Star Wars Marketing... SURPRISE?

On today’s Bullseye let’s talk about Star Wars – not the latest series – but the merchandising. There is no doubt that the Star Wars franchise is big business. According to Nielsen The Force Awakens earned $2 billion in ticket sales. But the merchandising, the toys, apparel, video games and even toasters that can burn the image of Darth Vaders face on your bread was $5-6 billion. On the whole, Star Wars, now owned by Disney generates $2-3 billion every year – but George Lucas still owns the merchandising rights. So now Disney+ streaming service is launching Obi-Wan Kenobi on May 27th and with that Kellogg’s has a new cereal – Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s actually a lot more than just putting the Star Wars logo, light sabre and dressing Tony the Tiger in the appropriate helmets on the package front – they have challenged us to decide if we want to be on the “light side” or “dark side”. Each box contains a mixture of regular Frosted Flakes and Frosted Flakes Chocolate.

Look for the new cereal blend in stores in July. July? Except for Walmart. They get to sell the cereal first starting in June. That move doesn’t make sense. If the series starts May 27th – why not tie the introduction together. Who knows if by July the series is still relevant? Of course there is yet another twist – no its not about who’s father is who – but if you go to Walmart.com you can get a special edition – instead of the box showing Tony’s face half light and half dark; one side of the box is all light and the other all dark. And these boxes are a mystery – you don’t know whats inside – all regular light Frosted Flakes or all chocolate – or dark side Frosted Flakes. Who cares? Who thinks up this stuff? Just remember how well Heinz mystery ketchup did. You cannot make this stuff up.