Disney is a modern marketing miracle.  The strength and power of their marketing reach is baked into the company’s DNA.  They own theme parks, movie studios, television stations, radio stations, retail stores, and, of course, they produce Broadway shows.

When you operate that many businesses (and good ones, I might add), they all feed into one another.  I call it “The Marketing Circle” (but in this case maybe we should call it “The Marketing Circle of Life”).  One company is connected to another, which is connected to another, which is connected to another until they connect with the first and they complete the circle.

To put it simply, when you market one, you market all.

I don’t think there is a company on earth that more successfully transitions its customers from one subsidiary to another to another than Disney.

And there are very few companies (if any) that can come close to that kind of customer reach.

That’s why it shocked the @#$% out of me when I overheard someone on a show say recently, “We should do what Disney does.”

Disney is a big gigundo business.  In addition to all the marketing benefits above, they’ve got more resources and more time to amortize any expense they incur.  They can out market, outspend, and outlast just about anyone.  And they will.

New Broadway shows are like startups.  You’ve got one show, one company . . . and that’s it.  Your advertising should all be focused on getting through the next six months . . . not thinking about the next six years . . . or six decades.

Even attempting to advertise like a “blue chip” in the biz would cause you to go broke before you could even get a footing in the market.

If you were launching a new computer, would you do what Apple was doing?  You might want to . . . and that’s of course the trap.

You can’t market like the company you want to be, you have to market like the company you are right now.