The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a media franchise that has created a shared storytelling
universe through a series of 27 films (as of March 2022) with collective box office revenue of $25.687
billion

Global cultural impact

Primary audience: YA

Context

Narrative market dominance

To increase market penetration, businesses
strategize to assimilate their audiences (Key et al. 2021) . Businesses are now increasingly taking stances on socio-political and cultural issues and choosing to alienate a particular audience segment – 'brand activism' (Kotler and Sarkar, 2017)

Rhodes (2021) asks whether corporations merely align themselves to politically correct positions for virtue
signalling and profiteering or if there really is the possibility of inculcating progressive politics

Context

Emerging literature: brand activism from a bird’s eye view, without delving into specificities of businesses, 

Narrative market: Story as product

The story is not only told, but also sold – thereby creating a need to study them through the lens of deeper structures to determine the ethics of these products/stories and their implications on business ethics.

Context

Dominant: 'The Avengers' Effect' - setting the trend for ‘mega franchises’ for other Hollywood studios, including DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers (WB) Pictures (DC Universe: 2013-Current), 20th Century Fox (X-
Men Universe: 2014-2020) and Sony Pictures (Spider-Man Universe: 2015-2021).

'Balancing Act' - New audience vs comic book fans

MCU's Position

Ethics of Told: focuses on characters and events. It relates to inquiry about the ethical dimensions of a character’s actions, conflicts that they face, and the choices that they make about them.

Ethics of Telling focuses on text internal matters including implied audience and narrators. It relates to inquiry about the ethical responsibilities of the
storyteller(s).

Lens of Narrative Ethics

A narrative hermeneutic ethics (Meretoja 2017) approach suggests that narratives have the potential to be both oppressive and empowering, thus necessitating the need to analyze their ethical potential.

The significance of narrative imagination is both ethical and cognitive (Martha Craven Nussbaum 2010; Djikic et al. 2009; Hakemulder 2000; Kidd, Ongis, and
Castano 2016) , rendering it as a means of resistance to anti-democratic tendencies.

Lens of Narrative Ethics

The emergence of a new audience who are more
invested in socio-political and cultural habitus 12 (Bourdieu 1977) , thereby claiming narrative agency and
expressing narrative expectation that challenges existing norms

Lens of Narrative Ethics

The  ‘verstehen’ method (Dilthey, 1969): To understand, to interpret. Focusing on subjective interpretation of meaning through analysis of textual data (Myers, 2009).

Principle of Compositionality (Szabo, 2013): The meaning of a complex expression is supposed to be fully determined by its structure and the meanings of its constituents. Semantic value of MCU = Sum total of semantic value of its constituents

The nexus of meaning (Dilthey, 1969; Scholz, 2012) in this case is re-constructed by the storytellers against the background of Marvel and the comic book medium’s history

Methods

The  ‘verstehen’ method (Dilthey, 1969): To understand, to interpret. Focusing on subjective interpretation of meaning through analysis of textual data (Myers, 2009).

Principle of Compositionality (Szabo, 2013): The meaning of a complex expression is supposed to be fully determined by its structure and the meanings of its constituents. Semantic value of MCU = Sum total of semantic value of its constituents

The nexus of meaning (Dilthey, 1969; Scholz, 2012) in this case is re-constructed by the storytellers against the background of Marvel and the comic book medium’s history

Methods

Ethics of Told: The recurrent tropes of death and resurrection in the MCU resonate with a heroic theology. The heroes must sacrifice themselves to reach their full potential. This quasi-Christo-mimetic sacrifice is one that has universal cultural resonance.

Ethics of Telling: Global Monomyth, local heroes

Race, Gender and Politics: 

The case of misrepresentation (Cap AM); misremembering (Black Widow)

Analysing MCU

Problematizes the concept of how the story is told: erasure can never be ethical, and how do we read representation if a popular franchise misremembers history by politically correct representations?

The ethics of told: The positive implication on profit making is the assurance of a minimum audience base. However, when it abides by the narrative ethics of the told, it runs the risk of upsetting a newer audience.

Contribution

Problematizes the concept of how the story is told: erasure can never be ethical, and how do we read representation if a popular franchise misremembers history by politically correct representations?

The ethics of told: The positive implication on profit making is the assurance of a minimum audience base. However, when it abides by the narrative ethics of the told, it runs the risk of upsetting a newer audience.

Contribution

Choice of sanitizing a narrative – through erasures, re-rememberings and mis-rememberings – to ensure that the narrative is palatable to the audience. This often means erasure of tropes that may be problematic in current contexts.

Thus, if a business adopts this strand of narrative ethics despite clear constraints, it becomes a robust test of their commitment to business ethics and setting industry norms.

Contribution

Need to inflect business ethics with narrative ethics

Proliferation of storytelling market: Need for narrative ethics to widen understanding of business ethics

It may be used to check whether a business is employing narrative ethics solely for the purpose of profit, or if they are willing to risk profit for cultural influence and re-setting of industry norms. This concept of ‘ethics for profit’ is evident when a business only uses narrative ethics to cater to the narrative demands of a market and recalibrates their storytelling strategy.

Contribution

Reading a case through the lens of hermeneutics, narrative codes and argumentation methods

Problem solving - use well established narrative tropes to read through the text and not get trapped by it

Are case questions always the real deal? Or are they proverbial red herrings in a business thriller?

Most case study analyses require a prediction

The Case Method

Identify issues and symptoms in a case study: Through narrative clues - what do characters say, what do they do, what do numbers tell you in a case? 

Often, the teacher/author is trying to direct your attention somewhere - doubt, doubt, doubt! Beware of red herrings. The culprit in a failed business may not necessarily be a villain (Mandarin, anyone?)

Distinguish symptoms from issues

Signifying...nothing?

Create a cause and effect timeline for Marvel

What is the nexus of meaning for the Marvel business? Trade cards/Comic books/Toys/Movies/Marvel Culture - Or is it something else?

Finding the nexus of meaning is essential to understanding a business problem

Possibilities of Blue Ocean - where Marvel could have ventured. Why didn't Marvel become a Disney?

Nexus of Meaning

Thrillers employ narrative codes and coupons (also called plot devices) that keep your interest alive: deus ex machina, red herring, Cliffhangers, Chekov's gun, MacGuffin etc. And so do cases. 

Narrative Codes: HER, ACT, SEM, SYM and REF 

Identifying codes and coupons in a narrative can help you decode it more efficiently and employing them strengthens your arguments

Narrative Codes

Who is to blame for Marvel's bankruptcy?

How did Marvel recover?

What is the future of Marvel?

Case Questions

Identify and create a timeline of the business case/problem

This helps identify issues and differentiate them from symptoms

Also helps to identify plot devices used to throw you off the track. Read and re-read the case

Go back and forth between the given timeline and reorder it

The Sacred Timeline

Where does the Marvel Case begin? 

1939, 1954, 1961, 1968, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2015, 2021 and beyond

All cases will not give a clear timeline - you need to construct the timeline in order to identify the proairetic code of the business (ACT) - Cause and Effect

Go back in time to analyze the symptoms/issues - and formulate alternative strategy. Does your business solution have a multiverse?

The Sacred Timeline

Applying the Proairetic Code (ACT)

1989 - Perelman purchases Marvel (Cause)

Raiders - value extraction: took the company public, IPO, junk bonds for acquisitions (trading cards), raised comic book prices, no high quality talent, one distributor for Marvel comics, focus on money

Effect: No appreciation of creative, loss of internal culture, employees demotivated, laid off, fans boycott Marvel, comic book shops closed, bankruptcy

ACT Upon It

Applying the Proairetic Code (ACT)

1989 - Perelman purchases Marvel (Cause)

No focus on semantic/symbolic value of the Marvel business, no understanding of comic book culture, IPs

Effect: Even though the business went okay for a while, it was never going to do well long term.

Marvel as a MacGuffin or Marvel as Chekov's Gun? Contesting codes in a complex business narrative. 

What narrative was Perelman selling his customers?

ACT Upon It

Applying the Proairetic Code (ACT)

Multiple choices for any business. How to go forward?

Path 1: Argument 1 (Evidence), Argument 2 (Evidence) etc.

Path 2: Argument 1 (Evidence), Argument 2 (Evidence) etc.

Paths are anticipated outcomes for a situation

Perlmutter and Arad: Paths?

Peter Cuneo: Paths?

ACT Upon It

Cause and Effect: The superhero movie

Red Ocean 

Value/Cost trade-off at the core of value innovation

What are the key change moments in the Marvel business?

Anagnorisis - Recognition: Crucial moment in interpretation of a business problem

ACT Upon It

Cause and Effect for Perelman:

Invested $10 million, extracted $300 million profit :)

Judge McKelvie ruled that profit taking was 'unseemly' but not illegal. 

Value extraction vs value innovation

Check net worth of value extractors and value innovators

ACT Upon It

ACT code helps decode the causality of a business decision

Proairetic interpretation (in a nexus context) is critical to identifying underlying motivations of case characters, thereby gleaning evidence for anticipating outcomes.

Crucial to formulating different scenarios and subsequent arguments in support of those scenarios

Important to understand ACT in order to persuade - the notion of precedence. Historicity. 

ACT Upon It

HER: Hermeneutic Code: Anticipation, Snare

Predicting possible outcomes

Timeline gives us the historicity (not history) of the business (history + teleology + temporality + historiography)

Thus, understanding the timeline is unpacking the nexus of meaning

Blue Ocean Strategy: To innovate business spaces - how?

The HERo's Journey

Uncontested market space: True/False

Attract non-consumers: True/False

Create and capture new demand: True/False

Differentiation and low cost: True/False

Check above in the light of Marvel Timeline

Stan Lee/Ditko/Kirby - Perelman - Perlmutter

The HERo's Journey

Plot devices in the blue ocean: Peripeteia

Recent examples of HER in the market: 

Future of Twitter, Marvel video games, future of Zoom, 2024 Elections etc.

Red Ocean to Blue Ocean - the journey of a business in time. Competitive strategy vs Blue Ocean strategy

Value innovation through unpacking the nexus of meaning

The HERo's Journey

Codes essential to value innovation in blue ocean strategy

For Marvel: Creating a cinematic universe (employing cliffhanger, Easter eggs - a thread running through)

However, segmenting their content for different media (strategic narrative decision to cater to specific audience semantics)

TV, Movies - Using SEM and REF specifically for STP

SEM/SYM/REF

Indispensable to businesses today. Environment rife with REF. Go back to Senate Committee regulation - any modern day parallel?

Keeping up with REF is crucial to any business argument. Context of cancel culture. Environment of communication has undergone a radical shift

SEM of contemporary superhero movies. 

Marvel going against the grain of Hollywood studios - understanding SEM to balance value/cost trade-off

SEM/SYM/REF

ERRC Actions: Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create

How to arrive at the conclusion of what to ERRC? Strategic canvas created through understanding contemporary codes. 

What did Marvel ERRC?

Is ERRC based on Deontic Logic? What is the logic of the market where some superhero movies fail and some do well?

SEM/SYM/REF

SYM in the Marvel case:

Perelman/ Perlmutter

Marvel Culture/Cadence Culture

Feinberg/Cuneo

Trading Cards/Movies

Hollywood Studios/Marvel Studios

Others?

SEM/SYM/REF

Basics of a winning narrative

The Marvel value innovation argument

Parallels/Future prospects (example: The Light Phone)

The importance of IP

Issues of culture (of organization, product, consumer)

Creating a profitable universe

SEM/SYM/REF