From Brand Channel...
No more Mr. Nice Guy (Mouse).
Far away in a secret lair (corporate park, rather), Mickey Mouse is undergoing a massive regeneration. Feared to be seen as a corporate overlord rather than an adorable, fun-loving cartoon brand, Disney has ventured into the world of brand rejuvination and begun to liven up the Mouse for a new generation of children and consumers.
The new Mickey will be slowly unveiled. First glimse will be in the video game Epic Mickey for the Nintendo Wii, due out next year. As the New York Times describes it, the game will "show the character's darker side." Our new Mickey is multifaceted, and can be at times "cantankerous and cunning, as well as heroic, as he traverses a forbidding wasteland."
But executives at Disney are treading carefully, afraid to tinker with their $5 billion cash mouse. The industry agrees: "There’s a distinct risk of alienating your core consumer when you tweak a sacred character,” said Matt Britton, managing partner of brand consultancy Mr. Youth.
Not to worry: "Mickey is never going to be evil or go around killing people,” according to game developer Warren Spector.
Mickey's popularity in the United States has begun to wane. He's been crowded out of children's hearts by growing competition from Nickelodeon, Pixar, and Dreamworks characters and personalities. Executives consider the rebrand of Mickey's personality necessary to remain relevant in the marketplace.
The recent success of the dark children's tale Where The Wild Things Are may provide a roadmap for Disney, proving that multiple generations can embrace a timeless tale that at times, gets a little scary, but remains good.
In a 2 paragraph response (a minimum of 5 sentences for each paragraph), answer the following questions. In paragraph #1, what do you think about Disney's ideas on rebranding Mickey Mouse? Should they keep their hands off of Mickey, or does future success depend on todays intervention? Be specific with your thoughts. In paragraph # 2, discuss the risks involved when a company decides to rebrand. List at least 2 risks and why they are risks? Be specific with your thoughts.
Please sign your name to the bottom of your blog entry.
In my opinion, I think that it is sort of a good idea to rebrand Mickey Mouse, because there is a new generation of kids these days that are more technologically involved than past generations. Since Disney’s popularity has started to fade, I think Disney has to do something in order to jump start their company. One might say to keep their hands off such an iconic figure, but like it stated in the article, Disney is not going to change Mickey Mouse too much. They are reforming him so he can be placed into video games which can bring in more revenue for their company. The successes of Nickelodeon characters and other TV shows further explain why Disney wants to revamp their well known character. But, Disney needs to be aware that they are treading in murky waters by doing this.
ReplyDeleteThere are many risks that company may face when deciding to rebrand. In Disney’s case, they risk losing their long-term fans of the iconic Mickey Mouse character and may discontinue buying any Mickey Mouse gear. Aldo, Disney does not even know if regeneration Mickey Mouse will have any kind of success with the children of this generation. If the kids aren’t highly affected and want to interact and continue with the new Mickey, then for Disney that is a tremendous failure on their behalf. Finally, another risk would be the loss of money, due to the technology used to regenerate Mickey, and also changing all their merchandise and the video games they spent years to create. Every company faces risks, but it is very beneficial for a company to have risk management and a back-up plan in case all else fails.
-Courtney Chesley
In my opinion i think that it is a good thing that they are rebranding Mickey Mouse. He isn't as popular as he use to be. Childeren have other cartoon characters that they look up to. Mickey Mouse is an old character he needs to updated. If they bring a new Mickey Mouse into the public, Disney has more of a chance to get people to love him again just because he is new.
ReplyDeleteThere are big risks with rebranding a beloved character like Mickey Mouse. Hes been around for years and years. All different generations love him and if they change him to much or the older generation doesn't like him that means Disney loses their loyal old fans of Mickey. Also if they change Mickey, maybe the kids that they are trying to get won't like him. Just because a movie with darker character did well doesn't mean that Mickey will. Disney shouldn't base a complete change on a movie. Peoples opinions always change. Maybe no one will like the new Mickey and all that rebranding was for nothing.
I think that Mickey Mouse should not be changed because he has a good, clean image. According to Disney, this move is necessary but I do not see the need. I still see Mickey Mouse everywhere and I think the character is perfect for kids. Everyone likes Mickey Mouse and he has not been changed drastically since his creation. I would like to see Mickey stay the same because I think Mickey can still compete with other characters like him because of his originiality and clean characteristics.
ReplyDeleteRebranding is extremely risky. When a company decides to rebrand something they take a gamble. The gamble is losing customers because they do not like the new product idea. Companies also take a risk by changing their slogan or signature because customers might not recognize it anymore. Companies must be desperate when they decide to rebrand because it is a big risk changing a product that customers like, such as Mickey Mouse.
I think it’s a horrible idea to rebrand Mickey Mouse. He is everything that Disney was built on and is the most recognized cartoon in much of the world. I don’t think its necessary to change him in any way. The article said that the wanted to make Mickey have a dark, cunning side to him. Its ridiculous to think that they would change a symbol like that just to appeal to more people. I don’t even think it is a necessary change.
ReplyDeleteOne major risk is retaliation against the company for changing something that people had grown so used to. I feel as though a change to Mickey may come back and bite the company because parents wont want him to be any different than he was when they were kids. This happened with cookie monster from sesame street. When they decided he would be a salad monster, many people and viewers were upset. One more risk just may be that many followers wont understand the change and will automatically think that this “dark side” to Mickey could result in other major changes to the other characters involved in the Disney brand.
Micky mouse is a legend in cartoons today and he will always will. Making a game towards Mickey Mouse i think would be a great idea. Disney has done this before with the Kingdom Hearts series, that game made disney characters so popular. When i played that game i honestly have watched a lot of more disney and more movies towards the characters. Also pretraying a different side of Mickey would be a great way on showing a change in their branding. Change can be good and with Disney i think it will be.
ReplyDeleteTheirs always a risk when you rebrand a product that has been popular for decades. But recently the Disney has not gotten anything new done in awhile and they believe its time for a change. Theirs a risk, and i believe one may be the loss of interest, some people dont like change and their not going to the like "new" Disney. Another risk would be if it is going bad, would you go back to the regular brand? This could cause a problem for the company and may end Disney as we know it!
Kamran Syed
In my opinion rebranding Mickey Mouse is disrespectful to everyone who grew up with him. Mickey Mouse has a specific image that he portrays and has portrayed on our society. To change that image is to change all sentimental value of his character. In my opinion future success depends on children's attraction to Mickey and that if he doesn't attract them anymore than Disney should simply create a new character. Creating a new character will cause much less controversy than changing an old one.
ReplyDeleteThe primary risk in rebranding is losing the older, still valued fans. Many old fans may find the rebranding to be disrespectful or offensive towards them. This case with Mickey Mouse is a perfect example considering that I myself feel disrespected. I feel that once you've established a character as the face of your brand for more than 50 years, you can't change it.
I personally think that recreating Mickey Mouse's brand is completely insane. People love consistency. People are not used to change, considering Mickey Moust has been around for decades, my lifetime, and my parents lives. It would be a huge risk to even think about changing up Mickey Mouse's character. There are so many things you can do to spice up Mickey Mouse but actually going all throught the process, changing his character, his look, if will confuse the children and future children after that. Adults and teenagers will realize the change in Mickey Mouse, and what if they don't like it? They have to think about these things as risks just incase they do not make sales or profits off of the new brand they're doing on Mickey Mouse.
ReplyDeleteI think that if they do rebreand Mickey Mouse's character it will either creat a huge downfall in sales, or a small increase in profit, but whose to say, really? No one will ever be able to tell what kind of impact it will make unless they actually go through with it. However, all i know, is that i was a major Mickey Mouse fan, tv shows, disney land, video games, and to be honest, i probably would even want to hear about what they've done to Mickey Mouse once they up go and change everything about him. There are just a lot they need to think about before they decide whether or not they want to go throughout all the hassle and changing his character. Is it really worth it in the long run? To try and make a bigger profit then what they already have now, and then up possibly loosing future profit they could be making? Think about it.
Brandi Main
I think rebranding mickey mouse is a terrible idea. Why fix what is perfect. Plus everyone loves mickey mouse for who he is. Its a epidemic if you change him.I think you are just going to lose lots and lots of money.
ReplyDeleteOne risk is that you are going to risk losing all that money if you change the brand. I just think its going to be an horrific idea. Another risk is kids my not watch disney no more. Then your whole business who go in the pooper!!!!!!
JAKE CARAWAY'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!BLOG
Mickey Mouse was a fun loving guy who made all the children life. I agree that he is losing his popularity with the children because of characters like shrek, toy story, spongebob, and many more. The idea of branding the character is not such a bad idea. They are just trying to get Mickey Mouse back out in the world again and make kids happy. I can see why people are a little skeptical about this idea.
ReplyDeleteThere are some good things about this idea and then there are risks that they are taking. One risk is bringing out his dark side because everyone knows Mickey as a happy guy and not to bring violence. Another risk is that if they do rebrand Mickey to bring out his dark side, it may scare the children to really drive them away from Mickey. Whatever they decide to do is okay but we will never know.
Tarikh Cooper
For the last couple of years, Disney was known all of the world. For them to be re branding Mickey Mouse is going to be even better for the new generations. They (Disney Co.) needs to have a new Mickey. They need a new, better improve Mickey for the future. I believe that the kids will love it. This will help them get more money because kids will want to go to their amusement park or stores to buy their products.
ReplyDeleteRe branding Mickey is going to take awhile for people to know what this thing is all about. The risks for re branding Mickey is that people may not like decision of doing this and consumers may not buy their products anymore. When they reveal that they are going to re brand Mickey, people especially kids will not like that. They will probably want the old Mickey back. When that happens they will not buy their products and their Company money may decrease.
Jerome Mitchell
I think that Disney shouldn't rebrand Mickey, they should leave him alone. Mickey been there for many years and for them wanting to change him, won't be good. Kids don't want to see Mickey's dark side. They look up to Mickey and plus parents wouldn't like that.This shouldn't depend on their future.Everyone loves Mickey because he's fun, and a loving cartoon.They should think of some other cartoon.
ReplyDeleteThe risk that the company will have is that the parents wouldn't let their childern play the game and the other risk would be that not many would want to buy the game. They could try to design another cartoon instead of re-creating Mickey's dark side. Mickey should still be Mickey.There shouldn't be no need of making him have a bad image.
Kimberly Lovo
What I think about Disney's ideas on rebranding Mickey Mouse is that it can negatively affect the image and may lead into less younger kids watching Mickey Mouse on television. I think they should keep their hands off Mickey; he makes them 5 billion dollars already why try to change him now. The future success of the mouse’s image depends on how they present him in the long term. So, the change may be positive for Disney but I think it will mostly be negative. The Mickey Mouse image will change a little over time, but this video game change is too much too fast.
ReplyDeleteWhen a company decides to rebrand itself there are a lot of risks that come with that. One risk is they risk losing consumer that were loyal to the original brand, so they don’t like the new image and they stop watching all together. Another possible risk is that the image be impacted negatively and when people think of the image a negative thought comes to mind. Risks only hurt the company and don’t help them companies are better off leaving the image alone. If they do change make sure the change isn’t big so the image is still there.
I think that Disney’s idea on rebranding Mickey Mouse is more of a sign that the market is moving forward into a new and different direction. The article states that Mickey Mouse has been “crowded” out, as in ignored from children and media due to other companies who have shown better products. Moving from a nice Mickey to a new Mickey with a darker side will take a new step in the market because either they will be successful or they could fail miserably. Disney wants to be the first to try out this new idea and if successful then the market will go in their favor and the new spotlight will be on them. This mouse will be $5 billion dollars well spent or $5 billion dollars badly wasted.
ReplyDeleteThere are many risks involved when companies make certain decisions. Disney made a decision to change the face of Disney by showing the darker side of Mickey Mouse. They could risk losing fans because it could have a bad influence on the little children who like him. The other risk is also that Disney will lose money, $5 billion to be exact, because mothers of children would not like the “evil” idea behind Mickey’s character. The money invested in Nintendo Wii might fail because no one would buy their games. Disney company will therefore remain in the shadows of Nickelodeon and Pixars.