“I love classic Mickey, but to kids today, classic Mickey is meaningless. They want modern Mickey, but what is that?” - Bob Iger, CEO of Walt Disney. (”The Iger Difference,” Fortune, April 28, 2008.)
Classic Mickey (below) was an innovation in his time. He has continued to be one of the world’s best loved characters, and is recognized on every continent. That’s brand cache, baby. And most of us would love to be associated with an organization with the same notoriety as Mickey’s Disney.
But classic Mickey - with his black-and-white visage and short, simple cartoons - would not survive in today’s always-on digital age. Mickey gets a makeover (some botox, an eyelift?) regularly, as Mr. Ivers and his team confront the uncomfortable paradox of heritage vs. relevance vs. innovation.
It’s not easy to dust off a tried and true brand and get it right. Classic Coke tried once and failed famously. How has Mickey managed to endure - and grow - while so many others take the long, dirt nap of extinction?
As you can see in the chart below, Disney didn’t do it in large, sweeping gestures. Disney did it with coordinated, iterative steps:
Source: “Staircases to Growth,” by Baghai, Coley, White, et. al., McKinsey Quarterly, copyright 1992-2008
What can we learn from Mickey?
- Protect and update your core offering. In Disney’s case, that’s Mickey. Today, Mickey gets served digitally, in real-time experiences at theme parks, and through merchandise. How can you extend your core offering, while preserving its integrity and quality?
- Make money while you sleep. In the chart above, you see that “Character licensing” was the next thing Disney did, after animation. Licensing can earn you the cash cushion to fuel future growth, without wearing out your current staff.
- Add new experiences. Disney went from cartoons to feature films to theme parks to cruises. At each step, they added more dimensions to the Disney experience. Cartoons and movies were 2-D. Theme parks were 3-D and cruises are immersive.
What are you doing to modernize your offerings, to make your ‘Mickey’ relevant to the next generations?
