PardonMyFrench: Travel

It's A Small World After All, It's A Small World After All. Oh sorry, I was still thinking about my Disney Vacation and I can't get that song out of my head.

A couple of days back I wrote about my Top 5 Marketing Tips I Learned While on My Disney Vacation and presented tips 1 and 2. So, Mouseketeers, here are tips 3-5.

Tip #3: Too Much of A Good Thing Can Be Bad, Correct?

Have you booked a trip to Disney since they revamped their Dining Plan? It is a work of art when it comes to pricing a bundle. It works so well, that most people can't figure out whether it is a good deal or not; plus it is non stop eating which is great for kids, but maybe not so good for the metabolism challenged.

As the person that worked on the pricing of AT&T's Personal Network bundle, I was very impressed with Disney's version. Here's how it works: for adults it costs $37 per night and $11 per child and you get one snack (ice cream, soda), one counter (soda, sandwich, dessert), and one sit down meal (app, entree, dessert, soda) per day. Plus, you can use them pretty much anywhere. While, I think it was a great deal for us, other people were very confused.

Why is that a brilliant pricing of a bundle? You really can't figure out what you would have paid without it because who knows if you would have eaten at the restaurant to begin with. Plus, when you get a receipt, Disney itemizes the cost you would have paid without it; therefore it looks like you saved a bundle. Meanwhile, you have to assume that Disney is either 1) making a small profit on the bundle or 2) pushing through more average revenue per person. Therefore, you have a bundle that most people should save money on, most people should feel happy about, and Disney makes some money. It is a brilliant version of bundle pricing. The only thing I could say is wrong with it is - ENOUGH OF PUSHING DESSERT AT EVERY MEAL.

Tip #4: Cross Sell Every Chance You Get

Almost every major ride leads you into a gift shop at Disney, the includes Peter Pan, Pooh, Star Tours, and even their newest ride Expedition Everest. You basically can't get off a ride that you enjoyed without buying some cool toy or t-shirt; if you don't want to spend a money, by all means leave your kids at HOME. Plus, even the pin trading is unavoidable for adults. Add on top Disney's Magical Express and you are cross sold from the second you walk off the plane up until you touchdown in your home airport.

Disney has clearly mastered the cross sell strategy which eludes most marketers. Marketers typically suffer from either a not-invented-here mentality or they are organized via silos which put up cross sell walls. Companies really should pay more attention to this model, because even a non-intrusive cross sell on their own website could benefit the much larger organization.

Tip #5: When The Standby Looks Long, Do Something Else

Day after day, I was amazed with how many people would walk right up to the stand-by line for a major attraction like Splash Mountain and wait 80 minutes. Like lambs to the slaughter they continued in line without even thinking twice about using a Fast Pass on the major ride and doing anything else but wait for 80 minutes.

Finally towards the end of the week, I just had to ask one of the lambs and a perfect opportunity presented itself when my son and I were getting off of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

A father turned to his son and said "OK, lets go over to Splash Mountain". Figuring I could save them some time and curious to see how the lambs think, I said to him "You know the wait is over an hour. Why don't you Fast Pass it?" He replied, "Fast Pass what's that? Oh, never mind, let's get in line." A Disney Cast Member over heard and rolled her eyes. I asked her why do people stand in such long lines and she said, because either they don't know about Fast Pass or are not very logical.

So, how does this relate to business and marketing? Simple, when you are trying to solve a problem or come up with a new idea and you are spending hour after hour with no success, try changing direction and come up with a new plan of attack or ask a co-worker for help. By trying a new approach, you never know what new idea or strategy may turn up. That's also how I developed a retention marketing campaign for online advertising, but that's for another post.

That's it from the F-State. Yo. Ho-Ho, It's A PardonMyFrench Life For Me,

Eric

Well Mary, the kids, and I are back from our nine day vacation at Walt Disney World and we had a great time. While we were gone, this site had a lot of visitors on Wednesday, which I thought was a little odd because I had not posted since the Friday before we left. Hmmm - I hope this doesn't mean that I'm better off not posting! Anyway, what did I learn about marketing the Disney way - a lot. So, without wasting more of your time, between this post and the next, I will present to you - fellow Mouseketeers, the Top 5 Marketing Tips I Learned While on My Vacation.

Tip #1: Everyone is Special, but Nobody is Unique

The Disney folks are awesome at doing the little things to make everyone feel special - a little "Have a Magical Morning" or driving the extra mile to replace a broken ornament because someone forgot to pack it correctly when shipping it back to the hotel. However, once you go through the parks you realize that while they make you feel special, they MAKE EVERYONE feel special - not just you.

This was most apparent while we were waiting our turn to have our picture taken with Minnie Mouse. A little girl, who was not waiting in the long line, ran up to Minnie just as it was our turn. Now, I don't mind the child running up, but the parents were oogling over how cute she was - like she was the only child being cute around Minnie. There are a million people at once trying to do exactly the same things as you are doing. On a rare occasion, do you get to experience something truly special and unique.

Why is this tip important from a business perspective? In order to stand out in the business world, you must take chances so that there is a REAL reason for you to standout; otherwise you are just part of a sea of sameness.

Tip #2: The World Moves At Its Own Speed, It Is Your Job to Catch Up

Have you ever been on vacation in Disney? The first thing you learn is that you have a real simple tradeoff - money or time. If you want to go to a special event, ride a particular ride, you need to allocate enough time or money to get you their sooner. Yes the Disney Bus System is consistent - sort of like betting on the same AT&T customers paying their non-discounted phone service year after year, but you move at their speed which mean a few more stops.

If you want to get there sooner, you need to spend money on a cab or rental car - basically, pay money to move faster than the rest of the people or plan enough time to get to your spot.

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What does this mean to you? The World moves at its own pace, so in order to keep up with it you need to keep a pulse on the latest trends, keep yourself current on events, co-mingle with people outside your industry, and keep yourself marketable to the "outside world" - and don't forget to run with the big dogs you have to get off the porch.

That's enough for today. Tune back tomorrow or Tuesday when I run through tips 3-5. PardonMyFrench,

Eric

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