Hbr: Marvel Enterprises Inc
Marvel Enterprises
Background:
Marvel Comics was founded in the late 1930’s with the their first comics appearing in 1939. Up to the time of the case, the company had changed owners a few times, had ups and downs, and had built a large following by providing up to 60 periodicals per month which included comics like: Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man along with about 4,700 other characters.
Decision Dilemna:
What business model should Marvel Executives pursue to ensure continued growth?
Analysis of Case Facts, Missing info and Contradictions:
• There was a lot of talk about existing deals; I’d like to know the terms of those deals and when they were made, when they expire etc.
• One of those deals and a very important one was the SpiderMan movie deal with Sony. Said “on the day of release, Marvel had only received about $25mm from Sony.” Were they expecting to get more? This would be nice to understand the terms here to valuate worth.
• They talk a lot about primary market, I would like to see a marketing breakdown of what they are marketing to who? How they are working to capture and keep intrest from toddlers to elderly enthusiasts.
• I’d like to better understand the comic book market. Do customers stick with one comic like spiderman and only read that? Or do they start with a spidermand and evolve to others? Buy multiples?
• How many comic books does the average consumer buy? Adult vs kid?
• Would like more insight on efforts regarding Toy distribution, especially when they get space from a retailer 12 months in advance but then the film/toy gets squashed…how does this reflect on them
• I would like to see an organization chart; who’s working for who, how many people are there, etc. at certain points it sounds like they have harldy anyone working there and others sounds like they have huge teams
• Would like more info on dollar amounts for movie revenues. Talks about US retail averages and then worldwide production costs…would like to
Background:
Marvel Comics was founded in the late 1930’s with the their first comics appearing in 1939. Up to the time of the case, the company had changed owners a few times, had ups and downs, and had built a large following by providing up to 60 periodicals per month which included comics like: Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and Iron Man along with about 4,700 other characters.
Decision Dilemna:
What business model should Marvel Executives pursue to ensure continued growth?
Analysis of Case Facts, Missing info and Contradictions:
• There was a lot of talk about existing deals; I’d like to know the terms of those deals and when they were made, when they expire etc.
• One of those deals and a very important one was the SpiderMan movie deal with Sony. Said “on the day of release, Marvel had only received about $25mm from Sony.” Were they expecting to get more? This would be nice to understand the terms here to valuate worth.
• They talk a lot about primary market, I would like to see a marketing breakdown of what they are marketing to who? How they are working to capture and keep intrest from toddlers to elderly enthusiasts.
• I’d like to better understand the comic book market. Do customers stick with one comic like spiderman and only read that? Or do they start with a spidermand and evolve to others? Buy multiples?
• How many comic books does the average consumer buy? Adult vs kid?
• Would like more insight on efforts regarding Toy distribution, especially when they get space from a retailer 12 months in advance but then the film/toy gets squashed…how does this reflect on them
• I would like to see an organization chart; who’s working for who, how many people are there, etc. at certain points it sounds like they have harldy anyone working there and others sounds like they have huge teams
• Would like more info on dollar amounts for movie revenues. Talks about US retail averages and then worldwide production costs…would like to