By Roshini Bakshi
MD, Consumer Products, Retail & Publishing, Disney UTV
Princesses have enchanted young girls around the world since time immemorial. Since 2013, our endeavour at Disney Consumer Products India has been to make the dream of being a princess come true with our annual property Disney Princess Academy (DPA), which allows little fans to interact with their favourite princesses such as Snow White, Cinderella, Jasmine and many others.
Disney Princesses have been in existence since 1936; we just combined our princess brands together under one umbrella. The idea came from a simple consumer insight that every little girl wants to be a princess, and being a princess would be the ultimate fulfilment of an aspiration for them. Also, for every parent, a daughter is a princess.
Last year, the Princess Academy event was held in five metros in India, with 1,800 girls participating. This year’s event was held in eight cities and reached out to about 3,600 girls. The DPA is a great way to connect with our consumers. It gives young girls a chance to be part of a funfilled day with activities like princess make-overs, etiquettetraining and tiara-making. The event culminates with them meeting their favourite Disney Princesses. Also this year, the academy gave one lucky girl from each city a chance to be part of a television campaign on Disney Channel.
The DPA property has been gaining value, with multiple media used to market and brand it, and reach consumers of all Disney brands in India. There is a big social media aspect, with more than 1.6 million fans on the Disney Facebook page, mostly gathered during the last year. Our television network and cinema advertising too have helped spread the message for DPA, along with Radio and Print.
Meanwhile, piracy is a big issue in the domain. However, I look at it as an opportunity and not a challenge. If I see a pirated product, I know that there is demand that is outstripping supply. This could be for various reasons like distribution, pricing, etc. We take action at that point in time, but more importantly, we look at those markets, areas, price points, and those products as potential opportunities for us to get in, because if we don’t, someone else will.
Disney has been in India for almost 10 years now, and the market offers a few challenges in areas such as distribution. Our strategy so far has been to partner with modern traders, and distribute our products through more than 1,00,000 stores. We see a massive opportunity through the e-commerce sites in India. They can be windows to the next tier of towns, where brick and mortar retail has still not seen an adequate number of doors. It is indeed a marketing fairytale with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
Feedback: roshini.bakshi@disney.com
