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Disney Princess paint: New way for girls to be fashion victims

Disney Princess paint: Lifestyle branding 鈥� from furniture to bedding to clothes 鈥� designed to envelope little girls in the cartoon dream is one new way to create fashion victims.

Did you know that Behr produces a line of Disney Princess interior paints?

In fact, Behr has a whole Disney Princess-Disney Color catalog with color names such as Fairest of Them All, Tink Pink, Glamorous Glow, One Enchanted Evening, and Bibbidi Bobbidi Blue.

The catalog describes the Disney Princess bathroom: 鈥淩elax in rooms as pretty as a princess. Surround yourself in a setting as cheerful as her smile.鈥�

And, of course, the Disney Princess bedroom: 鈥淚n Sleeping Beauty鈥檚 room, everything is enchanted. What better place to dream?鈥�

Sleeping Beauty鈥檚 room, pictured in the catalog, features Disney Princess paints, pieces from the Disney Princess Furniture Collection, Disney Princess bedding, and many other Disney Princess products.

While there seems to be a Disney Princess version of nearly everything, the idea of Disney Princess interior paints may come as a surprise.聽What鈥檚 going on here?

Brands, Megabrands, and Lifestyle Brands: How Disney Princess Works

My students and I recently screened the Media Education Foundation documentary "No Logo," based on Naomi Klein鈥檚 book of the same name. In the video, Ms. Klein explains why consumers and critics wind up protesting certain brands.

Klein says that the insidiousness of brand marketing is at the root of most protesters鈥� concerns. Brands are no longer seeking popularity; instead, Klein says, they 鈥渨ant to be everywhere and be everything.鈥� In so doing, a brand becomes a聽megabrand.

Because of this outlook, Klein says, megabrands (and megabrand wannabes) regularly ask questions like,聽鈥滻f it鈥檚 a line of clothing, can it be a house paint?鈥�

The answer, of course, is yes. Megabrand Ralph Lauren makes clothes, home goods and, yes,聽house paints. Even though Ralph Lauren paint looks just like other paints that cost significantly less, the Ralph Lauren brand has enough perceived prestige to make it appealing to brand-conscious consumers.

In this way, megabrands 鈥� by being everywhere and being everything 鈥� become something even bigger: they transform into聽lifestyle brands.

Lifestyle brands are brands that permeate every aspect of a consumer鈥檚 lifestyle, such that the brand identity is intertwined with the consumer鈥檚 personal identity. Virgin is the quintessential lifestyle brand, illustrated by its subsidiaries list, which includes everything from music to travel to wine. A consumer with a strong preference for a megabrand鈥檚 products and services may think, 鈥淭his is my brand,鈥� or 鈥淭his brand is part of me.鈥�

Disney Princess as lifestyle brand

Like Disney as a whole, the Disney Princess brand has been following the megabrand playbook for years. The result is that in the past decade, Disney Princess has become a lifestyle brand, completely intertwined with little girls鈥� identities. Disney Princess is not just about the movies and the toys; it鈥檚 about food, clothing, and home goods, too. At this point, there are Disney Princess products available for just about every aspect of life, from diapers to wedding dresses.

If Disney wants its princesses to be everything and be everywhere, then of course your home鈥檚 walls are in its sights. As a special bonus, the Disney Princess paint catalog is a vehicle for the cross-promotion of other products, like Disney Princess聽bedding and furniture collection 鈥� a nice example of聽what marketers call 鈥渟ynergy." Jack Wayne, of Demand Media, defined synergy this way:

"When synergy happens, one plus one no longer equals two. It can equal three, four, five or more. Synergy in marketing is when two marketing initiatives create a response greater than the sum of the combined response the two would have elicited alone."

Synergy is basically the holy grail of integrated marketing campaigns 鈥� and Disney Princess is absolutely synergistic. As a collective, it鈥檚 worth much more than the sum of its parts.

Just check out your local Home Depot for more details on the synergy of the Disney Princess paint line.

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