Hey. I’m Micah.
I’m a little bit new to the Proof blogging scene, and by “a little bit,” I of course mean “brand spanking,” because this is my very first post. And by the way, that pun was not intended, but it was awesome.
My very first post could be intimidating, but I’ve been wanting to discuss something a few months now, so I’m pretty stoked.
Back in May, my nephew, Lane, had his second birthday. Guess what almost all of his gifts were? Pixar. Guess what my husband and I got him? Pixar. Guess what he wore on his birthday? That’s right… Pixar.
Lane wore a Cars t-shirt with Cars shoes. He jumped in the pool for Cars dive sticks, and all the kids at the party fought after his new Woody doll.
We didn’t even want to get him a Cars toy! We kneweveryone else was going to show up with Cars. But he loves that movie! And he loves Toy Story! And every aisle in Target was chock full of it. So that’s what we did. Naturally, I was struck with how this company knows how to build a brand.
Pixar began with movies. Plain and simple.
They started with one specialty, and they did it well. Really well. Of their 12 feature films, 11 have received critical and financial success and five are among the 50 highest grossing films of all time (all 12 are among the 50 highest grossing animated films of all time).
This is important because Pixar is an animation company, not a toy company… despite what the toy section of Target would lead you to believe. Pixar toys are successful because of how well executed Pixar movies are. They first charmed their audiences with loveable, quality characters; then they created secondary products to extend and enhance the experience.
Pixar released Toy Story toys in 1995 after Toy Story’s success, but they didn’t get caught up in this secondary industry. They continued to stay focused on developing quality movies and a quality reputation, and their audience responded (and continues to respond) in a big way.
Consumers purchase Pixar toys and t-shirts because of the connection they’ve made with the characters through the movies. If this had ever been forgotten, Pixar would be a very different and much less successful company.
The importance of investing time and energy into the foundation before taking the next step cannot be over stressed.
The payoff is in commitment to excellence to a specialty…. Everything else is a bonus. Trust me, the aisles of Target testify.