History of Marvel
Debt on Marvel
In 1996 marvel was on the brink of collapse it had filed for bankruptcy was 250 million dollars in debt and had seen its stock price tank by 70%. Lots of people failed to understand how marvel with its cast of silly characters and capes would ever turn a profit or become a big company. But they proved all of us wrong end up being a multi-billion dollar business in a very short period of time.
Struggle of Marvel
After bankruptcy, marvel transitioned into a cost-saving, lean, mean, cash-generation machine. The first thing it did was it licensed its most memorable characters. The Hulk Spider-man to different movie studios. Spider-man for example was licensed to sony. Another movie made out of the marvel IP, called blade made 70 million dollars at the box office but marvel only saw a return of 25 000 dollars.
Strategy of Marvel
In 2003, an executive called David Maisel came to Marvel and asked them to do two very specific things.
- First, why not retain 100 ownership of your IP, so that you reap all the benefits?
- Number two why not run crossovers between your characters as you did in the comic books?
In theory, this idea could work. Marvel had both the executive talent as well as the creative talent to pull this off. So, what they did was pulled off their most transformative move.
They took a loan of 525 million dollars to make the first-ever iron man under their own banner.
Did you know that iron man was actually a B-tier Superhero that was raised to an A-tier profile by the Marvel marketing team?
In 2007, Kevin Feige was brought as the president of Marvel Studios. And the first Iron-Man film, which went out into production, ended up making 585 million dollars at the box office.
You know, this one thing we take for granted in today’s movies that didn’t exist 20 years ago. And that is the idea of a cross-cultural universe, where every movie is connected with the next. And where you could expect characters from one movie to be in the other. Marvel popularized that but they looked at inspiration as well.
Inspiration for Marvel
Their inspiration was the Mahabharata, the Norse mythologies, and many others. Where they saw this saga of gods and humans interacting and so, they decided to adapt that into movie format with our set of characters. And this wasn’t accidental.
Marvel had a grand plan spanning four phases with 28 movies that would define this universe with a grand culmination called infinity war. Marvel cinematic universe gave us the fans a sense that we are part of this grand mystery.
This grand collection of movies and where apart from day one to the end of the journey with Thanos losing the battle.
Success Formula of Marvel:-
According to a Harvard study, Marvel’s film series succeeded because of a four-step formula.
Those steps were as follows:-
#1 Marvel focused on the filmmaking aspect first and the superhero aspect second:-
The first one is marvel went out and hired directors who had absolutely no experience in directing Superhero films in specific. Marvel focused on the filmmaking aspect first and the superhero aspect, after that.
#2 Marvel leveraged a stable core from movie to movie and gave their actors room to experiment:-
See there’s a formula called the Hero’s journey which most Superhero films are based on. Where there’s a hero, the hero goes through conflict and then there’s a mentor that helps that hero and then the hero gets better and you know pays back. Now marvel didn’t really stick to that formula. Marvel’s movies were of a different genre and the Superhero was one of the characters in that type of movie. This is not just with the type of movie it’s also with the emotions in the movie. For example, Iron-man was a comedy movie, Thor was a dark movie and it could change from movie to movie. The first iron man could have a different genre than the second iron man. This is just marvel’s style.
#3 Marvel used Computer Generated Imagery (CGI):-
The next one is that over time in the last 10 years, Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) got easier and easier. It’s gotten easy enough, that even we, a studio with two or three 3d artists can recreate Thanos. Marvel found this easier and easier as well because 20 years ago you couldn’t make the kind of CGI that marvel does in record time today.
#4 Marvel actually worked hard on cultivating customer curiosity:-
The next thing was that marvel actually worked hard on cultivating customer curiosity. Because they understood the fan. Not only that marvel put in nice easter eggs, but they also put in end credits. These are all things that they pioneered in the industry.
Business Model of Marvel
Founded in 1939 marvel comics initially struggled in a red ocean producing primarily me to knock off comic books. In the early 1960s marvel took a blue ocean turn by focusing on non-customer college students. Marvel invented characters that were people first and superheroes second (Spider-Man, The hulk, Iron Man, The x-men).
The Business Thrived
By the 1980s (red ocean) value extractors took over marvel, badly misaligning value, profit and people. In late 1996 marvel filed for bankruptcy, a victim of red ocean management practices. New management purchased the business out of bankruptcy. Just a decade after bankruptcy Disney purchased debt-free marvel for 4.2 billion dollars.
Will Marvel go Bankrupt?
The simple answer is no because there is always a story to tell and these characters are too big for people to lose interest. Marvel keeps coming up with crazy ideas even at one time teaming up with DC to make a Marvel vs DC comic.
So what are the things you can learn from Marvel?
- Selecting for experienced inexperience.
- Leveraging a stable code.
- Continually challenging the formula.
- Cultivating customers’ curiosity.
Marketing Lessons from Marvel
#1 Go multi-platform:-
Marvel is everywhere. They make sure that they are never forgotten. Aside from the comics that they originated from they are in movies, live-action TV series, animated TV series, and even video comics released on YouTube. This is smart because they reach the different areas of their fan base. Small businesses should also be on different platforms. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter wherever appropriate. Because it increases the opportunities for you to engage with your audience.
#2 Be Diverse:-
Within two months of Black Panther’s release, it has become the top-grossing superhero film in the US. And has received both critical acclaim and positive audience reception. With their audience being increasingly diverse and the world also becoming increasingly multicultural. Marvel made decisions to make sure that its audience is well represented in the universe they are continually building. Prior to Black Panther, they have already launched more diverse comic-book characters, like Miles Morales, the afro-Latino version of spider-man, Karolina dean a queer superhero from Marvel’s runaways, and Kamala Khan as Miss Marple. The first-ever Pakistani-American and Muslim superhero. Marvel acknowledged that representation matters and the same can be said for other businesses that have a diverse audience. Representing different kinds of people in your advertising can make a difference because they make your messages more relatable.
#3 Be Consistent:-
While Marvel films and TV series are not created equal we can be certain that none of them are truly bad. All of them are kept under a good standard of quality. Even Ant-Man who is not as well known as other Marvel superheroes managed to be a pleasant surprise. There is also a consistent brand of humor and almost all installments of the franchise that is recognizably Marvel. With businesses, it’s all about branding and showing a consistent quality and personality in all of your marketing materials. Not only will this make it easier for people to identify your grant it will also build trust among your customers, once you’ve maintained a certain level of standard. Of course, the success of Marvel wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the great team of filmmakers, actors, writers, and illustrators who work together in the production. The same goes for business. A solid marketing team is behind every solid strategy. Make sure you have a good one.
That’s All from my side. If you found this article valuable do comment.
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