Disney knows The Force is strong with Star Wars merchandise as it plans to push sales

By MoneyTimes

Sep 01, 2015 09:27 PM EDT

Star Wars director George Lucas, left, and Robert 'Bob' Iger, chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Co., stand for a photograph during the Disney Legends Awards at the D23 Expo 2015 in Anaheim, California, U.S., on Friday, Aug. 14, 2015. The D23 Expo 2015, presented by the Official Disney Fan Club, includes sneak peeks of upcoming films from The Walt Disney Studios, celebrity appearances, as well as a look at what's coming from Disney Parks and Resort. (Photo : MoneyTimes)

Disney's plans to push Star Wars merchandise with such great force is headed certainly headed to success.

Last year, Frozen merchandise sales brought Disney massive success, giving its segment revenue a double-digit growth. But Star Wars merchandise won't be the same as Frozen, because of the demographics.

Frozen is popular with kids in this generation. Meanwhile, Star Wars connects to children three decades ago. This is why Disney has to be aggressive; it plans to push Star Wars merchandise.

This will boost consumer products revenue growth and create hype for the movie, which will be on theaters December this year. Disney will be using various platforms to promote the merchandise. It will promote though YouTube and Disney-owned ABC.

There will be more than 1,000 stores all over the world that will open at midnight to sell Star Wars-themed products. The event will be called "Force Friday." It will allow fans to review the characters and vehicles of the upcoming movie Star Wars: Force Awakens.

"Unboxing" in YouTube will be one of the platforms for the marketing push. This platform has grown by phenomenal proportions in the video sharing site. Now Disney will take advantage of this by hosting the biggest "unboxing" event in the world on Friday.

On September 3, the Star Wars YouTube channel will have digital "stars" from all over the world unwrapping the new Star Wars items. Top unboxer Chris Pirillo, who is also a Star Wars superfan, will be the last person to open a box at the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco. Pirillo is such a big Star Wars fan that he named his daughter "Jedi."

Disney expects its consumer products revenues to double at $7 billion in the next few years from this year's $4.75 billion.

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