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Outside of some weird cases like airlines, the value of a stock is a function of expected future earnings. Shareholders may have been convinced in the past that there was potential in owning DIS. They are no longer so confident.
Disney may always have had duds, it's the cost of doing business in that industry. But I believe what the market has realized is that they have lost the ability to make the popular entertainment that makes the duds worth it. It's not a stroke of bad luck, it's skills shortage.
Marvel is winding down massively, Star Wars has been blown up for nothing, Pixar is way past it's prime, the parks aren't making much money and the political spats have tarnished the image of family friendliness that has always been a core part of Disney's strategy.
They bought so much they own all of classic pop culture and yet I'm left asking: who is going to care about Disney IP in ten years? Versus, say, Nintendo.
Basically this.
They burned a bunch of bridges and are now acting surprised at the lack of foot traffic, much like Anheuser Busch, one gets the impression that they didn't understand who their core market were.
"Not understanding core market" is a long way from "small pr stunt goes wrong". I don't think management could have imagined it would have such a long and lasting impact as what it has become. In the past, a bad PR stunt would probably be forgotten as the news cycle changes and the old product line is discontinued (the Dylan Mulvaney cans were a one-off thing, not a product line), but social media keeps it alive in perpetuity. In 1996, McDonald's Arch Deluxe burger is a notable example of a major brand misreading a market, but it did not have a lasting impact like this has. Congrats, i guess, to Kid Rock for having more of an impact on a stock price than famous billionaire short sellers like Bill Ackman, Jim Chanos, Michael Burry etc. He should get a job at a hedge fund.
It wasn't "a small PR stunt going wrong" it was "deliberately insulting the core demographic buying your product".
Because they were bad products, not attacks on their core market.
yeah with the benefit of hindsight we can say it was an attack on a core market
Disagree - almost anyone with vague ideas about american culture would have been able to tell that it is a bad idea. Only single white college educated woman deep in the blue bubble that has drank the DEI cool aid wouldn't have known. Guess what type they had recently promoted as vice marketing director.
I guess. but companies are always do weight/wacky promotions to generate 'buzz'. Think of Burger King's various weird promotions . The assumption is, a misfire will be forgotten and society will move on. But not this time. If I were a hedge fund manger, and then Kid Rock video just came out and I had to make a call if society would move on or it would have a lasting impact, I would be in the former camp. yeah I was wrong.
This campaign was equivalent of makeup company sending unironically a free copy of Duke Nukem - complete series at a feminist convention about triggers from toxic masculinity gaming.
yeah you're right it was a huge mistake, probably even without the gift of hindsight one could have seen it was not a typical mishap. But as someone who invests and follows stocks, I am used to companies making unforced errors, and then consumers and the market brushes it off quickly. Like, for example, Microsoft removing the ubiquitous 'start' menu on Windows 8 (as well as other noticeable cosmetic changes compared to earlier versions of Windows), which garnered strong rebuke at the time by consumers. Had the stock crashed and not recovered ,we'd be talking about how it was a betrayal on its base who had grown up with a start menu, like windows 95, and were expecting a start button, not just a mishap. But the stock recovered.
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