This article shares information about the time the Walt Disney Company raised Disney-MGM Studios ticket prices to deliver what the customers expected.
Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner and his team had a problem. A local downtown Orlando complex, Church Street Station was pulling a large segment of Disney customers—Disney calls them guests—off Walt Disney World property in the evenings. To the Mouse managers, Church Street Station represented revenue lost.
Disney had, in fairness, no one else to blame. When Walt Disney World was with a theme park (The Magic Kingdom), golf courses and other recreation facilities. Half-day and after hours experiences were not built in sufficient numbers.
Eisner’s task was to make the Walt Disney Company so strong it could no longer be a takeover target. Additional sources of revenue were a integral part of that strategy.
The Mouse managers began a fast track building campaign that resulted in Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Pleasure Island and The BoardWalk.
Another major initiative was the building of the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park (now called Disney’s Hollywood Studios). This park was designed as a half-day experience. It was placed on a plot of land bordering two roads and a conservation area.
All was proceeding as planned until they began surveying guests about the soon-to-open theme park. What guests told the Mouse managers was a surprise. Guests said that they expected a Disney theme park to be a full-day experience. They also said that they would assume that a half-day theme park, with a half-day price, would not be up to Disney standards. But the most damaging guest comments indicated that the guest would not visit a half-day experience.
Here were the Disney managers, looking at the real potential for failure of this new, and expensive venture. They then did the only sensible thing they could. They gave the guests what they expected.
Disney-MGM Studios was repositioned as a full-day experience and the admission price was raised to match the price of visiting the Magic Kingdom and Epcot.
Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened to shoulder-to-shoulder crowds and complaints about the lack of things to do. Disney quickly adjusted the park, adding more facilities and attractions.
But the remnants of the half-day/full-day switch remain. The park layout is confusing, the parking lot is a chaotic mess and the landlocked problem remains.
Nevertheless, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a success. It succeeded because Mouse managers were willing and able to adjust their own expectations to match what the guests wanted.
What about your business? Your personal life? Do you give your customers, friends and family what they expect? Or, do you insist they accept what you think they should get?
The latter strategy invites failure. The former creates success.
Comments