Comprehensive SWOT Analysis of Walt Disney – World’s Most Famous Entertainment Company

Previously, we decoded the success of Amazon by conducting a SWOT analysis. This time, we will look at another entertainment giant and understand more about it and the reasons they are succeeding, ie., we are going to tackle the SWOT analysis of Walt Disney.

The Walt Disney Company is one of the most well-known companies in the entertainment, media, and amusement park industry. The case of Disney exemplifies excellent management of internal and external elements, and the being a constant crowd favourite by being bold in its business moves.

Marketing is a part of a company’s DNA that can either make it or break it. As users across the world go digital, marketing has followed them to the digital realm as well. If you are interested in new-age digital marketing, then you should definitely check out IIDE’s Free MasterClass on Digital Marketing 101 by our CEO and Founder, Karan Shah.

In this blog, we will focus on the SWOT Analysis of Walt Disney, covering its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Yet, before we simplify the company’s position into 4 aspects, let us learn more about Walt Disney –  the company, its history, services, competitors and financials.

About Walt Disney

The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio was formed on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney. It started with the release of its first animated short-lived series called Alice Comedies. In 1929, the company launched Steamboat Willie, where the most famous mythical character Mickey Mouse was first introduced to the world. Before extending into live-action film production, television, and theme parks, these endeavours established the company as a leader in the American animation business.

The company is most famous for the legendary cartoon characters they created, especially by its founding storyteller, Walt Disney. Mickey Mouse is synonymous with the company and even considered their mascot. He’s a children’s favourite and still continues to be one of the entertainment sector’s more recognisable characters.

The Disney Company also operated under the names The Disney Studio and then Disney Productions. Currently, it expanded its existing operations and also started divisions focused upon Over The Top (OTT) Web series, theatre, radio, music & publishing.

 

 

What’s new with Disney?

Here’s what was buzzing around Disney recently:

• TRON Lightcycle Run: TRON Lightcycle Run is a new roller coaster that opened at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World on April 4, 2023. It is the fastest and longest roller coaster at Magic Kingdom.
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is a new dark ride that opened at Disneyland Park in Disneyland Resort on January 27, 2023. It is the first Mickey Mouse-themed dark ride at Disneyland.
• Avengers Campus: Avengers Campus is a new themed land that opened at Disney California Adventure Park in Disneyland Resort on June 4, 2021. It is themed to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and features attractions, dining, and shopping experiences.
• Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser: Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is a new two-night immersive experience that opened at Walt Disney World on March 1, 2022. It allows guests to live out their own Star Wars adventure.
• Disney Genie: Disney Genie is a new personalized planning service that launched at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort in October 2021. It helps guests plan their day and make the most of their time in the parks.
• Disney Wish: Disney Wish is a new cruise ship that will debut in July 2023. It is the first new Disney Cruise Line ship in over a decade.
• Disney+ Day: Disney+ Day is an annual event that celebrates the Disney+ streaming service. It was first held on November 12, 2021, and it will be held again on November 12, 2023.
• Disney100: Disney100 is a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company. It will begin in January 2023 and end in December 2023.
• New movies: Disney is releasing a number of new movies in 2023, including “The Little Mermaid” (live-action), “Elemental,” and “Oppenheimer.”
• New TV shows: Disney is releasing a number of new TV shows in 2023, including “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (season 2), “Andor,” and “Ms. Marvel.”
• New theme parks: Disney is building a number of new theme parks around the world, including Shanghai Disneyland Resort Phase 2, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park in Thailand, and Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs.

 

Let’s now understand the target audience of Disney better with the help of a buyer persona.

Buyer Persona of Disney

A buyer persona generally refers to the detailed information of an ideal customer of a company. When it comes to Disney, people from India use it the most. This buyer persona will help you understand the attributes of a regular Disney user.

 

 

Now that we have learnt about the company’s different aspects, let us now start delving into the SWOT analysis of Walt Disney in full detail.

SWOT Analysis of Walt Disney

SWOT Analysis is the most widely used method for auditing and analyzing a company’s overall strategic position and its environment. Its main objective is to develop ways for creating a firm-specific business model that best aligns an organization’s resources and competencies with the needs of the environment in which it operates. 

SWOT is an effective tool that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. So, let’s go through with the SWOT Analysis of Walt Disney.  

 

Strengths of Walt Disney

The Walt Disney Company’s internal strategic factors are as follows. 

• Reliability: The company is related to the simplest suppliers who provide high-quality raw materials. It also keeps quality in mind while buying its raw materials.
• Large Cash Flow: Walt Disney has a strong cash flow mechanism in place that allows the company to invest in high-quality, high-budget initiatives. The company’s financial strength stems from its diverse business portfolio. The company made USD 69.57 billion in revenue in 2019, a significant rise from USD 59.43 billion the previous year in 2018.
• Proficient Team: Walt Disney has a number of the foremost creative teams that contain story scriptwriters, artists, and graphic designers. The qualified teams are experienced in all professionals with extensive years of experience in the mass media industry.
• High Brand Value: The company has a strong brand reputation, and its name and logo are easily recognizable. The brand name became powerful after the acquisition of other reputed companies like 21st Century Fox. As of 2019, Walt Disney was found to be the 7th most valuable brand, with a brand value of USD 61.3 billion. This indicates that every product of Disney is highly popular among customers. Furthermore, a strong brand image aids the company in gaining a competitive advantage through differentiation.
• Strong Product Portfolio: Walt Disney’s product portfolio includes broadcast television networks like ABC and cable networks such as Disney Channel or ESPN. These channels are highly profitable for the company and are one of the most-watched cable networks.

 

Weaknesses of Walt Disney

Walt Disney, despite its many strengths, also suffers from many open fronts such as:

 

• Sky-High Attrition Rate: The company spends an enormous amount on training. For a firm like Disney, this can be a serious flaw. It should also be noted that the streaming services of Disney under the direct-to-consumer segment, have performed poorly. Regardless of the growing popularity of subscription-based content streaming.
• Poor Financial Planning: Walt Disney is suffering because of its poor financial planning. The corporation is said to be losing more than $1 billion, according to reports. Studio Entertainment and Direct to Consumer and International, on the other hand, only brought in USD 11.13 billion and USD 9.35 billion, respectively. This means that the company’s studio entertainment, direct-to-consumer, and foreign segments are underperforming.
• Vulnerable To Competitors: The company does not engage in proper marketing and promotional activities and this can be a significant weakness of a company that needs to survive in a highly competitive market.
• Insufficient Product Demand Scaling: The company spends a lot on its merchandise and other products and to overcome this the company needs to plan its manufacturing unit based on the demand obtained from market research.
• Dependent: The primary weakness of Walt Disney is its dependence on the revenue generated from parks and resorts and media networks. As of 2019, Media Networks, Parks and Resorts brought in USD 24.83 billion and USD 26.23 billion, respectively.

 

Opportunities for Walt Disney

Like Weakness, to find opportunities organizations must have to identify and analyze prevailing opportunities in the market to be able to proactively exploit those opportunities. Such strategies give a company a competitive advantage while also allowing it to achieve its long-term growth goals.

• Gear Up for Marketing: The company is financially stable and well-equipped, hence the firm can improve its marketing techniques, which will support its growth. Therefore, the company has the opportunity to diversify its genre of entertainment to attract a much wider range of demography. while shedding its “kids” only image.
• Core Competencies: Walt Disney can bring in new technologies to the market using innovation which attracts everyone, and this can be a trump card for the company. Since the firm has financial stability, the company can use it to invest in the cloud gaming sector as its growing popularity can be leveraged by the company by developing its cloud gaming portal to compete with the likes of Google Stadia and PlayStation Now.
• Big Names Are Worth It: Since Walt Disney is a recognized brand, it can be a perfect branding source that any business can use for its promotion. Maintaining a company’s reputation online has become a crucial aspect of today’s digital marketing strategies. If you are interested in learning the latest, check out IIDE’s Online Reputation Management Course to learn more about this rising field.
• Online Streaming Service: Walt Disney has a strong team of artists and scriptwriters. Hence, the firm can work on its online streaming service, namely Disney+Hotstar, which is an excellent opportunity for the company to challenge other services like Amazon and Netflix.
• Expand in emerging markets: Disney could take advantage of the well-developed movie production infrastructure in countries like India and China to expand their movie production. This would lower production costs and result in more locally-oriented films for those markets.

 

Threats to Walt Disney

Threats are external or outside factors that negatively impact business & outside the control of the business, that can come in many forms — supply chain problems, financial downturns, stringent government regulations or shifts in market requirements, etc. These are the threats to Disney’s business hegemony:

• High Expense Toll: Walt Disney has always spent large amounts on its employee development, workforce, and training. The company has a problem with its core competency and hence fails to use its resources properly. The economic bubble collapse can lead to a fall in price, causing severe effects on investment & it is a significant threat to the company.
• Isolation in America: The company only has play stores in developed countries. The firm should not underestimate the buying capacity of developing countries, especially Asian countries.
• Better Products & Technology: The main threat to the company is its non-specificity as it is a jack of all trades and master of none. Walt Disney has a wide range of products which makes it difficult for the firm to work upon. Also, the organization needs to bring in new products and technologies to retain its position in the competitive market.
• Dependence on Parks in COVID-19 Pandemic: As previously discussed Walt Disney earns most of its revenue from its parks & Resorts but because of this pandemic revenue is drastically reduced. Moreover, the company was forced to lay off several employees from its parks due to a lack of revenue.

This part of the SWOT analysis highlights external strategic considerations that force Walt Disney’s executives to improve competitive advantages while safeguarding the company against technological disruption and piracy. 

We are now at the end of our in-depth SWOT analysis of Walt Disney Company.

 

Failed Campaigns of Disney

Disney more than often grabs attention with its unique marketing. But, there have been a few times when the campaign failed to connect with the audiences and gained backlash. 

Here are a few examples of failed campaigns of Disney:

• The “Disney Infinity” campaign: In 2013, Disney launched a campaign to promote its new video game platform, Disney Infinity. The campaign was met with criticism for being too expensive and for not being appealing to a wide enough audience. Disney discontinued the Disney Infinity platform in 2016.
• The “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” campaign: In 2015, Disney launched a campaign to promote its new Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The campaign was criticized for being too secretive and for revealing too little about the movie. As a result, some fans felt that the campaign was not generating enough excitement for the movie.
• The “Frozen II” campaign: In 2019, Disney launched a campaign to promote its new animated movie, Frozen II. The campaign was criticized for being too similar to the campaign for the first Frozen movie. As a result, some fans felt that the campaign was not fresh or exciting enough.
• The “Disney+ Day” campaign: In 2021, Disney launched a campaign to promote its new streaming service, Disney+. The campaign was criticized for being too confusing and for not clearly communicating the value of the service. As a result, some people were not sure whether or not they should subscribe to Disney+.
• The “Disney Genie” campaign: In 2021, Disney launched a campaign to promote its new personalized planning service, Disney Genie. The campaign was criticized for being too expensive and for not offering enough value to guests. As a result, some people were not sure whether or not they should purchase Disney Genie.

 

Competitors of Walt Disney

Walt Disney has its hands in multiple industries on a global stage, it faces competition from many sides such as:

• Fox Entertainment
• Universal Studios
• Netflix
• Amazon Prime

 

 

Conclusion

As we wrap up our analysis of Disney’s impressive digital marketing strategy, it’s clear that staying up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques is key to success in the digital marketing world.

Whether you’re a marketing professional or just starting out, be sure to check out our free digital marketing masterclass to gain a solid foundation in the essentials of digital marketing.

Who knows, you might just develop the next big marketing strategy like Disney’s! Don’t forget to share your thoughts and comments on Disney’s strategy in the comments below.