Disney Consumer Products facts for kids
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Merchandising |
| Predecessor | Character Merchandising Division |
| Founded | 1929 |
| Headquarters |
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United States
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Tasia Filippatos (president) |
| Products | Textiles, apparel and luxury goods |
| Services | Licensing |
| Parent | Walt Disney Productions (1929–1986) The Walt Disney Company (1986–2015) Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media (2015–2018) Disney Experiences (2018–present) |
| Divisions | Global Products Disney Retail |
| Subsidiaries |
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Disney Consumer Products, Inc. (DCP) is a part of The Walt Disney Company. It handles all the cool stuff you can buy, like toys, clothes, and games, that feature your favorite Disney characters. It's all about licensing and selling products.
DCP is part of the Disney Experiences group. For many years, Disney Consumer Products has been the top company for selling licensed merchandise around the world. It makes billions more than other big companies like Warner Bros. and Universal.
DCP works with five main brands: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic. Other important brands include Disney Parks and Lucasfilm.
Contents
How Disney Products Started
Early Days with Mickey Mouse
The story of Disney Consumer Products began way back in 1929. That's when Walt Disney first allowed Mickey Mouse's picture to be used on children's books. This was a new idea at the time!
On December 16, 1929, Walt Disney Productions created a special division called Walt Disney Enterprises (WDE). This group was in charge of all the merchandise.
In January 1930, Charlotte Clark started making Mickey Mouse dolls. WDE also hired George Borgfeldt & Company to help license Mickey and Minnie Mouse toys. They even granted a license for Mickey and Minnie Mouse handkerchiefs in Switzerland. Later that year, Disney expanded WDE to England.
Growing the Business
In 1932, Disney signed a big deal with Kay Kamen. He became the main person in charge of licensing. WDE quickly started to see success. The merchandise from the Silly Symphony film Three Little Pigs (1933) helped it become Disney's first animated film to make a profit.
By 1934, Disney's licensing grew even more. You could find Mickey Mouse on toy projectors, diamond pins, and even candy in England. Lionel also made a Mickey Mouse wind-up train toy.
Many companies wanted to use Mickey Mouse. General Foods used him on Post Toasties cereal boxes for one year and made $1.5 million. Mickey was the first character ever licensed for a cereal box!
In 1938, Walt Disney Enterprises changed its name to Walt Disney Productions. In 1949, the Character Merchandising Division was officially formed within Disney. Sadly, Kay Kamen, Disney's licensing expert, passed away in a plane crash that year.
After this, Jimmy Johnson took over the merchandising division's publication department. Disney even had a food division for a while, selling everything from bread to soft drinks.
Winnie the Pooh and Other Deals
In 1966, Disney bought the rights to Winnie the Pooh. They made a broad licensing agreement with Sears, Roebuck & Co.. Later, there were some disagreements about royalties, but Disney worked out a new agreement in 1983.
In 1979, Disney characters even appeared on stamps for several countries.
Disney Consumer Products History
Becoming a Company
Disney Consumer Products (DCP) was officially formed in 1985. It became a company in California in 1986.
The very first Disney Store opened in Glendale, California on March 28, 1987. Soon after, Disney made a deal with Mattel for a line of Disney character toys for babies and young children. In 1988, DCP bought Childcraft Education Corp., which made children's furniture and sold items through catalogs.
By April 1990, the 50th Disney Store opened. In 1991, Mattel and Disney expanded their toy agreement to include characters like Pinocchio and Dumbo.
Expanding and Changing
In 1994, DCP ended its special agreement with Sears for Winnie the Pooh products. Instead, they created three different lines for Pooh:
- Disney Pooh: Based on the cartoon version with the red shirt.
- 100 Acre Collection: A fancier line for department stores.
- Classic Pooh: Based on the original book illustrations.
By 1997, DCP was very successful. There were 749 Disney Stores worldwide, and they had 4,200 companies licensed to sell Disney products. Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse products were especially popular. Disney also started a ten-year partnership with McDonald's for promotions.
In 1998, Walt Disney Records and Disney Music Publishing moved out of DCP to the Disney studio division. By this time, Pooh products were selling much more than Mickey Mouse toys. DCP worked with many new companies like Mattel and Hallmark to sell Pooh products, increasing sales from $390 million to $3.3 billion.
Focusing on Franchises
Around 2000, DCP's profits were lower. So, in 1999, Andrew P. Mooney became the new president of DCP. He had many new ideas.
In January 2000, he created the super popular Disney Princess franchise. He also developed new fashion lines and products based on Pixar films like Toy Story and Cars. Mooney also reduced the number of companies licensed to sell Disney products. He wanted staff to actively look for partners instead of waiting for them. For example, he worked to get high-end stores like Fred Segal to sell special Disney products.
In 2001, Mooney made Mickey Mouse T-shirts popular by getting celebrities to wear them. Disney Publishing also released its first original comic book, W.I.T.C.H., which became an animated series.
DCP also started licensing food products in the 2000s. They made deals with Kellogg Company for Disney cereals and with Wells' Dairy for Disney-branded ice cream and yogurt.
In 2002, the Disney Stores in Japan were sold. In 2004, most North American stores were sold to The Children's Place. Disney also licensed Motorola to make cordless phones and two-way radios with Disney characters.
In 2004, Disney bought the rights to The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House from The Jim Henson Company. These brands were then managed by Muppets Holding Company, which was part of Disney Consumer Products.
In 2005, DCP started working with stores in India to create "Disney Corners" to sell licensed merchandise. That same year, Mooney created the Disney Fairies franchise, which started with the book Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg.
In 2008, Disney bought back its Disney Stores from The Children's Place. Also, Disney Interactive Studios moved out of DCP to the Disney Interactive Media Group.
John Lasseter from Pixar became a creative advisor to DCP in 2009. He helped make sure that Disney products were high quality and truly related to the characters. The Disney Princesses franchise has made over $4 billion in sales worldwide!
In 2009, Disney bought Marvel Entertainment. This brought characters like Spider-Man into the Disney family. By 2012, Disney was the world's largest licensor, meaning they sold the most licensed products.
In 2013, DCP started representing the Lucasfilm brand and its franchises, including Star Wars. With Star Wars, Disney had six of the top 10 most popular franchises in the world.
In 2014, DCP saw its profits increase by 22%. This was partly due to the huge success of merchandise from the movie Frozen.
Merged Divisions
In June 2015, Disney Consumer Products and Disney Interactive merged to form Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media (DCPI). This new group combined merchandise, video games, and digital content. The merger happened because technology was becoming more important for both product sales and digital publishing.
In 2018, Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media merged again. This time, it joined with Walt Disney Parks and Resorts to create the Disney Experiences segment. This new segment now handles all consumer products, games, and publishing.
Disney Franchises
| Franchises Launched |
|---|
| Disney Villains (1993) |
| Disney Princess (2000) |
| Disney Fairies (2006) |
| Disney Bunnies (2007) |
| Disney Dragonkind (2007) |
Andrew P. Mooney, who led Disney Consumer Products, created the Disney Princess franchise in January 2000. In 2005, he also started the Disney Fairies franchise.
In 2006, with Disney Princesses and Disney Fairies doing well, Disney Consumer Products started looking for new franchises. They chose Disney Bunnies. In January 2007, two new franchises were launched: Disney Bunnies and Disney Dragonkind.
In June 2013, the Disney Princess Palace Pets app was released. This led DCP to turn Palace Pets into an extension of the Disney Princess franchise. A toy line for Palace Pets was released in August.
Disney Bunnies
| Disney Bunnies | |
|---|---|
| Creator | Disney Consumer Products |
| Original work | Licensing spin-off |
| Print publications | |
| Books |
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| Miscellaneous | |
| spun off from | Bambi and Bambi II |
Disney Bunnies is a franchise created by Disney Consumer Products. It is based on Thumper from the 1942 film Bambi and its 2006 sequel Bambi II. Disney Bunnies was the third franchise launched by DCP. It started on January 15, 2007, with three books.
Disney Dragonkind
| Disney Dragonkind | |
|---|---|
| Creator | Disney Consumer Products |
| Original work | Licensing spin-off |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Toys | Statues |
| Spun off from | Disney movies |
Disney Dragonkind is another franchise from Disney Consumer Products. It is based on dragons that appear in different Disney animated movies. It launched in January 2007 with a statue of Maleficent in her dragon form from Sleeping Beauty. Other statues included Mushu from Mulan and Elliot from Pete's Dragon.
Disney Shopping
Disney Shopping, Inc. is the part of Disney Consumer Products that handles direct sales. This includes online stores and catalogs.
History of Disney Shopping
Disney Direct Marketing
| Fiscal Year |
Sales (million) |
|---|---|
| 1994 | $65 |
| 1998 | estimated $200 |
The Walt Disney Company bought Childcraft Education Corporation in 1988. This helped them expand their mail-order business. Childcraft sold children's furniture and equipment.
Disney Direct Marketing Services Inc. was officially formed on May 1, 1990. In 1996, the company's main office moved to Burbank, California, where Disney's main campus is.
In December 1996, Disney Direct Marketing started its first special service called "Pooh Gram." You could order a Pooh bear sent with a personal message.
In May 1997, Disney sold its Childcraft Education Corp. because its products didn't fit the Disney brand.
Disney also found that it had many different customer lists. By combining them, they created a huge list of 10 million households. With this new list, Disney started sending out more catalogs, like The Walt Disney Gallery Catalog.
Disney Shopping Online
Disney Direct Marketing Services Inc. later changed its name to Disney Shopping, Inc. because it started selling products online through disneyshopping.com.
In May 2009, disneyshopping.com was updated and relaunched as disneystore.com. It also started selling products from Disney Parks and Resorts.
Catalogs and Services
- Disney Catalog: A general catalog for Disney products.
- Walt Disney Gallery: A catalog for collectibles, published twice a year.
- Disney Kids: Sent to parents twice a year, focusing on back-to-school items and Halloween costumes.
- disneystore.com: The main online store, formerly disneyshopping.com.
- Pooh's Corner: A catalog specifically for fans of the Winnie the Pooh character.
1-800 Gift Service
- Pooh Gram: (Started December 1996) You can order a special Pooh bear sent with a personal message.
Club
- Winnie the Pooh Flag: Sends holiday flags regularly.
See also
In Spanish: Disney Consumer Products para niños
