Disney Success

Disney’s success can be attributed to numerous factors, the biggest one being its ability to realign its strategy to the current market trends and thus turning its corporate strategy into its competitive advantage. Despite various ups and downs in the company’s history, Disney has been able to survive in the market due to its ability to realize the true potential of any idea. It has not hesitated from venturing into new areas one after the other. Always looking at the bigger picture, Disney did not restrict itself only to the animation industry. Had it been the case, Disney would not be as successful as it is today. Rather it defined its industry as anything that provides holistic family entertainment and not just one part of it. Below is a short analysis of the industry that Disney is competing in through the Porter’ 5 Forces model.

Disney’s source of advantage in such a highly competitive, profit making industry arises from the following factors:

1. Diversification: Disney is constantly reinventing itself and branching out into compatible fields. This constant diversification was a result of realizing that cartoon shorts alone cannot sustain the studio indefinitely. Thus, one after the other Disney ventured from full length animated movies to live-action movie productions, from media networks to theme parks/resorts and from consumer products to even internet. This bouquet of diverse products/services that provides a wholesome family experience, can be seen as a favorable strategy that helped the company gain competitive advantage over rival.

2. Synergy among various corporate units: Disney seemed to have completely utilized the concept of synergy via its Disney Dimensions program. It created a set of complementing and cross-promoting business units that not only leveraged the existing strong brand equity but also resulted in faster turnaround time, as it enabled the Heads of various units to directly interact with each other, thus further maximizing the efficiency & hence the shareholder value.

3. Difficult to imitate: Disney's first mover advantage is secured because of Copyright protection of their characters. Thus competitors cannot blindly copy Disney’s characters and earn profits. Copyrights are important for Disney because many of its characters remain popular over a long period of time and generate profit not only for the studio but also for all other business units, for instance by selling merchandised products etc.

4. Positioning: Disney positioned itself uniquely as compared to its main competitors. It wanted to develop a universal timeless entertainment experience that could be enjoyed by the whole family. Disney products and services were aimed towards creating a “warm, safe, and family-oriented” feeling. Disney maintained and developed this image by attempting to retain control over the complete entertainment