Disney Princess

They weren't even Disney products. They were generic princess products they'd appended to a Halloween costume. And the light bulb went off. Clearly, there was latent demand here.

" —Mooney, on his creation of the Disney Princess franchise as reported by The New York Times Former Nike, Inc. executive Andy Mooney was appointed president of The Walt Disney Company 's Disney Consumer Products division in December 1999. While attending his first Disney on Ice show, Mooney noticed that several young girls attending the show were dressed in princess attire—though not authentic Disney merchandise. "They were generic princess products they'd appended to a Halloween costume", Mooney told The New York Times .

Concerned by this, Mooney addressed the company the following morning and encouraged them to commence work on a legitimate Disney Princess franchise in January 2000. Mooney's insight was that the company was "missing a key element in merchandising the characters"; he wanted to bring them together under one franchise for the first time. Walt's nephew, Roy E. " The original Disney Princess line-up was formalized in 2000, consisting of Snow White , Cinderella , Tinker Bell , Aurora , Ariel , Belle , Jasmine , Pocahontas , Esmeralda , and Mulan .

Esmeralda was removed in 2005. Tinker Bell was also removed in 2005, but she would go on to headline the sister franchise Disney Fairies (also created by Mooney). The creation of Disney Princess was the first time that the member characters would be displayed together as part of a single media franchise, separate from their original films. Mooney decided that, when featured in marketing advertisements such as posters, the princesses should never make eye contact with each other to keep their individual "mythologies" intact.

" In an unconventional manner, Mooney and his team launched the Disney Princess line without utilizing any focus groups and with minimal marketing. By 2001, Disney Consumer Products (DCP) had generated about $300 million, but by 2012, the division had increased revenue to $3 billion, making it the top seller of consumer entertainment products globally. DCP issued princess product licenses to Hasbro for games, Mattel for dolls, and Fisher-Price for plastic figurines in 2000, allowing the franchise to meet the $1 billion mark in revenue in three years.