Walt Disney's India bet hinges on cricket,films & TV

[Thakur]

The instantly identifiable global entertainment brand has embarked on a journey of creating the Indian Walt Disney Company. How tough is the ride going to be? BE finds out.That Americans are a nation of storytellers and have made a fine art and a flourishing business of it is common knowledge. One of the most famous storytellers of all time is Walt Disney and the success of his craft is on full display at Disneyland. We reach the Disneyland Park at Anaheim, California on a muggy Monday afternoon and find it bustling with people from all over.The Anaheim Park, the first of the many theme parks established across continents and also the only one built under the direct supervision of its creatorWalt Disney, is located in close vicinity to the sprawling corporate headquarters of the Walt Disney Studios in a university-like campus in Burbank.While nobody is ready to give the official footfall figure, our guide puts the numberin the vicinity of 50 thousand on a day like this which incidentally is hot and humid. Quite clearly, the pull of the Mickey Mouse, one of the most iconic of the Walt Disney creations, transcends both weather, jobs and everything in between.As Eric Goldberg, supervising animator and director at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank points out, "Mickey Mouse represents the spirit of the company and this country: it is heroic, plucky and resourceful." And a quintessential part of American pop-culture. Our local guide sums it up succinctly, "I remember when my father took me for my first trip to Disneyland and I want my son to remember his first trip just as well."To the average American it is not just a park, it is a dream fulfilled, almost a rite of passage. The bestseller, The Disney Way lists Disney's 10 basic management principles to work in any company. The dos and don't s for the cast members (that is what the employees are called atDisney) at the parks and resorts are crispand many say quirky, but then they go a long way in creating Disney as one of thebest run service brands.For example the cast members inside the park are not allowed to say 'I don't know' to any query posed. They have to pick trash — any litter on the park premise — in a certain graceful manner called the 'swooping' motion. The fingernails for the women should not exceed one-fourth of an inch (approximately 6 mm) beyond the fingertip.For the uninitiated, the parks and resortsare the second largest contributors to Disney's overall revenues, after the media networks (including broadcast andtelevision networks like Disney channels,ESPN, ABC Family and UTV networks in India), as per the company's 2013 annual report (See Box).Third in the pecking order is the studio entertainment business (that produces and acquires live-action and animated motion pictures primarily under the Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm banners), followed by consumer products business (that includes merchandise licensing, publishing and retail) and the interactive category (that includes interactive media, games etc).As Andy Bird, chairman, Walt Disney International points out, "The great thing about Disney is that we are a company of storytellers." There are 34 different businesses that help the consumer interact on an ongoing level. It is about television plus retail and licensing, publishing, education, movies, mobile, digital and vacation experience and more, he adds.Simply put how to translate a passive experience into a memorable active one through storytelling across touchpoints, geographies and with suitable localisation. In India, Disney had its full-fledged launch as recently as 2005 as a TV channel and it added to the offering over the years through both organic and inorganic growth, including tieups as well as acquisitions like Hungama TV, UTV and Indiagames.Says Bird, "It is well known that Indians are consumed by three things in no particular order — movies, television and cricket — and we have to play in those." That goes back to the rationale ofbuying UTV to give us the scale and the skill set, he adds. It is being helped in a large measure by acquisitions like Pixar, Marvel and the recent Lucasfilms by creating a holistic offering. http://m.economictimes.com/magazines/brand-equity/walt-disneys-india-bet-hinges-on-cricket-films-tv/articleshow/39233581.cms