2011-02-08, 12:47 PM
Alley Wrote:Sure, free clothes are great, but its more than free clothes, it is about keeping these families under the grasp of one particular brand(Disney) throughout the childs life(0-18). Brand loyalty today means less free thinking adults in the future. Do you really want your kids to end up like Lindsey Lohan, or Miley Cyrus?
What brand loyalty? Under whose grasp?
When my daughter was a baby, she had Winnie-the-Pooh clothes. When she got big enough to voice her own preferences, she wanted Disney Princesses. Now she's 14 and prefers Garfield and Futurama.
Everyone I know got samples of diapers in the hospital. None stayed "loyal" to that brand. All tried whatever was on sale, and kept buying whatever was the optimal cost/performance for them. Having a free sample just gave them a head start on the testing.
If Disney thinks they can "own" a person by having products available for every age, they're wrong.
If the free clothes are good and the store price is reasonable, I'd buy more. If they fall apart at the seams or cost more than the K-mart generics, I won't buy anymore. Simple as that.
The only possible "concern", if you want to call it that, is the "loyalty program" mentioned briefly. But Disney didn't invent that. Frequent flyers, shopper's clubs, store-specific credit cards, everybody tries to keep their customers coming back.