The Princess and the Frog Merchandising News
The December release of the Disney film The Princess and the Frog is almost here, and as it has done for its past animated princess feautres, Disney is pumping out merchandise to tie in nicely with the film.
Carol’s Daughter, a New York-based company that manufactures hair products for women of color is Disney’s partner of choice, and the company has personalized a set of hair products in conjuction with the film, available to consumers for a limited time.
The Magical Gift set includes a shampoo, a detangler, a bubble bath gel, and a conditioner for the African-American juvenile crowd.
The merchandising doesn’t stop there. Aside from the Princess Tiana doll that was released at the American International Toy Fair earlier this year, there’s also a figurine.
My guess is that Disney will also partner with McDonalds for Princess Tiana Happy Meal toys.
Images via and via Loren Javier’s Flicker
Bollywood Not Hollywood Enough With Movie Merchandising
Bollywood is the most fertile and most prolific movie industry in the world. So why isn’t its merchandising sales up to par with that of Tinseltown’s whopping 16 million movie merchandising sales receipts? This lament from Bollywood movie giant Reliance BIG Pictures is typical,
“The Indian market is yet to catch up with movie merchandising. But there is great potential for the movie merchandise business to grow,” Saurabh Varma, chief marketing officer of Reliance BIG Pictures, said.
Ironically, the Bollywood film merchandising industry is marred by bootlegging! Another reason noted by The Indian Times is overall skepticism about the blockbuster potential of movies being released By some accounts, some Indian movie executives adopt wait-and-see attitude, by which time moviegoers have already moved on, in an industry inundated by releases.
Meanwhile, Bollywood movie marketing executives are doing what they can to fully leverage movie success into merchandise sales success with cross-promotions with clothing companies and retail chains.
But some can’t help but compare Hollywood’s widely-praised merchandising infrastructure to its slowly progressing Bollywood kin:
”If you look at a Hollywood movie, the revenues are split evenly between theatre (ticket) sales, home entertainment and merchandise. In India, cinema merchandise at the moment generates nothing. That is going to change with malls and multiplexes and a middle class of hundreds of millions,” said Andrew Heffernan of Eros International, the producers of “Drona”.
Gradually, but surely, they’ll get there.
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