The Disney Brand & Wine: Not a Good Match
July 29, 2007 by Susan Gunelius
Filed under Brand Extension
Earlier this month, I published a post about Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) plans to enter the wine market (read Disney Extends Its Brand Presence Everywhere). Luckily, it seems like they’ve come to their senses and plan to back out of the wine market before their wine ever hits store shelves.
Disney, with the help of Costco (NASDAQ: COST), planned to market a wine named after their latest animated film, Ratatouille, with a label featuring the film’s main character, Remy the rat. In my post earlier this month, I questioned why the number one family and children’s brand would even consider slapping their brand name and character’s image on an alocoholic beverage. I thought the strategy went beyond the realm of all common sense. Turns out, I’m not the only one who felt that way.
Disney has been getting backlash from California winemakers and opponents of underage drinking. It seems the use of a cartoon character that may be considered to target children violates the California Wine Institute’s advertising code. At the same time, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control opened a separate investigation into whether the Disney-Costco wine marketing program might have violated state liquor laws.
Alas, before a full-fledged PR nightmare began, Disney shelved its Ratatouille wine. Again, I ask, where was common sense during the development of this product? Didn’t anyone in any of the new product development meetings stand up and say, “Wait a minute. We’re Disney. Maybe promoting liquor isn’t the best way for us to go with our brand.” Maybe there were people who raised a red flag earlier in the process, but for some reason the plans went on full force until everyone else on the planet heard about it and said, “What the heck is Disney doing?”
What do you think? Do you think Disney made the right move by dumping Ratatouille wine? Do you think they were crazy for putting effort and money into Ratatouille wine in the first place?
Read more about Disney on Brandcurve:
Disney Says 4-Year Old Boys Should Wear Perfume
The very idea of considering Disney a wine maker sounds absurd.
For sure Disney would have sold some wine, but if they are only after the money, they could easily diversify into more profitable markets like drugs, weapons or prostitution.
I see Disney more of a soda than alcohol marketer.
Disney is really losing it. Whatever person responsible for this booboo shouldn’t be in any position to do marketing, deals, etc. How irresponsible was this person and how utterly irresponsible was the rest of the Disney to follow the suggestion.
Todor, you took the words right out of my mouth. When I first heard about Disney wine, I wondered what’s next, Disney branded guns and cigarettes?
Carol, I think you chose the perfect word to describe Disney’s behavior - “irresponsible.”
Hi Susan,
Regretfully, more and more companies around the world are in the business of making money and this is why all these poor market decisions are made.
Regards from Bulgaria!
I agree that it’s a bad idea for Disney to promote the movie on wine bottles, if it was cheese or olive oil…
Such an American company should know that the Americans are reluctant about all that has to do with alcohol, guns, drugs. It’s a shame that just because of that ignorance so many people have lost the touch of reality.
I think you’re right, Marcel. Promoting the brand on another product would not have caused the negative response from consumers who saw a glaring disconnect between the brand name and the product that name was going to appear on.
Now I’m not a marketing expert, but when I found that a Ratatouille wine was going to be offered but was later pulled, I was a little disappointed. I thought it was a good idea.
My concern is not that it will promote underage drinking. A cartoon character like Remy appeals to an age far too young to even worry about–it’s not like we’re going to see a rush of 6-year-olds running to a liquor store to get a bottle of Chateau Margeaux or something, and teens don’t associate themselves with cartoon characters in that way (it wouldn’t be “cool” to buy a cartoon-branded wine, since publicly admitting a liking of Disney cartoons–even one like Ratatouille–isn’t cool).
My concern was that it would be a cheap, low-quality wine. I’m not entirely sure I would trust the Disney name for quality food or wine. If, however, it was revealed that it was a very good, if not outstanding or premium, wine (and probably at an affordable price, knowing Costco), I would likely at least sample it where I might pass over a similarly-priced wine of similar quality for better and more expensive ones.
I thought it was a brilliant marketing strategy, and I honestly laughed when I read some peoples’ concerns that it would promote underage drinking–I couldn’t figure out how. Too bad it didn’t go through.
From a marketing perspective, I have to disagree with you, Chris. Wine doesn’t seem consistent with the Disney brand image (at least not with a Disney cartoon character on the label to promote it). Successful brand extensions need to support the overall brand message, not confuse it and dilute it.
I’m not saying Disney couldn’t make a product like wine work, but the packaging and promotion would need to support the Disney adult message rather than confusing the children’s brand with an adult extension.