The Homa Files

TakeAway: The Walt Disney Company wants to clothe newborns with its newest priority, Disney Baby.

Its distribution model starts with 580 maternity hospitals in the United States.

A representative visits a new mother and offers a free Disney Cuddly Bodysuit, a variation of the classic Onesie.

* * * * *

Excerpted from NYTimes, “Disney Looking Into Cradle for Customers ” By Brooks Barnes, February 6, 2011

In bedside demonstrations, the bilingual representatives extol the product’s bells and whistles — extra soft! durable! better sizing! — and ask mothers to sign up for e-mail alerts from DisneyBaby.com.

In this new venture, the company gains access to the maternity hospitals through a company called Our365, a business that sells bedside baby pictures.

Our365 pays hospitals for exclusive access, and companies like Disney pay Our365 to promote their own products.

More than 200,000 bodysuits will be given away by May, when Amazon.com is set to begin selling 85 styles for a starting price of $9.99 for two; Nordstrom and Target will follow with more Disney Baby items, including hats.

The endeavor dances close to a flame. Disney has suffered harsh criticism in recent years over products directed at the very young. The fiercest battle has involved Baby Einstein, the Disney-owned maker of “developmental and entertainment” videos and toys for babies and toddlers. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a nonprofit organization, claimed victory in 2009 when Disney, apparently acknowledging that the products did not turn babies into geniuses after all, offered some Baby Einstein refunds.

Certainly hospitals have given new mothers gift bags for decades. In recent years, however, more have banned the practice, citing criticism that free baby formula, for example, discourages breast-feeding. Privacy also is a concern.

Disney already operates a line of licensed products for infants, but results have been limited because Disney has relied almost entirely on simple licensing deals with companies like Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies diapers. Grouping baby products under one brand that is controlled and heavily marketed by Disney represents a bigger opportunity.

Edit by AMW

* * * * *

This entry was posted on February 16, 2011 at 5:31 am and is filed under Mktg - Customer Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.