Marvel Case Report - Marketing
1. Key Problems/Opportunities:
• Marvel’s product line is limited to primarily the superhero genre. This makes diversifying more difficult.
• Marvel competes not only with DC Comics but also with other types of films (such as action, suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, etc.). When people go to the movies for entertainment, they don’t typically just go to watch comic book hero movies. Therefore, Marvel faces competition from a wide range of genres (and production companies like Paramount that produce different genres of movies).
• Marvel can turn each comic book character into its own brand and capitalize on additional streams of revenue through licensing. Toys, T-shirts, watches, and video games based on popular comic book characters are all products that can help augment Marvel’s revenue.
• Not all characters are of equal worth to Marvel. Spiderman and X-Men are much more valuable brands than Daredevil and the Punisher.
2. New Information:
• Marvel continues to have mixed success with its character lineup. Elekra only grossed $56.7M worldwide while Iron Man grossed over $585M worldwide (http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/ ?id=elektra.htm; http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ironman.htm).
• Marvel Entertainment’s competitive landscape has become even tougher. Not only must Marvel’s lineup compete with DC Comic’s Superman and Batman, but also comic book heroes like Transformers and G.I. Joe (interestingly, Marvel used to own the rights to Transformers and G.I. Joe but sold those rights to Hasbro) (http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread. php?t=265502).
• Marvel has been able to keep the X-Men franchise afloat with X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: First-Class (though it does seem to be weakening some) (http://boxofficemojo.com/ showdowns/chart/?id=vs-xmen.htm).
• Disney purchased Marvel for $4 billion in 2009 (http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/31/news/ companies/disney_marvel/index.htm).
3. Recommendations:
• Not every Marvel movie is a
• Marvel’s product line is limited to primarily the superhero genre. This makes diversifying more difficult.
• Marvel competes not only with DC Comics but also with other types of films (such as action, suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, etc.). When people go to the movies for entertainment, they don’t typically just go to watch comic book hero movies. Therefore, Marvel faces competition from a wide range of genres (and production companies like Paramount that produce different genres of movies).
• Marvel can turn each comic book character into its own brand and capitalize on additional streams of revenue through licensing. Toys, T-shirts, watches, and video games based on popular comic book characters are all products that can help augment Marvel’s revenue.
• Not all characters are of equal worth to Marvel. Spiderman and X-Men are much more valuable brands than Daredevil and the Punisher.
2. New Information:
• Marvel continues to have mixed success with its character lineup. Elekra only grossed $56.7M worldwide while Iron Man grossed over $585M worldwide (http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/ ?id=elektra.htm; http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=ironman.htm).
• Marvel Entertainment’s competitive landscape has become even tougher. Not only must Marvel’s lineup compete with DC Comic’s Superman and Batman, but also comic book heroes like Transformers and G.I. Joe (interestingly, Marvel used to own the rights to Transformers and G.I. Joe but sold those rights to Hasbro) (http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread. php?t=265502).
• Marvel has been able to keep the X-Men franchise afloat with X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men: First-Class (though it does seem to be weakening some) (http://boxofficemojo.com/ showdowns/chart/?id=vs-xmen.htm).
• Disney purchased Marvel for $4 billion in 2009 (http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/31/news/ companies/disney_marvel/index.htm).
3. Recommendations:
• Not every Marvel movie is a