Making Disney merchandise “cool” again

Image: Disney

These days, the Disney Parks seem to have settled on a new sweet spot: a marriage of popular social trends and the classic Disney brand. In addition to the kaleidoscope of standard Disney hats, sweatshirts, pins, and plush toys, guests can now purchase über-popular spirit jerseys (available in black and white, navy, olive green, Minnie Mouse, rose gold, millennial pink, stone-wash gray, seafoam green, light blue, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, the list goes on), find Minnie ears dusted in millennial pink, and even enjoy an on-trend rose gold churro or two.

Just as the original Mickey ear hats and multicolored Fab Five t-shirts were designed with the carefree tourist family in mind, these fashion-forward accessories are specially geared toward a specific type of parkgoer: teenagers and twenty-somethings, particularly those who would rather spend a day touring the Food & Wine Festival and capturing the perfect photo in front of the Bubblegum Wall for their Instagram feed than, say, racing from attraction to attraction from dawn 'til dusk. (This isn't to say that sparkly Minnie ears are only for the young and Instagram-savvy, or that everyone who sports a spirit jersey is only doing so to keep up with current trends—just that this merchandise has more clearly been aimed at a younger market than it has in the past.) As Robert Niles of the OC Register so astutely pointed out in his review of Pixar Fest, the DIsney Parks are no longer overrun with families. They've started to see an influx of young adults, child-free couples and friend groups who are experiencing the parks, attractions, and retail spaces in a new way, which in turn has forced the company to readjust their marketing strategies.

Image: Disney

Instead of picking up the occasional collectible pin and bubble wand during the annual family vacation, fans now have a plethora of trendy, exclusive souvenirs that, for some, have become the focal point of their visits to the parks. (During the initial rose gold rush, cast members struggled to keep even a few pairs of the salmon-pink ears on the rack for longer than a few hours.) While local fans may not have felt as pressed to purchase souvenirs on frequent visits to the parks, that's no longer the case—within the last six months, Disney has rolled out everything from Millennial Pink MagicBands to Rose Gold Unicorn Cupcakes and Rose Gold Margaritas.

Staying relevant—and profitable—in the age of millennial pink spirit jerseys

Image: Disney

Rose gold cupcakes and millennial pink milkshakes are pretty enough on their own, but Disney isn't just making cute merchandise for the sole purpose of attracting a younger demographic. There's a distinct upside to creating food and fashion that looks good in front of a camera.

Consider this: According to an annual survey run by Instagram, Disneyland Park was the most-Instagrammed location in the world in 2017, beating out frequent favorites like New York City's bustling Times Square and the elegant, iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris. Granted, Disney Parks are well-established hotspots for tourists and travelers around the globe, but it's also worth noting that a significant number of those photos featured some of Disney's trendiest and most popular accessories and culinary treats. The more millennial pink spirit jerseys Disney creates, the more fans flock to the parks to purchase them, the more photos are staged, Instagrammed and hashtagged, the more fans want to purchase the spirit jerseys, and so on and so forth. It's a vicious cycle rivaled only by that of a mouse and his beloved cookie—one that not only guarantees a thriving stream of revenue for Disney, but offers the company some free marketing as well. And this is to say nothing of the parkgoers who take it upon themselves to become unofficial middlemen for Disney by purchasing and reselling the hottest souvenirs to hit the shelves, too. Disney no longer has to pretend to be cool or relevant among young adults; its high school- and college-age consumers are doing that for them (and more convincingly than ever).

While your Instagram feed might be saturated with trendy Minnie ears and bedazzled macarons for the foreseeable future, rest assured that these aren't signs of Disney selling out—they're proof that the company is invested in reaching a new target demographic, one whose #purplewall photoshoots and spirit jersey selfies will help preserve the Disney Parks' no. 1 social media ranking for years to come.