Comm 201 0101

Professor Sommerfeldt
Kay Barwell, Alexa Deo, Sydney Frenchman, Nicole Lynch
12 December 2016

Table of Contents
Table of Contents.....1
Organizational Profile......2
Public Relations Role.......3
Public Relations Specialty.......3
Current Public Relations Campaigns.......5
Social Media Management..........6
Public Relations Model................7
Public Relations Theory.......8
S.W.O.T. Analysis.......9
Lessons Learned.............10
References..............11

Organizational Profile

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 Walt Disney is one of the worlds leading entertainment empires. The primary

objective of The Walt Disney Companys leadership team is to generate the best creative

content possible, fostering innovation and utilizing the latest technology, while expanding

into new markets around the world (The Walt Disney Company, 2016). To achieve this,

The Company encompasses five distinct enterprise visions: media networks, parks and

resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products, and interactive. Walt Disney a pioneer

of the American animation industry founded the company in Hollywood, California in

October 1923. His corporate mission stands at developing the most creative, innovative,

and profitable entertainment experiences and related products in the world (The Walt

Disney Company, 2016).

The Walt Disney Pictures Studio is headquartered in Burbank, California just

outside the heart of Hollywood, California. By 1937, following the release of its first

feature film, Snow White, the company had outgrown its small-scale studio. Walt Disney

spent the films profits on a 51-acre piece of land in Burbank and was personally

involved in every component of the studios design all the way down to the design of

the animators and directors chairs (The Walt Disney Studios, n.d.). . His hope was to

create a self-sufficient, state-of-the-art production factory that provided all the essential

facilities for the entire production process (The Walt Disney Studios, n.d.).

According to The Walt Disney Companys website, The Walt Disney Company

has just ranked No. 2 on the list of the Worlds Most Reputable Companies for 2016,

published in Forbes, moving up from No. 6 in 2015 (The Walt Disney Company, 2016).

This esteemed ranking considers services, innovations, workplace, governance,

citizenship, leadership, and performance (The Walt Disney Company, 2016).

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Undoubtedly, The Walt Disney Company has secured a unwavering stature from both its

targeted publics and foremost competitors. In terms of production companies, its biggest

competitor is DreamWorks (Investopedia, 2015). Disney also faces fierce industry

competition from Sony Films, Paramount Pictures, CBS, 21st Century Fox, and Time

Warner. Despite the abundance of movie-market competition, The Walt Disney Company

continues to be the longstanding unmovable force of the entertainment industry,

constantly bringing stories to life on the big screen.

Public Relations Role

Disneys primary communications chairwoman is Zenia Mucha - The Walt Disney

Companys Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer (The Walt

Disney Company, 2016). Muchas corporate communications responsibilities include

acting as chief spokesperson and overseeing communication strategy and media

relations for the company, its various business segments and its philanthropic and

environmental initiatives (The Walt Disney Company, 2016). Notably, her departments

successes includes heading Disneys acquisitions of Pixar and Marvel, launching

Disneys first-ever fan club - D23, and opening Disneys premier theme park and resort in

Shanghai, China. It is valuable that the communications department is allotted an

exclusive budget, resources, and personnel.

Public Relations Specialty

The Walt Disney Company focuses primarily on corporate public relations. While it

utilizes social media to enhance its relations, it must ensure that Americans continue to have

confidence in the growing corporate empire. Corporate public relations calls for a balance of

both customer and employee relations. The Walt Disney Company must guarantee its

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customers are always satisfied in order to maintain positive word-of-mouth

recommendations. Boasting more than 90 years of customer service, The Disney Company

does a fine job at uniting people to keep the customer at its core (Disney Institute, 2016).

The Disney Company is able to best further its public relations efforts by maintaining

employee happiness. It surpasses Facebook and Google when considering employee

benefits (Mauney, 2016). Keeping employees pleased adds to the positive public sentiment

Disney wants to earn. When employees speak of the company in such a progressive light, it

continues to attract customers.

Another paramount aspect of corporate public relations is giving back. The Walt

Disney Company pairs with numerous philanthropies such as Make A Wish - making sick

childrens dreams come true. Disney also has its own philanthropies, such as The Walt

Disney Company Healthy Living Commitment, which encourages children to stay active

and eat healthy (The Walt Disney Company, 2016). Its Hospital Care Package program has

positively impacted 16.3 million children and families in need, and its book donation

program has donated more than 23 million books to schools since 2012 (The Walt Disney

Company, 2016). These altruistic deeds all contribute to the public image of the corporate

company. Importantly, they must be broadcasted in a tasteful manner. Corporate public

relations practitioners must communicate through social media channels, but cannot not be

overly boastful in doing so. These practitioners must also portray happy customers and

happy employees without bragging too much. The Walt Disney Company successfully

balances all aspects of its corporate public relations quite exceptionally, which explains its

world-renowned image.

Current Public Relations Campaigns

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 Walt Disney Studios is currently spearheading a public relations campaign to

promote the release of its newest motion picture, Moana, coming to theaters on November

23, 2016. The companys Instagram account has hyped the film through #MoanaMonday -

weekly releases of original songs, never-before-seen sneak peeks, and customized character

introductions. The objective for this campaign is to get more people to view the movie in

theaters and to raise hype around the release to increase audience awareness. This

campaigns particular strategy is to intrigue the publics interest towards the movie by

highlighting the multicultural nation we all live in. A second strategy used is to focus on the

strong, dominant male characters in the film in order to steer away from the girl-centered

stereotype of princess movies, to ultimately broaden the appeal of the film to all genders.

In addition to its groundbreaking business ventures, Disney is heightening its

community involvement this holiday season with its Share The Joy public relations

campaign. In preparation for the holidays, Disney will be collaborating with a multitude of

nonprofit organizations to combat hunger. To achieve this, Disney has pledged a $1 million

donation to Feeding America. Further, on November 19th 2016, the company participated in

Family Volunteer Day as the day of services exclusive sponsor (The Walt Disney Company,

2016). Both of these public relations campaigns are powerful initiatives to strengthen

Disneys longstanding customer loyalty. The companys altruism towards the community

will foster positive sentiments from movie-going customers, ultimately enhancing its stature

in both revenue and reputation.

Social Media Management

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 Most people in todays society are familiar with Disneys backbone - Mickey

Mouse. First developed in 1928, Mickey Mouse was brought to life on screen to create a

generational brand that each family member can relate to. When a brand develops over an

extended period of time, it is crucial to adjust and adapt to the cultural and technological

trends. From its start, The Walt Disney Company solidified itself as an immensely visual

brand; it was only logical it would have a giant presence on social media platforms. It is

notable that the different media channels that Disney uses are all unique and independent

from each other. While there are not many duplicate posts on multiple platforms, there is

a distinctly common and unifying theme for all of Disneys content. It is this crucial

theme that promotes the collaborative brand image. The content Disney posts on its

Twitter account - a picture or a trending hashtag - will not be posted identically on its

Instagram page. This strategy safeguards that Disney does not over-saturate material and

lose followers. Instead, Disney is effective in keeping all of its fans actively engaged on

multiple platforms of social media.

Facebook remains Disneys most popular social media platform for

communication. It is primarily a visual brand, so many of its Facebook posts are visuals

accompanied by short, purposeful quotes. The Walt Disney Company keeps older

generations engaged by posting old quotes from famous movies, and it regularly provide

links to quizzes and other fun articles that viewers can participate in. Its messages and

captions to visuals are consistently shorter, but they all impart the same tone that appeals

to the target audience. Disney knows who they want to appeal to and how to do it - they

do it very well.

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 It is understandably difficult to address complaints on social media when you are

a brand as large as Disney, but looking through most of the companys posts, even a

critical eye would have trouble finding a trend of unsatisfied customers. Many of the

people who post comments are generally responding to the buzz Disney is creating, as

Disney has created its own bubble of positivity and excitement surrounding its content.

Obviously, because there is so much diversity in viewpoints, there is a group of people

who stand against what the Disney brand promotes (family-fun, dreams coming true,

etc.), and actively voice its discontents across social media. Even with these protestful

posts, Disney continues to addresses the problems that are potential crises on social

media with simple, courteous replies.

Disney is a reigning public relations success story, and much of its modern

success can be attributed to the company knowing how to present itself on social media.

Covering everything that a fan base is eager to see, the Walt Disney Company solidified a

good brand, a good mission, and something to stand for. It was able to convey this on its

social media platforms and engage dedicated fans and followers. Updates on current

events are able to create logical links back to Disney. It is a legacy brand committed to

showing people the magic of life. Its flourishing social media strategies will further this

legacy and mission.

Public Relations Model

Because Disney is a large and diverse company with a variety of different outlets

in which they convey its messages and products, the public relations model that most

accurately represents it would be the Press Agentry Model. This model is used frequently

throughout Hollywood - oftentimes for sports teams, theatre and film public relations

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opportunities. Disney falls under the Press Agentry Model for a multitude of reasons, a

primary one being that it is predominantly mass-media driven. Disneys drive to appeal to

mass media can be clearly seen through its tactics that constantly target expansive

numbers of people through television, movies, radios, press releases, and a variety of

other channels. Disney also relies on one way communication to provide information to

its audiences. This one way communication is specific to press agentry since the sender -

in this case, The Disney Company - sends many messages through different channels to a

variety of publics. The desired messages can be uncovered by conducting in depth

environmental scanning that targets the groups interested in Disneys products, shows,

movies, parks and vacation spots. Once the receivers collect these messages - which in

this case is the mass-media public - Disney does not want a response back from them,

just their interest in the companys products, which will be accounted for by their

purchases. Lastly, Disney highly relates to the Press Agentry Model of public relations

because more than anything, it imposes its creative ideas onto its audiences in order to

gain their attention and undivided loyalty.

Public Relations Theory

A public relations theory that highly relates to the way Disney runs its company

would be the Excellence Theory. The Excellence Theory used in public relations can be

best defined by how an organization's performance is linked with its relationship with

publics. This theory is most closely related to the way Disney runs its organization since

it really focus on an all-inclusive family-style approach to the way they associate with its

publics. An example of this can be seen in an article written by a Disney employee titled,

Creating Leadership Magic, where he states, At Disney, we defined our approach to

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inclusion with the acronym RAVE: Respect, Appreciate and Value Everyone. And I

mean everyone (Cockerell, 2009). By adopting an acronym that serves as the basis of

its institution, Disney immediately implements the mindset of equality and inclusion to

its workers. This highly relates to the Excellence Theory since when publics feel safe,

respected, and satisfied, they will continue to return to the organization that made them

feel this way. Disney tries to never discriminate against anyone based on race, gender, or

ethnicity and, this is extremely apparent in the diversity of the characters in its shows and

movies as well as its customers and workers.

S.W.O.T. Analysis

Overall, The Walt Disney Company does an exceptional job at upkeeping its

public relations. The company is often commended for its strong public image, and has

been for generations. Because it has been a leader in the corporate world for so long, the

experience of Disneys public relations professionals plays a large role in its internal

strengths. However, this prior knowledge may also lead to an internal weakness if

practitioners become too comfortable with current strategies and fail to create new,

revolutionary tactics. External considerations for The Walt Disney Company include the

new technology that has evolved since the 1920s, when the company first started out. The

Walt Disney Company has jumped at these opportunities in order to nurture its following

and continue its respected stature. Unlike many of its competitor companies, Disney is

not endangered by many external threats. They have created, with much time and

precision, a leading name in so many industries. These industries include some of the

largest and most successful top line studio entertainment brands, and even its own

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prosperous TV channel. Because of this domination, the company does not experience

much competition.

Lessons Learned

The Walt Disney Company has excelled since its establishment in the 1920s.

Working at a corporation of this magnitude would aid an employee in experiencing the

multifaceted components of the entire public relations industry. It has thrived

unwaveringly through obstacles presented by technological revolutions, financial crises,

and more. This stability proves the public relations function within the company has been

very effective throughout the years. Disney epitomizes the necessity of strong customer

relations. It has high standards for its employee relations, which translates to its

widespread customer satisfaction. Disney works diligently to serve both its internal

operations and external altruism.

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 REFERENCES

Cockerell, Lee. "Creating Leadership Magic." Leader to Leader 2009.53 (2009): 31-36.
Web. http://www.leecockerell.com/book_creating_magic.cfm
Disney Institute. (2016). Service. Retrieved from
https://disneyinstitute.com/about/our-core-competencies/service/
LinkHumans. "How Disney Uses Social Media [CASE STUDY]." Link Humans. N.p., 24
Feb. 2016. Web. 09 Dec. 2016.
http://linkhumans.com/case-study/disney
Mauney, M. (2016). Disney Among Best Companies for Employee Perks. Retrieved from
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/the-daily-disney/os-disney-
employee-perks-glassdoor-story.html
The Walt Disney Company. (2016). About The Walt Disney Company. Retrieved from
The Walt Disney Company website: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about/
The Walt Disney Company. (2016, November 1). Disney Launches Holiday Share the
Joy Campaign. Retrieved from The Walt Disney Company website:
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-launches-holiday-share-joy-campaign/
The Walt Disney Company. (2016, March 23). Disney Tops List of the Worlds Most
Reputable Companies for 2016. Retrieved 2016, from The Walt Disney Company
website: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-tops-list-of-the-worlds-most-
reputable-companies-for-2016/
The Walt Disney Company. (2016). Zenia Mucha. Retrieved from The Walt Disney
Company website: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/leaders/zenia-mucha/
The Walt Disney Studios History. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Walt Disney Studios
website: http://studioservices.go.com/disneystudios/history.html

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