NEW YORK — Disney Consumer
Products (DCP) will co-brand its CE
line this fall with Monster Cable, Razer
and Performance Design Products
(PDP).
The products are a selection of
TRON-themed consumer electronics
products and accessories. The cobranding
effort is part of an effort by
DCP to extend its CE product target
audience beyond kids and tweens to
the teen and adult markets, using products
priced at around $100 and higher,
said Chris Heatherly, DCP’s toys and
electronics VP.
All are custom-designed and unique
to DCP, and they leverage the brands
of “high-quality partners with credibility
in the consumer electronics industry,”
he said. At prices less than $100,
he explained, people are comfortable
buying products that bear only the Disney
brand for children.
The TRON-themed products include
two headphone pairs and an iPoddocking
speaker system from Monster,
a gaming mouse and gaming keyboard
from Razer, and game controllers and
iPod/iPad/iPhone cases from PDP.
They will appear in stores in preparation
for the Dec. 17 theatrical release of
Disney’s “TRON: Legacy in 3D.” The
movie is a sequel to 1982’s “TRON,”
the first movie to use computer-generated
graphics. The sequel will appeal to
children as well as adults who saw the first movie, Heatherly said.
Most of the TRON selection is targeted
exclusively to CE specialty dealers,
but PDP game controllers and
iPod cases will also be sold through
mass merchants, Heatherly said.
In the future, DCP will use its cobranded
CE strategy to expand its penetration
of kids’ electronics in massmarket
retailers, Heatherly said.
He believes it’s time for mass retailers
to “to refocus on kid’s electronics,”
Heatherly contended. “Kids will always
need electronics designed especially
for them” to be durable and to
meet their ergonomic needs, he explained.
DCP’s kids’ electronics products
are currently sold by Toys “R” Us and
some mass-market retailers.
