So much attention about moi! The Muppets get the Hannnah Montana treatment

Miss Miss Piggy? I sure do. But guess what-- The New York Times reported yesterday (Fuzzy Renaissance, September 21, 2008) that not only is Miss Piggy coming out of cold storage, she and the rest of her Muppet Pals are getting the "Hanna Montana treatment, being blasted into every pop-culture nook and cranny that the company owns or can dream up."

For starters there are the specials on Disney Channel in which Muppets interact with High School Musical and Jonas Brothers stars. Then there are the viral videos on YouTube and the NBC Christmas special. And don't miss the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Muppets float or "Nightline" political interviews. And of course there's plenty of merchandise: Muppet clothing at Urban Outfitters and Limited Too stores; Muppet-theme stuffed animals and tote bags at Macy’s; and a Muppet boutique at the New York flagship of F. A. O. Schwarz.

"We think there is a Muppet gene in everybody,” Lylle Breier, a Disney executive who is the new general manager of Muppets Studio told the Times. Still, she has a few challenges. Ms. Breier also said that recent focus groups indicated that some children could not even identify Kermit and Miss Piggy, much less ancillary characters like Fozzie Bear and Gonzo the Great.

It's really too bad. Since Jim Henson's death in 1990, his children have taken over the reigns to the family business but the Muppet characters have stagnated under changing ownership. Disney aquired the "Classic Muppets" in 2004; Children's Television Workshop owns the "Sesame Street" Muppets.

The article reports that while "Disney estimated three years ago that the Muppets would be generating about $300 million a year in merchandising sales by now, retail analysts say the total for 2008 will be closer to $50 million."

Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios (and Ms. Breier’s boss) told the Times: “Developing the kind of high-quality entertainment we have planned for the global relaunch of the Muppets takes time,” he said. “We want to be very, very careful that whatever we do is in the spirit of the Muppets and that we are enhancing the brand."

I couldn't agree more. While it certainly appears that Disney will leveraging every ounce of marketing muscle to bring the Muppets back to center stage, what isn't so clear is how they'll keep the Muppet magic intact in doing so. Time will tell. Kermit and Miss Piggy were originally created to entertain adults with clever and irreverant humor; Disney's strategy appears to be one where they simultaneously attract nostalgic older generations as well as the 6-12 year-old tween market. I wonder what Jim Henson would think about all of this. Or, more appropriately, what would Miss Piggy do?

On the way to Kindergarten: Office Depot

I just got back from vacation and one of the pieces of mail I was particularly excited to open was the Kindergarten welcome letter from my daughter’s elementary school. I hadn’t done much shopping for her yet and wanted to do it together so she felt proud and part of the process. We skimmed through the letter quickly so we could get to the important stuff: KINDERGARTEN SUPPLIES, listed on page 2. Listed on page 2 is an understatement. The list honestly took up the entire page. Here it is:

“[Name of school] will supply each student with scissors and paper. In addition, your child should bring:

• Roomy backpack big enough to hold a folder, projects, papers, lunch and a jacket.
• A dozen pencils, regular size #2
• A dozen (or more!) glue sticks, any brand, to be shared by all
• One bottle of white glue
• One box of washable markers to be shared
• One box of 16 crayons to be shared
• One package of 3 x 5 note cards
• One ream of white copy paper (8 ½ x 11)
• One box of Kleenex (or more!)
• One box of antibacterial or baby wipes (or more!)
• Liquid hand soap dispensers or refills (one or more)
• One box of band aids

Office Depot offers our school a generous rebate on year-round purchases so please remember to mention [name of school] to the cashier.

Now… it’s been a long time since I’ve attended Kindergarten and my daughter is my oldest child, so at the risk of sounding completely out of it, I still have to remark that this list came as somewhat of a shock. I do like the part about “the school will supply each student with scissors and paper” though. That’s a nice, generous touch.

Still, eager to do some shopping (remember, I was already in a shopping mood), we grabbed the little one and headed down to Office Depot to take care of the list. On the drive down I kept thinking that I never would considered Office Depot for my incoming Kindergartner had I not been so easily lured by the “generous rebate” copy on the school’s welcome letter. Apparently everyone else in the school district was too, because the parking lot was packed on a rainy Monday afternoon.

The store was somewhat prepared for us. The front entry had a display listing all of the area schools’ supply lists (in case you left yours at home – a very nice touch) and, although it took us a bit of time to locate the “back to school” section (in the back of the store) we did find almost everything on the list. Including hand soap, tissues, and baby wipes! Who knew you could get baby wipes at Office Depot. (I’m still not sure what’s going to happen with those wipes but I guess I’ll find out at parents’ night.)

The downside: the back to school section was crowded with parents and kids of various ages (including my one year-old who always makes shopping trips more difficult) and the rows were too narrow for a shopping cart. The visual merchandising could have been a lot better too, organized by grade level or with fun signs pointing out cool stuff. I was hoping for more of a traditional back to school shopping spree a la Target or other superstore where Back to School is made to feel like a special event and recognized as the important rite of passage that it is. Office Depot has also missed out on a lot of obvious licensed merchandise opportunities. Most of the school supplies we saw were really generic and “too boring” according to my daughter. Still, I was able to buy some Cars branded glue sticks (the last one in stock) and my daughter whined for a particularly ugly Hannah Montana backpack, but that was really it. (By the way, I am adamantly opposed to any licensed merchandise that doesn’t further the brand’s core values but that’s a topic for another blog post).

All in all, I give Office Depot huge points for partnering with local schools and offering non-traditional merchandise so we could satisfy our supply lists in one trip. We filled the cart and spent $40. The salespeople were exceedingly helpful too. I’ll definitely be back next time we need to stock up, but I won’t expect the trip to satisfy any rite of passage urges for me or my daughter.

Still feeling the “urge” to do something special for my daughter, I eagerly opened a marketing e-mail from Hanna Andersson about their back-to-school specials, and promptly drove down there and spent $70 on an adorable striped backpack, matching wallet and pencil case. And I got her a new outfit. We were both hugely satisfied. How’s that for retail therapy?

Disney targets dudes

The LA Times reports today Disney to target boys with rebranded cable channel. Brilliant idea. My only question is: what took them so long? Disney bought out my alma matter Fox Family Worldwide in 2002, the former home of the hugely successful Fox Kids Network, home to the Power Rangers and Digimon franchises. Jetix was launched in 2004 on Toon Disney in hopes of capturing the minds of younger boys, but with limited success, especially compared to the likes of Hannah Montana and High School Musical. The Times reports
"Toon Disney pulls only 10% to 15% of the viewers of Disney Channel, despite the cable network's reach into nearly 70 million U.S. households. The Nielsen ratings reflect its hodgepodge lineup of geriatric kids shows, such as as "Power Rangers Jungle Fury" and recycled animated offerings such as "Batman: The Animated Series," and "Jackie Chan Adventures," and movies."

The new cable channel will be called "Disney XD," which I suppose sounds a lot more male than "Toon Disney" or "ABC Family." I think it's a great strategy actually. Disney has built up such a strong brand with girls of all ages. Any attempts to piggyback on those efforts to attract more boys would just dilute the brands they already have.

"You're fighting the brand perception, the very, very strong brand equity that's been in the marketplace for many, many years," says Greg Kahn, senior vice president of strategic insights for media buying firm Optimedia International USA Inc. "It would almost require a completely separate effort to reach tween boys, with a completely different name somehow associated with the Disney property, to reach these tween males."