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One distinctive and powerful strategic move that Disney did from very early on was to separate its brand from its marketing. Instead, it made brand a strategy function, a decision that influenced the company’s trajectory immensely. The addressing of its brand as a strategic variable led to many of the competitive advantages that Disney achieved over the years.

The Walt Disney Company has evolved over the years, expanding its operations, but always remaining an entertainment and content producing company at its core. All of its expansive and evolutionary moves were successful only when they were aligned with its brand. Disney achieved a unifying approach to its brand experience that echoed through all of its core businesses.

Marvel acquisition

Disney’s vision is to become the preeminent leader of family entertainment. And this vision is reflected in its brand attributes. The promise that Disney makes to its customers is of a fun, magical experience that everybody in the family can enjoy. In Walt Disney’s own words: “I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether he be six or sixty.”

This is the promise Disney strives to keep with all of its interactions with its customers. It promises to nudge and excite the child inside every person. And more often than not, it succeeds.

Indeed, whenever the idea of acquiring Marvel fell on the table (it did multiple times in different times in the company’s history), the main question that accompanied it was whether it would benefit the Disney brand. Did those two brands share enough attributes that it would make sense to merge them?

This was a tough question to answer, and before Bob Iger’s era, it had a negative answer. However, Iger thought differently. Consistent with his top priorities, he believed that Marvel could add extraordinary value content-wise to Disney. Although it is common knowledge today whether Marvel and Disney would be a successful pair, it was neither evident nor a certainty back then.

The storytelling opportunities that Disney observed and ultimately emerged through Marvel’s characters were unparalleled, despite having licensed many of them to other entities. As a result, its collection of over five thousand characters was a priceless treasure for the content-hungry company.

The overwhelming success of movies like “Captain Marvel” and “Black Panther” proved that not only were there a massive and starved audience for original storytelling, like female-led superhero movies and black superhero movies, but that, if done correctly, these films could be hugely profitable as well.

Disney is associated with joy and playfulness. Conflict still exists in Disney storytelling, but violence is something that only villains do and that with great restraint. Marvel’s storytelling, on the other hand, is centered around superheroes, and violence is a common occurrence. Acquiring Marvel and associating Disney with such themes could irreversibly damage the brand and distance people who expect their experience with Disney to be free of negative elements.

Upon closer inspection, Bob Iger and his team found out that the two brands shared many attributes in their storytelling and, if managed properly, they could coexist and blossom under one hood. This meant that Disney shouldn’t sanitize Marvel and decrease its brand value or betray its own brand value and take a more edgy path.

There was a great deal of risk involved in merging the two brands and by no means was its success assured. Finally, on December 31, 2009, Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion and reinvented the film industry, and created another novel Disney experience.

Key Takeaway: Brand is a strategic function

Brand is usually ill-defined and thus crudely managed. The first mistake is considering it only as a concern of the marketing department. That’s a deadly mistake.

Brand should always be considered when developing a strategy. Every decision either adds or subtracts from your organization’s brand. The unfortunate trait of brand management is that it can effortlessly go wrong and cause lasting damage.

The fortunate trait of brand management is that it creates priceless opportunities and works as an exponential multiplier to every other aspect of the business if it is carefully handled and nurtured. From talent acquisition to customer satisfaction.