Rasulo’s Marketing Guru Leaves Disney
On September 11, 2007 HP announced that it had appointed Michael Mendenhall as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, effective October 1, 2007. In his new position Michael Mendenhall will be responsible for all aspects of HP’s corporate marketing operations globally, including brand marketing, customer intelligence and corporate communications.
Michael Mendenhall (45 years old) has spent the past 17 years with The Walt Disney Company. Most recently he was based in the headquarters in Burbank, California, as Disney Parks and Resorts’ executive vice president for global marketing. In this position he reported directly to Jay Rasulo (as chairman Walt Disney Parks and Resorts) and directed all marketing and publicity activity for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in North America, Europe and Asia. This included responsibility for the global brand image, marketing strategy, planning, publicity, advertising, media, new media/online, interactive TV, strategic alliance marketing, special events and promotions, as well as customer managed activities.
It will be interesting to see the impact of Michael Mendenhall’s exit as in his last position he was the direct “go-to-guy” for Rasulo to realize his marketing visions, which centers around the (generally by fans dismissed) concept of using the tag line “Where Dreams Come True” with a nearly identical logo of a castle in the clouds at Disneyland Anaheim, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort Paris instead of continuing building the different brands by emphasizing the resorts’ widely diverse assets and already established brands and tag lines. Tellingly the logo merchandise connected to the marketing concept seems to sit rather heavily on the shelves in the resorts.
Will the replacement for Michael Mendenhall speak up to Jay Rasulo in this regard? While that might be good for the Parks and Resorts division, it must be deemed questionable. Even so word is spreading on the internet that same castmembers as well as fans think Jay Rasulo is too far removed from the actual business of Parks and Resorts, he still seems to sit firmly in his position thanks mostly to the top numbers resorts like Anaheim and Paris are pulling in by as far as possible ignoring Rasulo’s “Where Dreams Come True” concept and centering on more resort specific marketing themes, in particular the 15th anniversary of the Disneyland Resort Paris.
Anyway, Rasulo’s firm grip on his position would make it difficult for a new VP to dismiss his already established marketing concept. On the other hand a change of top management is always a good option for someone in a position like Jay Rasulo to correct earlier decisions and maybe jetson his current marketing approach without having to admit that it has failed to be the successful centerpiece it was expected to be. But even if this opportunity will not be used in this case … the resorts worldwide have shown to be rather cappable in avoiding heavy use of the marketing concept imposed on them and concentrating on successful resort specific messages (with the seemingly slow moving ”Where Dream Comes True”-messages just being an unavoidable necessity to stay on the corporate-line). So let’s hope, that the replacement of Michael Mendenhall at least will not prevent this successful way of business from continuing…
September 13th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Hopefully this will result in slightly less medeling and being their for halp and advice rather than being forced into carrying out enept consepts that just don’t work globally or in the local market which the resort represents.