Marketing Tips From Disney - Part 2

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

Comments

[Juno888]

Nice blog out there ..Keep it up..

[Disney vacation packages]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading about places to stay in Orlando. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

[house painter]

" 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. "

i guess it comes down to the age old saying " two heads are better than one "

gr8 blog bro