Equestria Girls? · 1:38am Feb 13th, 2013
For the sake of this blog post, I'm assuming that "rumor" over there on EQD is indeed accurate.
So... A spinoff show with humanized ponies? My first impression is that this sounds like the most stupid idea possible. It doesn't offend me, though, if they want to try it. I mean, Hasbro/Hub produce new shows all the time that mean nothing to me, so why not just file this one in the same category?
I feel sorry for Hasbro, though. They've got to realize they are sitting on a gold mine with MLP FiM, but they have absolutely no clue about why it's loved, or how to keep it going, or how to capitalize on it. They don't understand the fans, and therefore will -- inadvertently, unintentionally -- keep doing one damn fool thing after another to alienate us. If they weren't doing this crazy stupid thing with Equestria Girls, they'd be doing some other crazy stupid thing. They're flailing about helplessly.
The comic book guys at IDW get it. They get what makes FiM great, and they get the fans, and they are part of our culture. The Hasbro guys aren't, and there's no way to change them.
MLP FiM as we know it isn't going to last forever. Hasbro will eventually dilute and taint the brand until it lays down and dies. They aren't trying to kill it. They're trying to keep it alive and build it up, but they have absolutely no idea how. So, all I can suggest is that we enjoy the ride (and particularly the comics) while it lasts, and keep the fond memories alive after it's gone.
The worst part is that it's corporate policy and legal necessity for Hasbro to have nothing to do with the peripheral fandom. They can't involve themselves with brony culture.
Still, would it kill them to hire a consultant? Organize a focus group?
That's right; they don't understand the fans. However, Hasbro doesn't want to understand the fans. They don't care about the fans.
Hear me out...
Hasbro knows their target audience for the franchise: girls between 6 and 12. Whatever they do with MLP is going to be in the interests of the parents of that target audience. Remember, the franchise's raison d'être is to bilk as much money as possible out of the parents of little girls. This unexpected deviant demographic calling itself "bronies" is just the sprinkles on their cake's icing.
Cakes can still be very tasty without sprinkles.
Hasbro has never taken the suggestions of the bronies into consideration when planning major canon direction. The interests of the bronies and the interests of the little girls' parents are not one and the same. Also, the actions of a few bronies kind of ruined the reputation and possible standing of the whole fandom with Hasbro during the "Derpygate" fiasco.
Hasbro neither wants nor needs the bronies. Therefore, they will never care if their actions with MLPFIM are popular with us.
821989
I never heard of this. Why not?
823629 Legal reasons, the intricacies of which admittedly escape me.
822015
On the one hand, I think you've given a good explanation for Hasbro's viewpoint and what they are thinking. On the other hand, they are idiots for thinking that. They are carrying on with their original business plan despite the potential for something much greater. Handled right, FiM could be a franchise with a long future, worming its way through geekdom and into popular culture, something like Star Trek. (And let's not forget, Star Trek almost met the same fate when TV execs tried to cancel it after the first pilot episode. It wasn't the "Wagon Train in Space" they'd asked for. They understood westerns, not all this outer spacey stuff.)
To use your analogy... The fandom isn't like unexpected sprinkles on your cupcake. It's more like you ordered a cupcake and you somehow received a cupcake and a big chocolate layer cake. Now Hasbro are looking at this chocolate layer cake and scratching their heads and saying, "What is this thing? I didn't order this. I wonder if it's tasty? I have no idea how to eat this. I wonder if I can turn it into a cupcake? I understand cupcakes."
And the frustrating thing is, you can't order up this kind of layer cake on demand. Hasbro can always create another formulaic show for young girls, they do that sort of thing all the time. If they mess up FiM, they can't just shrug and make another one. It's not that easy.
823777
Supposing someone persuaded them to give the green light to fan productions like Fighting is Magic, provided that it has a paywall or something similar, Hasbro get a portion of the commercial profits, and the company also get some means of testing the potential financial performance with some kind of lower-budget promotional material? Essentially give them the business version of "Let's collaborate. If it works, you win. If it doesn't, you don't lose." It's not like a business couldn't be persuaded to take a slice of the cake or send it back, as A) they get a financial opening for plugging the franchise with a bit of entrepreneur's initiative (always a good thing to have in a business), and B) they've still got their cupcake to fall back on if it turns out to be a bad cake.
I speak from inexperience, however, not being well-acquainted with the workings of business.
823777
The most respectable survey results I've seen was in Newsweek, citing a University of Massachusetts study that suggested the global "brony" movement (i.e., adult fans of the show) numbered no more than about 100,000. Unless you add a couple zeroes to that number in the United States alone (and proportionally worldwide), the bronies are not a tiered layer cake. They're like the dab of frosting that Twilight left on her baker's dozen. 
I think you're greatly overestimating both the size and potential influence of the bronies.
823789
Actually, they wouldn't still have their cupcake to fall back on. Engaging the bronies and letting their collective opinion sway FIM marketing and canon would be like the free tiered cake comes with a condition. "You can try it, and it might be really, really good. But, if you do try it, then you can't eat the cupcake."
See, the desires of the bronies and the desires of the parents of (most) little girls are diametrically opposed to one another. The bronies want to see adventure. The girls' parents want to see what they think little girls should like: pretty princesses, ponies, tea parties, etc.. The bronies want character development and story continuity. The parents want one-shots that will keep their ankle-biters satiated for another half-hour.
But why does Hasbro need to choose between one or the other? Because it all comes down to money. The parents control a much, much bigger slice of the monetary pie than the bronies (mostly 20s and 30s males) could ever possibly hope to. If Hasbro followed the suggestions of bronies, they risk alienating the parents... and their huge pot of potential revenue. They can't afford to wait the 20 years it would require for a brony-ized FIM to worm its way into pop culture and for the bronies to equal the parents in terms of disposable income. They'd try the layer cake, discover that it's really just a few crumbs inside a cardboard cutout, and then they'd try to return to the cupcake only to discover that the waiter's taken it back to the kitchen.
825204
OK, I have two answers to this. First, here's one article I was looking at: Hasbro is Sitting on a Potential Gold Mine
So, there's quite a discrepancy when one source is saying 100,000 fans and another is saying millions. (And didn't the comic book sell 100,000 copies of its first issue?) I also noticed the Wall Street Journal reported Hasbro's overall sales fell 7% last year -- but their "girls division" which includes MLP had an increase of 10%. Well, maybe little girls really are going crazy for the ponies, I dunno... but I can't help doubting that's what's really driving these numbers.
The other thing I have to ask is, how many Trekkies were there in 1968 when NBC cancelled the original Star Trek series? Obviously the management didn't see its potential at the time -- or if any of them did, they were at a loss for how to harness it.
825393
Yeah, I saw that Google survey a while ago and dismissed it almost immediately. The problem is twofold. First, you can't get a representative sample of the entire, TV-watching global population from 1000 respondents in 24 hours. Secondly, the fact that the survey was on Google means that the data will be greatly skewed toward the positive, since the brony demographic tends to be more tech-savvy than the general population.
I think the UMass study, while still not as statistically "pure" as I'd like, is much more realistic. That study conducted surveys over a 1 year period using telephone, Internet, in-person, and case-study interviews. I don't remember the exact number, but they had a respondent pool of over 5,000, if I remember correctly.