The Business Strategy That Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Marvel
In 1996, Stan Lee was in trouble.
Being in charge of Marvel Comics for almost 60 years, the company was then facing bankruptcy. The firm had to lay off 33% of its staff, the stock dropped from $33.75 to $2.38 and what’s worse, it had to sell off almost all of its comic characters for quick cash. The company was stripped to its bones.
In 2008, Kevin Feige, the creative director of Marvel, made a turning point decision: with little cash left, the company made a bold move and opened a film studio. And the rest was history…
Marvel Entertainment is one of the most successful companies in the 21st century to this day. With household names like Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, … whether you’re a Marvel fan or not, you’ve probably heard of these names at least a dozen times, coming from your friends, family, and your kids. Movies like Endgame, and all the Avengers movies have risen to the peak of our cultural phenomenon, reaching the highest status of modern cinema and the entertainment industry. Indeed, when we talk about pop culture, Marvel is the very definition of it.
I have been researching Marvel for some time, and what I’ve found is a common pattern in the company’s business success.
This post will explore the brilliant organizational strategy behind Marvel Entertainment — Content Atomization
By the end of the post, you will soon realize that these strategies that have helped with Marvel’s success can be used with any business model in every context. Meaning you can apply these concepts too.
What Is Content Atomization
What if I told you that Avengers: Endgame was released in 1991?
Thanos, the big bad villain, is on the quest for decimating half the universe. He seeks to find the 6 Infinity Stones to do that. Villain’s on the quest and must be stopped. Here come the superheroes. They team-up. Defeat the villain. Got the Stones. Saved the Universe. The end.
That was the story of Marvel Comics’ Infinity Gauntlet storyline. In 2008, Kevin Feige decided to bring the same story idea to the big screens, spanning the whole cinematic universe and through an astounding 23 movies.
Albeit different details and minor adjustments to the plotline between comics and movies, Marvel capitalized on every possible medium and product channel, expressing the same story idea in many different formats and ways.
And it worked.
This is the strategy of Content Atomization, coined by Todd Defren. Content Atomization is a marketing strategy of translating one content idea into multiple content types, multiple ways of telling the same story. The aim is by diversifying your channels and communication formats, you will popularize your story and reach all possible audiences and groups.
Take anti-drug campaigns. When I was a student in Australia, I would often see several messages warning students not to engage in illegal alcohol abuse. It was a simple message. What’s interesting was to reach all students, the school decided to translate the story into multiple newspaper articles, make a school podcast, reformat it into a YouTube video, a webinar series, a live session, several teachers’ roundtable interviews, and even an interactive game.
Let’s go back to Marvel. We can see that by expressing the same story idea into multiple content types, Marvel is able to generate every possible revenue stream.
In the past, Marvel originally relied on 1 revenue stream — comic books. Now, by Content Atomization, it had expanded its comic stories into 4 separate value propositions, targeted at different market segments:
With 1 storyline, Marvel now atomized it into:
- Books (comics & novels), targeting readers.
- Toys & paraphernalia, targeting children & hobby collectors.
- Licensing, targeting retailers (merch, posters, video games, theme parks)
- Movies, targeting families.
The result? Marvel quadrupled its revenue compared to 1996 and now earns profit from all segments.
Content Atomization also allowed Marvel to cross-sell and “revitalize” all its offerings. For example, by opening up Marvel Studios, Marvel movies converted its big-screen audience to its comic book library. Vice versa, Marvel’s comic book fanatics are also becoming loyal movie fans. Why? Because they are curious how the story will pan out differently on a different content type.
What This Means For Your Business
Atomize your offering. See how you can translate your content into different types to better reach your customers and open up new revenue streams.
Content Atomization is about translating your story to different mediums. Can you tell 1 business story in 10 different ways?
Sources:
- Harvard Business Review: Marvel’s Blockbuster Machine — How the studio balances continuity and renewal (Spencer Harrison, Arne Carlsen, Miha Skerlavaj)
- Epic Content Marketing (2014), Joe Pulizzi, p.216–262
