Disney’s Marketing Now Starts in the Delivery Room

  • Share
  • Read Later

Apparently, it’s never too early to get your child into the consumer mindset.

The NY Times reports that Disney-affiliated agents are dropping in on moms soon after they’ve given birth. The agents come bearing gifts: free onesie-like baby bodysuits adorned with Disney characters like Simba from “The Lion King.” In exchange for the gift, moms give up their e-mail addresses—and open themselves up to the possibility that they (and their kids, of course) will get hooked on a parade of Disney products earlier than any family trying to save money would hope:

In bedside demonstrations, the bilingual representatives extol the product’s bells and whistles — extra soft! durable! better sizing! — and ask mothers to sign up for e-mail alerts from DisneyBaby.com. More than 200,000 bodysuits will be given away by May, when Amazon.com is set to begin selling 85 styles for a starting price of $9.99 for two; Nordstrom and Target will follow with more Disney Baby items, including hats.

How do these reps get access to mothers mere hours after they’ve become mothers? A company—in this case, one called Our365—contracts with the hospitals for exclusive access to the folks in maternity wings, and Our365 gets money from Disney to promote its products. The Times reports that Fisher-Price and Procter & Gamble are also clients of Our365.

So what’s so bad about giving moms a free and useable item for their newborns? Well, there are some who might say it’s crass for commercial interests to enter the scene during an emotional, life-changing event. I guess “during” isn’t the right word—it’s not like the product’s reps are holding Mom’s legs and telling her to push while simultaneously pushing Disney’s latest DVDs out on Blu-Ray. (Not yet, anyway.) But still, as one critic quoted in the Times says:

“This is taking advantage of families at an extremely vulnerable time,” said Jeff McIntyre, director of national policy for the advocacy group Children Now.

Clearly, Disney’s goal here is to get families accustomed to gobbling up the full range of products and yearning to visit its parks from the moment a child is born—or even better, earlier. Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney Consumer Products, says that the company is considering a loyalty program that would give away theme park tickets to pregnant women who sign up for e-mail alerts:

“To get that mom thinking about her family’s first park experience before her baby is even born is a home run,” Mr. Mooney said, adding that a surprisingly large number of families do not become consumers of Disney products until their children reach preschool age, when they start to watch Disney Channel programs like “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”

If you’ve ever been around infants and toddlers, it shouldn’t be at all surprisingly that they’re not yet consumers of Disney products. They’ve barely learned to consume solid foods.

Of course, Mr. Mooney has a business to run, and the sooner he can turn a newborn into an obsessively loyal customer, the better.

So what’s next for Disney? What boundary will it try to cross? Given that the Super Bowl was just last night, here’s one idea for a TV commercial. It’s set in a hospital delivery room. You’ll see the mom pushing, get a glimpse of the dad holding the mom’s hand, and then hear the brief cry of a baby girl. The precious pink newborn will appear on screen—swaddled in a Disney bodysuit featuring some princess, of course—and there will be a voiceover saying:

“Little Emma, you just came out of your mother’s womb. What are you going to do next?”

Then, a computer-generated mouth on the baby’s face will respond, in an adorably cute yet still creepy voice:

“I’m going to Disneyland!”

MORE:
What Is the Most Useless Baby Product of All?
So What Do You Really Need When Baby Comes?