Marvel Assignment

Submitted by- Dhawal Chaturvedi, Sunil Tripathi, Avinash Sharma, Jasdeep
Singh Sethi
Assignment-1: Case Questions
1. In your view, what strategic direction should Marvel Enterprises Vice Chairman Peter
Cuneo and his colleagues pursue? Why? How?
1. In my view, Marvel Enterprises should carry on licensing as they have been and pursue
the strategic direction that will allow them to focus on marketing their lesser known
characters that have the potential to turn them into blockbusters. Moreover, they also
run a risk of overexposing and flooding their prominent characters in the market and
also the risk of losing interest of the audiences. I think they should try to incorporate
their lesser known characters with larger characters to draw interest of general public.
They now have the resources to expand beyond the current business model to take
on more capital-intensive activities, their efforts may be in vein if they don’t have well
developed characters to features in future ventures. If they tie in their famous
characters with more developing characters they could branch out tremendously from
there in all aspects of their business. Marvel has a low penetration in small screen
media market, I feel that this can be resolve by introducing an app or interactive comic
book which would be another great revenue source for the corporation.
2. Why was Marvel’s turnaround so successful? Would you characterize that success as
a fluke? Or do you view it as sustainable? Why? How?
2. Marvel’s success was not a fluke as it was based on a smart strategy based on long
term vision, whereby they were able to correctly assess that they cannot just depend
on the print media but they have to utilize newer forms of media such as motion
pictures, television and video games and integrate it with consumers products such as
toys, apparel, collectibles and food. Comic books target a very limited segment of
comic fan base but by licensing its characters, Marvel was able to tap in the benefits
of outreach of the media and was even able to capture the attention of people who
have never read their comics before. Marvel did not let these short-term gains to divert
their focus as they have continued planning and managing career plans of their
characters to foster long term value. Thus, Marvel exponentially increased its customer
base through broadcast media and reinforce their relationship with public through
integrated marketing. Before Marvel’s turnaround, the low publishing market share was
mostly due to a lack of quality control. When efforts were put into improving creativity
and fine artwork, the publishing business was rejuvenated, and the market share
increased. The publishing business provides the primary support for both licensing and
toys.
3. How important are each of Marvel’s three divisions – comic books, toys, and licensing
– to its past and future performance?
3. Each one of Marvel’s three division is of great importance. First, the comic books were
a huge part of their past as marvel was known for just that. The comics are still
important as they provide income and possibly lead to profit in their other areas of
business. While comic book revenue should continue to be stable, its percentage will
decrease in the future as Marvel’s other business grow.
The toys are much more important now that they were in the past. Toys created off of
hit movies with Marvel’ characters and Marvel’s second biggest profit generator. The
toy industry is another seemingly low risk area for Marvel. As Marvel does not
manufacture toys, the logistics associated with such production is not a great concern
to them. They enjoy the benefits of simply designing and dictating how the toy must
look, can package as they please and create a lucrative accessories market as well.
The toy business is very promising in the future. However, its percentage in revenue
will still remain stable or slightly decrease because toy industry competition is too fierce
to permit further achievements.
Licensing is the main source of revenue of the Marvel. It’s how they got to where they
are today. In past licensing didn’t do much for Marvel. After Marvel took advantage of
broadcast media, such as movies television and video games, its licensing become
the largest division and collected most of the profit for the company and the reason
they are successful as they are. In future, licensing will keep increasing and its
percentage of revenue will grow, especially if the management adopts a strategy of
capitalizing on it.

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Submitted by- Dhawal Chaturvedi, Sunil Tripathi, Avinash Sharma, Jasdeep

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