Home

[davewasbaloo]

Forza United, Alan, and Riebi, spot on. Disneyland was designed as a park the whole family could enjoy (in fact one that specifically parents could enjoy as much as their kids). Not a toon or synergy park. In fact, a lot of the ideas for the TV show used to advertise the park were drawn from the designs of the park themselves. This is why I hate modern Disney and the toon lovers, they are ruining it for the rest of us - management, fans, it really annoys the hell out of me.

[ed-uk]

But the whole family could enjoy The Lion King Show, Tarzan show, Mulan show, Fantillusion, the Disney Parade, The Stitch Encounter, Peter Pans Flight, Buzz Lightyear. As well as Pirates of the Caribbean and The Mark Twain river boat. I'm  not sure about TOT and Rock n Roller Coaster though, for the whole family. Can't imagine my mother riding them anyway.

[DutchBrit]

The people you should target would be the people, who would really enjoy a day at Disney (due to themening, top class attractions and entertainment, etc.) but is in danger of being drawn towards other parks. These people need to be drawn to Disneyland by marketing and these people are not the "Disney Families" and not the "obsessive fans" - they are the childless couples, the elderly and the families who do not count as "Disney Families".

Whereas I would say that aiming at these people is a complete waste of money. Because if they would indeed really enjoy a day at Disney, they would go anyway. Place has been open for nearly 20 years: how many people do you think don't know it's there? And amongst these groups you would have a much higher number of people who simply would NOT "really enjoy at day at Disney". People who like theme parks go to them, people who don't only go when their kids want to go....

Also marketing are not aiming at the day visitor. It's the several days in Disney hotels that they want people to do. And you can't deny that the hotels are set-up specifically for families: families of 4 to be precise.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Whereas I would say that aiming at these people is a complete waste of money. Because if they would indeed really enjoy a day at Disney, they would go anyway. Place has been open for nearly 20 years: how many people do you think don't know it's there?

Using that logic, you shouldn't really do your marketing towards the Disney families either, because they would know it was there too. So we could actually take the entire marketing budget and use it on entertainment or new attractions?

No, of course not - you have to use marketing and often you would in fact want to attract new audiences in order to open new markets. Each day I'm working with marketing and not once have we sat down and said: "this is our main group, so let's give up on everybody else and only produce stuff for this little group." No we always say: "This is our main group and we need to address that and please, but we MUST keep looking for ways to attract new groups of people - that is the only way can get a better product and earn more."

So in short it would not be a waste of money to aim your marketing towards more than just one group. It would in fact be the most obvious thing to do in order to improve your product as well as increasing your revenue.

[DutchBrit]

Using that logic, you shouldn't really do your marketing towards the Disney families either, because they would know it was there too.

Ah, but there you are showing happy children and saying "Look, happy children. Don't you want to make your children happy...?" And you are showing the ads during childrens TV hours so the kids say "Ooooh, lets go there!!!" Very good subjects for adverts, kids.

[DLP-Photos.com]

Using that logic, you shouldn't really do your marketing towards the Disney families either, because they would know it was there too.

Ah, but there you are showing happy children and saying "Look, happy children. Don't you want to make your children happy...?" And you are showing the ads during childrens TV hours so the kids say "Ooooh, lets go there!!!" Very good subjects for adverts, kids.

And you think that is satisfying for a Park of Disneyland's size, history and class to settle for that kind of marketing and nothing more?

[DutchBrit]

And you think that is satisfying for a Park of Disneyland's size, history and class to settle for that kind of marketing and nothing more?

I think a park of Disneyland's size, history and class know what works.

[lil-shawn]

Do they realy? I don´t know, if i just focus one one group, then lets say they don´t know anything.

If we look closer, during the recission, the only country not so bad in trouble and with peeps who did spend
a lot of money during those bad years was germany. no promotion for the park at all in this country. the same is going
on right now, the germans are spending so much money on vacations this year, so they do break theyre own record!
How is it possible, management is so stupid and don´t recognice this? All what they do is promoting in countrys, with
more troubles and peeps who may cant make a vacation there.

Next i have to say is during the big Space Mountain promotion and also during the Studios Park promotion, more german/austrian ect. visitors came, and why? because they had a lot of TV adds ect. What happen on the 15th or with the
themed years, TOT, TSPL, Captain EO return ect ect ect.? no promotion in this part of europe at all. and then they realy wonder why nobody is coming from there!!
Sorry i don´t buy this anymore and i don´t believe they realy know what works!!!

[DLP-Photos.com]

And you think that is satisfying for a Park of Disneyland's size, history and class to settle for that kind of marketing and nothing more?

I think a park of Disneyland's size, history and class know what works.

I sense we're getting back to the question about level of ambition and I see no point in discussing this here too as we will not agree...

[Riebi]

After sleeping a night over the question I would be interested in their idea of the "disney family". It seems to be a very silly definition: 4 people, a dad (masculine), a mum (female), child one in the age of 5, child two in the age of 7. (Better if one of the children is black, asian or else and adopted from a far far but poor poor land)

So I think the disney family is a poor definition. What´s about a disney family of an old gramps, his son (dad), mum of course (married with dad), son (18 + ), his boyfriend (19), girl (16), her boyfriend (24).

Does the normal life exist for their marketing campain or are they just always saying that "kids under 7 are freeeeee".

The disney family or their definition of a disney family is for me a very very poor picture of life.

Disneyland was never a place for such a stereotype disney family. It was a place for EVERYONE of every age to have fun. To escape. I normaly don´t make  comparisons with other disney parks (cause that was the factor of beeing disapoint of disneyland anaheim for me) but if we take a look to the other parks we see that they have several target groups. They have old people with their senior events, they have teens with their gratuate parties they have something for everybody.

To have a picture of a stereotype disney family isn´t something that works in 2011 cause there aren´t much disney families out there. Marketing or advertising means that you have to free your mind. Maybe they should start.

[lil-shawn]

I totally argee with you riebi.
Don´t realy get it why they think so, in my eyes the marketing dep. isn´t worth of its name...

Maybe there is a Mutant kid with brain control and this kid is so evil because she got upset with DLP and now use the
marketing to make this place suck on the adverts xD I didn´t think Marvels Charakters could be so bad LOOL

[CafeFantasia]

I have a few questions about that EBC - DLP07_96 video myself. I don't know anything about marketing, so perhaps someone can answer these for me.

First things first, does that lady in the video control ALL of Disneyland Paris' marketing, or just their marketing within the UK? I imagine the answer is just within the UK.

Is the aim of Disneyland Paris' marketing to maintain current attendance levels, or to push them even higher? I would hope the answer is, to push them higher.

Is the aim of Disneyland Paris' marketing to simply get back repeat visitors, or to get new visitors that've never been before? I would hope the answer is both, get back all the people that came last year, and attract new people too.

Does Disneyland Paris have an attendance problem? I thought the problem was that they had a lot of debt to pay off, not that there weren't enough people visiting.

In the video Gill says:

"A lot of children travelling to Disneyland Paris tend to be between 3 and 15, and our consumers say they want their children to be old enough to appreciate it, but young enough to appreciate the Disney brand".

So, is she saying that children over the age of 15 don't appreciate the Disney brand? Is the Disney brand only for children 15 and under? So if you're 16 and up, does that make you too old to appreciate TRON: Legacy, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tangled and Ratatouille?

[lorrig]

I think no matter how good the marketing is, once people actually look at the costs involved with a visit to DLP it puts people off. A 1st time family, couple etc might be attracted by the advertising but once they look at how expensive it is once you include transport, hotel - especially a disney hotel - and food, it can put them off. If you live in say Scotland and have to pay for flights or an extremely long drive to the South of England you could probably afford a beach holiday.
For most people a DLP holiday is an extra not the main holiday of the year, so its a lot of money for people who are not sure if they'll enjoy it, even with the offers which just reduce it from extremely expensive to very expensive.
We are that 'Disney Family' and we just cant justify the cost every year and we are high earning profesionals. Even when we do visit we stay at a non disney hotel as we wouldn't stay in anything below a 4 star hotel.
Maybe they should use some of the marketing budget on reducing the cost of a holiday to dlp.

[samuelvictor]

I agree with most of the points above. But perhaps I can see their logic.

I'd venture a bet that out of the whole cost of someone's holiday, on average Disney makes maybe 10% max out of the Park tickets themselves. They perhaps even make a loss, if you were to only include income from the ticket sales. This is why they are so keen to find ways to reduce their price, or even give them away (extra free days, annual passes etc) to get more people into the park, so they can profit from them in other ways.

The majority of holiday makers are going to be on a budget, and to those from anywhere other than Paris itself, it's going to be an expensive trip. For the first trip at least, it's likely they'll get a package deal on a budget hotel. It's a safe bet also that Disney makes little to no money from people paying for rooms at Santa Fe, Cheyenne etc. Of course, those staying at the Disneyland Hotel will make Disney a far higher profit per head, but this is a tiny percentage of the people who actually go.

So where do they make their money? Food, and Merchandise! (obvious really, same with all parks that don't charge specific prices for rides/shows. Infact it's the same for Cinemas, theatres, funfairs, school fetes etc).

Again coming back to the "average" tourist, who are already thinking it's an "expensive" holiday - They aren't going to want to spend too much on food, with a high percentage not using any of the restaurants in a bid to save money.

However! A family who are deeply entrenched with Disney culture and the "magic" of it all, are FAR FAR more likely to want to have a character breakfast or meal. I'd guess the Cafe Mickey Breakfasts and Princess Dinner have a very high profit ratio. That's not to mention how much more likely they are to want to go for special (read "more expensive") occasions such as Halloween or Christmas.

Those same families are of course, also likely to buy far more Disney related merchandise, souvenirs etc, and even come back the next year to "collect" more pins, plushes, books, whatever. Finally, only those with Disney obsessed kids & parents are likely to spend that much more on the Disneyland Hotel.

My guess (and of course it's only a guess) is that a "Disney" family will make Disney 10 times the profit per head of a family simply coming to try the roller-coasters and watch the shows. And of course, families with kids spend more. a LOT more.

The last thing Disney would want is for the park to be full of single adults or couples with no interest in Disney but who want a cheap holiday in France near to Paris with some cool roller-coasters. Only selling reduced tickets, budget hotels, no food and no merchandise, they'd go bust in weeks. And of course, there is only so many people Disney can legally and safely fit in the parks at once, and ideally they only want to be half full, to maximise the amount spent in restaurants and shops, and the likelihood those guests will want to come back next time.  :thumbs:

However, I completely agree that the brochures, adverts etc hardly sell the parks to someone who doesn't already want to go. I've lost count of teh amount of people who, after seeing our photos, videos and hearing us talk about our holidays, have gone out and booked a trip. The brochures don't even have the park maps and lists of rides, shows and attractions! They might as well just have some Disney clip-art and say "come visit, it's good, honestly!"  :?  :oops: