disney's ownership extends from ABC all the way to ESPN. Recently, Disney bought Marvel. Moreover, Disney bought the rights to the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas himself, with immediate plans to make additional films. If this is still your topic, I think discussing the history of Disney's buyouts would reveal just how powerful and reinforced Disney is.
ReplyDelete