Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[JimboJones123]

I totally agree. I'm lucky if I buy a t-shirt each trip anymore. Even they have gotten a bit cheap. My kids on the other hand...well lets just say they might have a shopping problem (its genetic from my wife's side).

The stores always seem packed with plenty of people buying plenty of stuff so I guess it's our own fault (by our I mean the collective millions that visit, not me and you)

I spotted no less than 9 versions of stuffed Perry today. 9.

That is just silly.

 

[JimboJones123]

I totally agree. I'm lucky if I buy a t-shirt each trip anymore. Even they have gotten a bit cheap. My kids on the other hand...well lets just say they might have a shopping problem (its genetic from my wife's side).

The stores always seem packed with plenty of people buying plenty of stuff so I guess it's our own fault (by our I mean the collective millions that visit, not me and you)

I also used to get the Hockey jerseys.

 

[GoofGoof]

I spotted no less than 9 versions of stuffed Perry today. 9.

That is just silly.

We have a stuffed Perry. Don't tell my kids there is more than 1 version

 

[nytimez]

I totally agree. I'm lucky if I buy a t-shirt each trip anymore. Even they have gotten a bit cheap. My kids on the other hand...well lets just say they might have a shopping problem (its genetic from my wife's side).

The stores always seem packed with plenty of people buying plenty of stuff so I guess it's our own fault (by our I mean the collective millions that visit, not me and you)

They used to make space for both the lowest common denominator crap and the unique stuff that at least some of us want. Also, the t-shirts didn't use to be so butt ugly (and thin).

But, all these things lost out once they began to judge sales based on revenue per square foot alone.

 

[GoofGoof]

They used to make space for both the lowest common denominator crap and the unique stuff that at least some of us want. Also, the t-shirts didn't use to be so butt ugly (and thin).

But, all these things lost out once they began to judge sales based on revenue per square foot alone.

Yep. I noticed the thin shirts. I have a WDW t-shirt from over 10 years ago that I still wear. The one I got last year is hurting already. Revenue per square foot is an unfortunate concept. A contributing factor in the death of PI too.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Teens and college students cannot be a very valuable market. As a group, they lack a significant amount of disposable income. The misconception though is that this group needs rides and thrills, and that just is not true. Enchanted Tales with Belle being a dark ride could have been just as alienating if it was aimed at only pleasing young children (vicarious enjoyment by parents does not count and should be excluded from Disney's parks). It's about tone, heart and respect for the audience as capable of thought and feeling.

If that's the case, then why do my friends and I regularly go to Hershey Park? And the movies? And why am I going in January with another friend, as my father did before me? With his disposable income? We do have disposable income as most of us are in fact working or are still receiving partial support from Mom and Dad. Just because we don't necessarily have as much as the adults do doesn't mean we don't put some aside to go have fun. Especially since they have the second largest college in the country RIGHT THERE they should be marketing partially to college students. And if they do in fact market to college students and teens, they increase their customer equity, which means more money in the long run. It doesn't necessarily have to be thrill rides (though there is a reason we go to Hershey and King's Dominion and not Dutch Wonderland) but it should have more teen appeal than a meet and greet. I do not expect any of my friends to even consider doing the Belle's Enchanted Tales thingy, but I can guarantee you they'd consider a dark ride

 

[flynnibus]

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about....

Hashtags come from twitter. Hashtags in twitter was not a feature of twitter. Hashtags were a usability concept homegrown by the userbase to add a common element to tweets of similar purpose. The behavior grew out of the users - not the company. But the company embraced the behavior of the users and rolled support for hashtag trending into the product itself, and embraced the behavior.

 

[lazyboy97o]

If that's the case, then why do my friends and I regularly go to Hershey Park? And the movies? And why am I going in January with another friend, as my father did before me? With his disposable income? We do have disposable income as most of us are in fact working or are still receiving partial support from Mom and Dad. Just because we don't necessarily have as much as the adults do doesn't mean we don't put some aside to go have fun. Especially since they have the second largest college in the country RIGHT THERE they should be marketing partially to college students. And if they do in fact market to college students and teens, they increase their customer equity, which means more money in the long run. It doesn't necessarily have to be thrill rides (though there is a reason we go to Hershey and King's Dominion and not Dutch Wonderland) but it should have more teen appeal than a meet and greet. I do not expect any of my friends to even consider doing the Belle's Enchanted Tales thingy, but I can guarantee you they'd consider a dark ride

It does not matter what you and your friends do, as a group teens and young adults do not have the levels of disposable income that make them an attractive base to cater. Overly specific catering can also alienate other groups with more disposable income. It is far better to aim at adults and let that attract the teens and young adults who are interested. "Teen appeal" is a fruitless niche that bears no fruit.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

It does not matter what you and your friends do, as a group teens and young adults do not have the levels of disposable income that make them an attractive base to cater. Overly specific catering can also alienate other groups with more disposable income. It is far better to aim at adults and let that attract the teens and young adults who are interested. "Teen appeal" is a fruitless niche that bears no fruit.

What does make them an attractive base is that later teens will have the disposable income to bring their families which brings in future value. That's a fairly basic marketing concept known as customer equity. And like I said, by appealing to UCF students who do buy season tickets to some of the parks (I applied there and got to know a few students who said yes, they frequent the parks) it makes sense to at least try to appeal to that market

 

[nytimez]

It does not matter what you and your friends do, as a group teens and young adults do not have the levels of disposable income that make them an attractive base to cater. Overly specific catering can also alienate other groups with more disposable income. It is far better to aim at adults and let that attract the teens and young adults who are interested. "Teen appeal" is a fruitless niche that bears no fruit.

I like many of your posts but this is absolutely untrue. I don't have the exact figures in front of me, but teens represent something like a quarter of a TRILLION dollars in disposable income. They are a very attractive market, highly sought after and a lot of money is spent on direct marketing to teens to get that money.

Many teens - especially older teens (16+) - work part-time jobs... many get allowance... many simply ask their parents for money and get it. However they get it, they get it - and virtually none of them save, and they have pretty much no bills.

It's ALL disposable.

 

[Kuhio]

Also, the t-shirts didn't use to be so butt ugly (and thin).

Yep. I noticed the thin shirts. I have a WDW t-shirt from over 10 years ago that I still wear. The one I got last year is hurting already.

Not only are most of the T-shirts now so flimsy they start coming apart after a few washes, but they're also increasingly falling into the deliberately "pre-distressed" category.

It was kind of cool the first few times Disney made a shirt with a pre-faded design -- like the faux vintage Mr. Toad shirt a number of years ago. But the novelty quickly wore off when Disney started introducing more and more pre-distressed shirts, ostensibly to pander to a growing desire for "retro" merchandise from certain segments of the fanbase. On my last visit, I noticed that a surprisingly large percentage of shirts featured a faded or distressed look, even when the subject matter (usually of a more contemporary nature) didn't warrant the treatment.

Of course, another "benefit" to selling pre-distressed shirts is the fact that it tends to obscure the generally poor quality of the shirts' material -- it's less obvious that a shirt is falling apart after just a few months' wear when the printing on the shirt was, by design, visibly cracked or faded to begin with.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I spotted no less than 9 versions of stuffed Perry today. 9.

That is just silly.

I didn't count them but there is close to that in our Disney Store in the Mall.

 

[flynnibus]

What does make them an attractive base is that later teens will have the disposable income to bring their families which brings in future value. That's a fairly basic marketing concept known as customer equity. And like I said, by appealing to UCF students who do buy season tickets to some of the parks (I applied there and got to know a few students who said yes, they frequent the parks) it makes sense to at least try to appeal to that market

You're overlooking the underlying point that some customers are more valuable than others. You can't always be everything to everyone... so if you have to pick... which do you pick? The customers who spend $30.. or the customers who spend $300?

Teens and young adults do spend. But do they spend like the traveling family? So which represents the best return for you?

WDW's customer base is biased towards the traveler... why alienate that high spending customers to be in favor of a smaller, less spending, local teen base?

If you want to see how you apply to both a bit better.. you look at DLR. DLR has a huge customer base of teens and young adults with APs. There, DLR is something people grew up with. DLR has a lot of offerings aimed at that market, from the dance parties in TL, to Glow with the show, etc. The difference is the size of the customer base, growing up with the product vs a migrated population, etc. DLR has a huge customer base to pull from... Orlando is a fraction of the same.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Yep. I noticed the thin shirts. I have a WDW t-shirt from over 10 years ago that I still wear. The one I got last year is hurting already. Revenue per square foot is an unfortunate concept. A contributing factor in the death of PI too.

Since I am usually offsite when I go to WDW, I go to Walmart to buy Disney T's there about one third the price and I have found them to be much better quality. I know, they weren't right in WDW but they still commemorate the trip and my wallet feels a lot better. Besides, most of them are gifts for my grandkids and they don't know and I'm not telling them.

 

[JenniferS]

They used to make space for both the lowest common denominator crap and the unique stuff that at least some of us want. Also, the t-shirts didn't use to be so butt ugly (and thin).

I agree. The quality of the t-shirts has declined.
I bought my dad (who went by "King" instead of "Grandpa" - don't ask) and oldest son matching "It's great to be king" Mickey tees 8 years ago. When we took my parents with us to Disney the following year, my dad wore the shirt waaaaay more often than he should have. Over the next four years, the King shirt was worn regularly. When he got sick, it was one of the few shirts he could comfortably wear for the daily trips to radiation. When he died, it was the one thing of his that I wanted.
Now it hangs in my closet, in almost perfect condition, and I wear it on the anniversary of his passing, and on his birthday. I will be wearing it tomorrow, on what should have been his 66th birthday.
My dad had the greatest time @ Disney, and I treasure the memories of that trip.

 

[flynnibus]

Many teens - especially older teens (16+) - work part-time jobs... many get allowance... many simply ask their parents for money and get it. However they get it, they get it - and virtually none of them save, and they have pretty much no bills.

It's ALL disposable.

Teens have money.. but not as much. Teens are limited in their transportation... while adults/families are more able to travel.

Teens may spend all their money.. but all of $30 is still far less attractive to a company than 'most of $300'.

Remember the context here.. we're talking about a product you have to be local to or travel to to consume. lazyboy's point is.. when chosing which customer you prefer.. which do you prefer? The high spender or the people that have a very constrained budget?

It's the same as the classic 'frequent visitor vs vacationer'. It's about how much income they have and their willingness to let it go. Frequent visitors that can't or won't spend aren't very attractive.

 

[GoofGoof]

What does make them an attractive base is that later teens will have the disposable income to bring their families which brings in future value. That's a fairly basic marketing concept known as customer equity. And like I said, by appealing to UCF students who do buy season tickets to some of the parks (I applied there and got to know a few students who said yes, they frequent the parks) it makes sense to at least try to appeal to that market

The thing Disney has counted on and has been pretty successful at doing in the past is drawing those customers back in once they have kids. I can only tell you from personal experience that the things I liked to do as a teen and college age adult don't really influence what I do with my kids today. Most people in my group of friends have either brought their kids to WDW or plan to do so in the future. Not many of these people went to WDW as a teen or young adult like I did, but they are drawn back in because they want their kids to experience it. I'm not saying Disney couldn't make money by marketing to college students, but its definitely not the direction they are taking. The game plan appears to be marketing to families and foreigners. There's probably a slogan in there somewhere.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

The thing Disney has counted on and has been pretty successful at doing in the past is drawing those customers back in once they have kids. I can only tell you from personal experience that the things I liked to do as a teen and college age adult don't really influence what I do with my kids today. Most people in my group of friends have either brought their kids to WDW or plan to do so in the future. Not many of these people went to WDW as a teen or young adult like I did, but they are drawn back in because they want their kids to experience it. I'm not saying Disney couldn't make money by marketing to college students, but its definitely not the direction they are taking. The game plan appears to be marketing to families and foreigners. There's probably a slogan in there somewhere.

I think it would still be a good target group, but I can see both sides

 

[lazyboy97o]

What does make them an attractive base is that later teens will have the disposable income to bring their families which brings in future value. That's a fairly basic marketing concept known as customer equity. And like I said, by appealing to UCF students who do buy season tickets to some of the parks (I applied there and got to know a few students who said yes, they frequent the parks) it makes sense to at least try to appeal to that market

I like many of your posts but this is absolutely untrue. I don't have the exact figures in front of me, but teens represent something like a quarter of a TRILLION dollars in disposable income. They are a very attractive market, highly sought after and a lot of money is spent on direct marketing to teens to get that money.

Many teens - especially older teens (16+) - work part-time jobs... many get allowance... many simply ask their parents for money and get it. However they get it, they get it - and virtually none of them save, and they have pretty much no bills.

It's ALL disposable.

It's not whether they have it or not, it's whether they have it in levels that work for an operation like a theme park resort. You want Annual Passholders to be people who still spend a good bit on other items, otherwise they're a loss. This was part of Six Flags' problem, they lowered prices to attract more teens and young adults but they never spent money once there. For right or wrong, the increased presence of teens, as well as the increased focus on rides that appeal to that market, also alienated other groups with more disposable income that were also spending more money in the parks.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The thing Disney has counted on and has been pretty successful at doing in the past is drawing those customers back in once they have kids. I can only tell you from personal experience that the things I liked to do as a teen and college age adult don't really influence what I do with my kids today. Most people in my group of friends have either brought their kids to WDW or plan to do so in the future. Not many of these people went to WDW as a teen or young adult like I did, but they are drawn back in because they want their kids to experience it. I'm not saying Disney couldn't make money by marketing to college students, but its definitely not the direction they are taking. The game plan appears to be marketing to families and foreigners. There's probably a slogan in there somewhere.

This is a problem too in the way it is handled by Disney today. It's becoming more about parents having a vicarious enjoyment, and not their own enjoyment. It means they're being pushed aside once their kids grow up and they have even more disposable income.