Merchandising Mania
This holiday season, Michael Jordan not only will attempt to lead the Chicago Bulls toward another NBA championship, but his head will store baked goods in homes across America.
The $40 Jordan cookie jar is one of hundreds of products now hitting stores tied to the Nov. 15 release of the live-action/animated Warner Bros. film “Space Jam,” which stars the world’s most famous basketball player and a stable of Looney Tunes characters.
Not to be outdone, Disney will unveil what its executives say is the most extensive merchandising campaign ever for one of its live-action films for the roll-out Nov. 27 of “101 Dalmatians.” The remake of the 1961 animated classic stars Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels and dozens of puppies.
The goods run the gamut from life-size stuffed dogs retailing for about $200 and spotted roller skates to designer marcasite jewelry, silk scarves, trendy luggage and spotted Hush Puppies. Disney has even developed a line of pricey pet products.
It adds up to a head-to-head marketing frenzy between industry titans and two of their prized franchises--a multimillion-dollar battle for the family moviegoing dollar.
“It’s just a sea of merchandising and everyone has leaped into the fray with a vengeance,” said Jack Trout, president of Trout and Partners, a Greenwich, Conn., marketing firm. “Of course, Disney has been there a long time, but even Disney has upped the ante. They’re much more aggressive than they used to be.”
Recent history is helping to fuel this, said Jill S. Krutick, an entertainment analyst at Smith Barney in New York.
“They’re putting on the hard-core press and, given the soft performance of ‘Hunchback,’ they’re eager to make up for their lost sales as well,” Krutick said.
Spotted dogs may be a safe bet for Disney, since the animated film grossed nearly $100 million in 1985 and 1991 reissues.
But whether shoppers will take to merchandising that feels rather familiar (some “Dalmatians” paraphernalia has been available steadily since the film’s last reissue and 1992 video release) is another matter. So Disney has gone to considerable lengths to update the “look” of the “Dalmatians” products, said Melissa Segal, Disney’s director of marketing for live-action, TV and video.
Disney has contracted with more than 130 companies licensed to sell “Dalmatians”-related products and has established promotional tie-ins with the likes of McDonald’s, Dr Pepper, Nestle Corp., Frito-Lay and Alpo.
“This is definitely the broadest licensing program we’ve ever done to date,” Segal said.
For its part, Warner Bros. has made deals with more than 200 licensees worldwide hawking products ranging from apparel to greeting cards. Promotional partners on “Space Jam”--the first film made by the studio’s new feature animation division--include McDonald’s, Jell-O and Kraft. Bugs Bunny and the gang are already a $3-billion-a-year business, but they will be even more ubiquitous in the coming weeks.
“Our merchandising tie-in is being launched like Disney launches their movies,” said Robert A. Daly, chairman and co-chief executive officer of Warner Bros. “Like ‘Lion King,’ ‘Space Jam’ has every conceivable publicity angle associated with event movies. We have a lot of merchandising because our characters are usually successful in merchandising. Plus, we have a lot of new characters created for this movie, which I think will be very popular with kids.”
Merchandising has increasingly become a fact of life, particularly with high-budget family films that open in the highly competitive holiday or summer periods.
“We’re each looking for ways to stand out in this crowd,” said “Space Jam” producer Ivan Reitman. “If it means McDonald’s is giving Happy Meals with my spaceman character, I think it’s good if it brings more awareness to the film.”
Studio executives are quick to say that their top priority is how well their movie is received.
“It’s a movie first and foremost,” said Richard Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Motion Picture Group. “You can have all the best materials in the world and all the other [tie-in] activities can be great, but if the movie doesn’t hold up, nothing really matters.”
Added Warner Bros.’ Daly: “You don’t do these movies just to sell merchandise. First the movie has to be good, because all the merchandising doesn’t mean anything if the movie isn’t. The merchandising, as important as it is, is not going to be enough to justify the expense of making this movie.”
And the expense is significant: “Space Jam”--which integrates live action and animation in the style of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”--is one of the three most expensive films in Warner Bros. history (“Eraser” and “Batman Forever” are the other two). Studio executives place the budget in the mid-$80-million range, but some estimates have ranged to more than $100 million.
“Space Jam”--which features Jordan and Looney Tunes characters playing a winner-take-all basketball game against extraterrestrials--includes 1,200 special-effects shots, more than any other film, Reitman said.
Disney officials say their film cost considerably less--in the mid-$40-million range, according to one executive.
Both studios are betting on the appeal and bankability of their respective classic properties.
In Warner Bros.’ case, studio executives were concerned about tampering with the “image” of the Looney Tunes cartoon characters, which have been around since 1930.
“We are dealing with our franchise characters and we don’t want to put them in any jeopardy,” Daly said. “They could be damaged by being in a movie that wasn’t good. . . . The most important thing for us is that this has to be a good movie because these characters are our family jewels.”
The genesis for “Space Jam” originated with television commercials featuring Bugs Bunny and Jordan, but Warner Bros. had been looking for the right film vehicle for its Looney Tunes characters for the last eight years, Daly said.
The two films will also face some competition from “Jingle All the Way,” which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and hits theaters Nov. 22. The family comedy about a man in search of the hottest toy of the Christmas season is a more low-key target on the merchandising onslaught meter, but it is aimed at the same family audience and will have merchandising tie-ins in the way of toys and books and promotional deals with 7-Eleven and Wal-Mart stores.
Some industry watchers say Disney and Warner Bros. may benefit from the lack of a super-trendy “must-have” toy like the Power Ranger dolls or Cabbage Patch kids of past years.
“Without any hot toys really capturing consumer attention heading into Christmas, the retailers really are embracing this as a holy grail around the holidays,” Krutick said.
Others are skeptical.
“They’ll be head to head,” Trout said. “It’s too much stuff. It’s a tyranny of choice. People don’t know what to buy. It’s too overwhelming and they might just say, ‘Let’s go buy a Lego.’ ”