Brasil disneyized? sim? não?

Brasil disneyized? sim? não? – Disneyized Brazil? Yes? No?

Disneyization is portrayed as a globalising force. In other words, the principles with which it is associated are gradually spreading throughout the globe – Bryman, 2004

In my opinion, the sporting world today has been relatively evident in reflecting characteristics of Disneyization. Like what the Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, David Stern, once stated:

“They [Disney] have theme parks and we have theme parks. Only we call them arenas. They have characters: Mickey Mouse, Goofy. Our characters are named Magic and Michael [Jordan], etc”

This statement is able to sum up the situation of the sporting world today. And in the context of Brazil, the world of football has also been moving towards disneyization. In the past, football is considered a favourite leisure activity for the Brazilian amongst other sports and they love their football. But when World Cup and League football are brought into the equation, things change. The followings are my explanation on why I deemed Brazilian soccer as reflecting characteristics of Disneyization.

(1) Theming

According to Bryman, theming involves the establishing of brand coherence and consistency across different environment. Theming is a requirement in professional sports. In the case of Brazil football, the national team and the domestic league clubs and their team names can be used as the theme to sell product whether being at the stadium, watching the game on television or purchasing sports apparels in store. Usage of these themes would allow the local clubs to be successful and be popular amongst fans both local and abroad, which would affect their revenue generated from merchandise sales.

(2) Hybrid Consumption (Dedifferentiation of Consumption)

According to Bryman, hybrid consumption is general trend whereby the forms of consumption become interlocked with each other and increasingly difficult to distinguish. This is true as owners of club stadiums are aware that majority of their revenue comes from the sales on the concourse instead of gate receipts alone. The main objective of clubs today is to attract people to purchase a ticket to enter the stadium to watch the game. This is because, from this point onwards, there are plenty of ways that a customer is able to spend his or her money at the stadium, whether for parking fee, F&B from the concession stands or purchasing merchandises of the team. Thus, there’s a gradual blurring of the distinction between shopping and stadiums. In the words of Bill Dawson, the mall developer of the MetroCentre:

“The more needs you fulfil, the longer people stay”

Thus stadiums in Brazil no longer provides stands for customers to watch the game only, they have included a lot more facilities and amenities within and around the stadium to meet the needs of the customers to entice them to spend more and thus making the revenue of the club higher.

(3) Merchandising

According to Bryman, merchandising refers to the promotion of goods in the form of or bearing copyright images and logos, including such products made under licence. In today sporting world, clubs merchandises their product, ranging from team jerseys, to bobble head dolls, to drinking mugs with the team logos smacked onto it. The list is ever growing and clubs are constantly-thinking of ways to merchandise their club products to both the local Brazilian market and the overseas markets. Through merchandising, clubs are able to generate vast amount of revenue.

(4) Emotional Labour

According to Bryman, emotional labour is the act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions, which directly attempts to influence the emotional state of the customer, and, indirectly, their attitude towards the product. This may also be considered as customer service. In the context of Brazil football, the players are the employees of the club and are instructed to reach out to the community and build friendly rapport with the fans, who are the customers. Mascots of the clubs are also in the stadium during games to create a pleasant vibe in the park. The more famous the player is in the club, the higher the celebrity status and pulling power he has to attract more customers to pay to watch him play. And when more customers pay the entrance fee to watch him play, the stronger the characteristic of hybrid consumption is.

Source:

Disneyization of Society