My family and I arrived back this week from a vacation to Disney World, but don’t fear: I won’t bore you with a travelogue. However, it’s a fascinating study to look at the business techniques Disney uses and maybe it could even help your business or at your job.
1. Prepaying makes life easier.
Forking over your hard-earned money for any good or service is not fun, and especially so when it’s the type of large bill that a resort and amusement park brings. So rather than start you off on a sour note by giving you a bill when you arrive, Disney has you prepay for your vacation and then the actual event is just a magical experience where you’re not thinking about the cost. And it erases the problem that nearly all business’s struggle with of collections.
2. Hit them at the right time.
Coming off nearly every ride is a gift shop. So you just had a great time with Winnie the Pooh and friends on their ride? Well, look here, there’s a stuffed Tigger — or make that 700 stuffed Tiggers — along with all of his friends. The kids are going to want it, and the parents might just be in a good enough mood to bite. That’s a sales technique for everyone; learn how to make the presentation at the time your customers are most likely to buy.
3. Infrastructure matters.
Walt Disney began looking for a second place for a theme park in the eastern United States in the early 1960s when he already had Disneyland in California. His criteria included cheap land and well-developed roads. The area outside Orlando where Disney ultimately located his park fit the criteria, in part because of the planned construction of Interstate 4 and the Florida Turnpike. This is more of a lesson for our legislators than our businesses, although the business community helps influence public policy. But investing in good roads leads to economic growth.
4. Clean is pleasant.
Anyone who has been to Disney World knows that it is immaculately clean. There is an army of workers carrying brooms and dust pans who scoop up garbage almost as soon as it hits the ground. That’s a lesson for us all: Everyone has the capability to have a clean business, and that makes a difference to customers.
5. Don’t cheap out on your product.
People wouldn’t keep coming back to the park if it didn’t stay up-to-date with new attractions. But building a new roller coaster, for example, comes with a huge capital cost, and it doesn’t directly increase revenue any; that is, you don’t pay any extra beyond the admission price to ride it. Yet Disney invested $2.1 billion in capital projects at its parks in 2015 alone. Those are the kinds of expenses that most businesses tend to put off. In the short term, that saves them money, but in the long term it gives people less and less reason to use their product. Investing in improving whatever it is you create or sell is good business.
6. Look for alternative revenue streams.
The main source of income for an amusement park is ticket sales. But Disney adds almost every imaginable additional way to bring in extra dollars for its stockholders. That includes obvious things like concessions and parking, but so much more. It built a huge network of hotels surrounding the park; it does cross promotions with other companies like Huggies, which sponsors Baby Care Centers where mothers can go to change diapers or nurse; it has photographers throughout the parks who will take your picture and send it to your account wirelessly for a fee. And Disney World itself is really an alternative revenue stream for a company that draws cartoons. If you have a mature business that is not in the growth stage of its core product, then growth often requires exploring ideas like these. Disney is a master of that business technique and so many others.
Charlie Smith is editor and publisher of The Columbian-Progress. Reach him at csmith@columbianprogress.com.
