Disney's Work with Community Relations

Disney is doing a lot of things to support the community. They have several projects in the works that help the community in numerous ways; just about hitting all of the different kinds of people that could use some help or at least some cheering up from the “happiest place on Earth.” Therefore, there is not a single thing that Disney focuses its community support on; there are a lot of things that Disney focuses on, which I think is why they excel in community relations.

There are lots of ways that Disney does to show community support. They have different types of programs and shows such as Extreme Makeover and Extreme Home Makeover among lots of others. Disney also reaches out to a lot of companies and non-profits organizations to donate money and other things to help them help others.

There is a Disney Dreams program, which anyone can enter to win an array of prizes such as a Disney Cruise to a stay in Cinderella’s castle. Everyone is able to enter, but priority is usually given to those who need it most. http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/index?name=HomePage

Disney also implemented a Disney Princess Heart of Gold Campaign, which helps the community as well. It is a program in which people donate either money or toys, that is then donated to Toys for Tots for children who normally don’t receive gifts around the holiday season.

Additionally, Disney does a lot of work with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which I believe is Disney’s biggest contribution to the community. Disney has been helping the Make-A-Wish Foundation since 1980 and is the most requested wish, with the Foundation granting over 5,000 Disney wishes per year. For the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s 25^th anniversary, Disney had a celebration for Make-A-Wish in Disneyland, where they granted their 50,000^th Disney wish. Also, in late 2007, Disney donated around 3 million dollars to Make-A-Wish. For the third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney had an open premiere to anyone who wanted to pay 1,500 dollars a ticket which was then donated to Make-A-Wish as well. http://www.wish.org/supporters/current_sponsors/mission_champion/the_walt_disney_comp
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Disney has more than one mission statement, but I would definitely say that their community relations programs support what they stand for as a company. Disney is always concerned about helping everyone and keeping smiles on people’s faces. Therefore, I believe that Disney is doing a great job with their community relations programs.

I don’t think that Disney would have to do much to better their relations with the community, but if they do, I would say that they should have more publicity. I would make sure that Disney would write more press releases so that everyone can see what Disney is doing to support the community and so that more people can also help the community as well.

Disney's Newest Corporate Announcement

The announcement that Disney recently made is that they have opened a place called the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique where young boys and girls ages three and older can get makeovers to look like “young princesses” and “cool dudes.” Even though boys and girls can both get makeovers, it is geared more to young girls; especially now because they are featuring a make over of Miley Cyrus (better known as Hannah Montana).

Disney has a lot of short articles written about the Boutique and they have articles constantly showing up on the RSS feed such as http://wdwnews.com/viewimage.aspx?imageid=109233&siteid=1

The original Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is based in Downtown Disney Marketplace, and now there is a new one inside of Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom.

I think that Disney did a good job getting the articles out continuously, but I do think that they could have done a lot more with getting this announcement out. If you search for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique on Disney’s main website, you are directed to another site. On the Boutique’s website, it gives you an in-depth description of what the Boutique entails and there is also a short video that you can watch. You can find that website at http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/moreMagic/shoppingDetail?id=BibbidiBobbidiBoutiquePage

I think that Disney could have created commercials about the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique or they could at least have a link from Disney’s main website. They also could have had another form of an advertisement like a newspaper or magazine ad. They can also run an article or a news release in a newspaper or magazines geared toward Walt Disney World customers.

Disney's Usage of New Media is Effective

I think that Disney’s doing a really good job using new media. From their website, they have an RSS feed that you can click on to subscribe to for all of Walt Disney World. You would just have to go to the Walt Disney World link on the Disney homepage and click on the RSS feed. From there you will have a list to choose from and there are over twenty specific topics to subscribe to.

For example: http://www.wdwnews.com//RSS.aspx?SiteID=1

Disney also has a lot of different interactive websites and videos to view and some of them also use flash. Along with that, there are plenty of pod casts that Disney has to offer for you to subscribe to and there are a few video casts that you can watch. I-tunes has all of the pod casts and video casts that Disney has to offer.

The following is an example of a video that Disney has on their website which is a great example of new media because it is one of the newest videos that they have on their website and it is also very detailed.

http://www.wdwnews.com/viewvideo.aspx?videoid=109132&siteid=1

In my opinion, I feel as though Disney is doing a good job taking full advantage of new media, but I think that they could have more of an interaction with their customers. If anyone has questions or concerns, they can e-mail a particular person or department, but I think that they could have either a blog or a place where Disney’s customers can make comments to Disney’s employees or board of directors. If the customers were able to have a closer interaction with Disney’s corporate board, then Disney may be able to make a more effective use of new media because they would be getting feedback directly from their customers.

Introduction to the Walt Disney Company

I chose Disney because I have always had a strong love for Disney and Walt Disney World. I wanted to work with Disney because I thought that it would be a great opportunity to work with Disney in a different light that I am used to.

Disney has a very intricate website which is full of different links to each corporate section of the website. Disney’s website also has links to each of the corporations that Disney owns, which is listed under the media network links.

One of the major aspects of the Public Relations side of Disney’s website is that they have news releases and annual reports that you can access directly online. Since Disney is such a big corporation, the website is split up into different sections. Each section has plenty of information to fulfill the needs of an inquiring customer.

Additionally, the Walt Disney Company has lots of pages dedicated to their corporate information. Under the page for standards of business conduct, they explain what their reputation is and how they go about maintaining it and handling issues.