Today I met with three Disney cast members, Stacia Wake, Antoinette Darrow and Lori Schaper. These three women all run different aspects of Disney including corporate alliances, branding and Run Disney. My day spent with these three women exceeded all my expectations yet again! After today I feel so much better educated on the marketing strategies that Disney as a company uses. I gained a lot of information from today’s session and have so much to share with you all!
I first met with Stacia Wake who is the manager of alliance marketing for Disney. When I walked into Stacia’s office I first noted all the memorabilia she had. Pins, pictures, banners, quotes were scattered across her office. I could immediately tell she was invested in the Disney company. She loved what she did. After she showed me around the office we got talking on what my project is and how she can help me. Stacia kept discussing how Disney is an entertainment company, and each cast member is a story-teller. They are not associates or employees, but rather cast members. Every cast member contributes to the show in some type of way. She explained how this idea of being story tellers allows Disney to market themselves in such a positive light. They continuously look back on their core values of safety, safety, courtesy, show and efficiency. The cast members are so dependant on these values. In addition to this, Stacia discussed how a recent campaign, Disney Side was able to directly appeal to the generation I am in. This campaign for the first time was promoted through social media, including facebook, vine and instagram. This was a way in which the company adapted their marketing strategies to connect with a new generation. Disney in addition to this continuously attempts to understand their guests; how they are spending their money and what they are spending that money on. Stacia opened my eyes to the mechanics behind marketing in business. Disney does so much to understand their customers it is incredible! It all in a sense dates back to Walt’s want for creating a place where families can have fun together! Although Disney does not ask themselves, What Would Walt Do, they look back on their values and always make sure their strategies fulfill these request. This information above is just a little bit about what I learned from Stacia that I thought was super interesting! It was amazing to see how Disney as a company adapts to certain events, such as the September 11 tragedy, in order to be sensitive to their guests. I was amazed at how much thought goes into the marketing at Disney. The information I learned from Stacia will be crucial to my project and I am so excited to share it with everyone at school!
After meeting Stacia I met with Antoinette Darrow the manager of alliance management at Disney. Although Antoinette’s office was not covered in Disney memorabilia I could not help notice how nice she was! She was so happy to work with me and was super interested in my project! Antoinette works with many corporate partnerships including New Balance, Pandora, and Coca- Cola. She explained to me how her job at the U.S. olympic committee allowed her to be recruited into the Disney sports complex. I got a good look at the branding aspects behind Disney. Antoinette works closely with Stacia in an attempt to combine corporate alliance and marketing to create a better company. Antoinette explained how she came to be in the position she is now and how Disney has grown since her employment twenty-five years ago (in August)! Antoinette was very passionate about her job and its ability to create the magic at Disney. She talked a lot about the marathons and how the cleanliness of the park, in addition to the unique crowd of the park, contributes to the success of Disney. She explained how her job deals with branding and how the idea of technology continuously affects the company both positively and negatively. Although going through the legal team is sometimes time-consuming, she believes that the team is a great partner to work with for interpretation. They are the backbone behind her job. Antoinette explained how Disney is simply an enormous company and people forget that. There are so many job opportunities and partner relations that contribute to the company’s success. In addition to papers on her desks, Antoinette showed me presentations and emails that reveal the enormous size of the company. She explained that even though the company is so large its many assets contribute to their success. Even with such a large company, Disney is still able to have great customer service from its traditional Tuesday orientation class to the classes on “the hub” that they offer. Antoinette in addition emphasized the importance of the companies Disney aligns themselves with. The process of becoming affiliated with Disney is not easy and it is the messages and values of the companies that need to line up in order for the companies to create a relationship Antoinette explained. Antoinette was so helpful in explaining to me the magic behind alliance management at Disney. After this I drove over to meet with Lori Schaper at the Disney Sports offices.
Lori Schaper’s office building was so cool! As I walked in there was television playing ESPN and as I walked through the hallways each office was covered in Disney theme sports events. I did not realize how much Disney had to do with sports! What was different about Lori is that she has worked with Disney for twenty-five years, grew up in Central Florida and has only ever had a job at Disney. She is a Disneyphile (really, really, really, loves Disney)! She started off in the entertainment business and eventually made her way up the be the running expo manager. In addition to a tour of the awesome Disney sports building, Lori was able to explain Run Disney from a different perspective. Although she said that New Balance was not her first choice in a company to align with for Run Disney, she is really happy they chose to work with New Balance. From my meeting with Lori I was able to understand why the asset of Disney sports is so important. Lori’s meeting made me re-think my question. Maybe it is not just new generations Disney is appealing to, but also different types of people. I learned that originally the marathon started because it was a time in which Disney saw drops in numbers, due to the end of christmas break. However, the marathons have grown to so much more than that. Run Disney is attracting an entirely different type of people than any other marathons. People are dressed up in costumes and a greeted by Mickey and Minnie at the end. It is a really cool marathon in my opinions and I hope to run it some day. Lori explained how the themes of the races, including Frozen, Star Wars, Alice in Wonderland are also able to appeal to people who find interests in each one of those movies. Since the marathon is held within the park the synergy is able to be emphasized. They are running through the theme parks, in theme costumes based on Disney movies! It is such a trickle down effect that engages so many different types of people. Another unique part about these events is that they are family oriented, from the half marathon to the children’s race everyone can contribute, just like everyone can have fun in the theme parks! Even though these races are really fun it is also really important for the company to stay safe. That is why New Balance is able to contribute to the companies success. New Balance provides appropriate footwear stations to assist the runners in their equipment. What I found really cool about the marathons from Lori is the people who choose to run these. Because of Disney theme parks utopian perception more people feel that they can run these. It is not required to run or even finish but really to have fun. By running through Disney the experience is so much more magical. Disney even promotes a run-walk-run idea to show their guests that it is okay to walk. In addition to this everyone is rewarded a medal because everyone crossed their own finish line! Lori allowed for me to see correlate the information gained from New Balance with her information.
All three of these women were awesome to work with. Once again I couldn’t help but notice how nice they were! I think from this day of work I realized that Disney’s strategies such as the campaigns they run, the events they play, and the corporations they align themselves with contribute to the utopian experience. In addition to this I learned that these campaigns, events and alliance partners are only able to succeed because of the values Disney holds true. These women are passionate about their jobs and are making me even more passionate about my project! I think I am becoming a Disneyphile! Not many companies succeed as well as Disney and there is a reason behind that and I think through these three meetings I was able to see three ways in which marketing strategies contribute to Disney’s success! Check in tomorrow to see how my eight-hour walking tour goes! Have a magical day!
This is from the Disney Sports offices!
This is from the Corporate Alliances offices!
lifebeginsatdisney 