IAAPA Institute for Attractions Managers Operations and Safety

IAAPA Institute for Attractions Managers Operations and Safety Revenue Operations Marketing Finance Leadership

Story first, business second, product third! European Attraction Show Attraction Managers Program Amsterdam, September 22 th 2014 Marketing a Themepark: Story first, Business second, product third! (The Story is always leading!) A PRESENTATION BY Reinoud van Assendelft de Coningh

It always starts with a great idea…. !

The biggest mistake in the business!! (Investment total project / amortisation) + operational costs = X Revenu per guest (entrance fee+ f&b+ merchandising + various) = Y X / Y = visitor number……….

Feasibility Study!

Feasability Study: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Trends and consequences for the market Concept Analysis and benchmark analysis Site Analysis Demand analysis (inhabitant market, Tourist Market. Consumer market/ B 2 B market, individual market/ group market) primary catchment area, secondary catchment area, market penetration Competition Analysis Visitor projection Planning Guidelines (visitor flow) Business plan with worst case, base case and best case scenario.

Salvador Anton Clavé, Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Vila-Seca, Spain.

Professor Stephen Wanhill : Emeritus Professor of Tourism Research & Director of Global Tourism Solutions Nottingham University Business School Bournemouth University, UK

Park X

LDP, Leisure Development Partners • Michael Collins • Yael Coifman

BENCHMARKS

IAAPA Benchmark

Market Potential

Catchment Area

Catchment Area Zone (driving time) A: 0 -30 min. B: 31 -60 min. C: 61 -120 min. D: 121 -180 min. • Inhabitant Potential • Tourists • Groups (school, special interest) • Age structure • Purchasing Power

“Rule of thumb” for the catchment area of touristic attractions: • There is a general rule and benchmark saying that people accept half of the expected dwell time in the attraction as driving time. For instance: If people know that they can spend at least 3 hours in the attraction, they are – on an average – willing to drive 1, 5 hours at maximum. • Penetrations rates are determined by the following factors (among others): - Attractiveness of the facility - Size, dimension of the facility / the exhibition - Amount of investment - Price performance ratio - Competition situation in the catchment area - Intensity of marketing - Operating professionally • The market penetration decreases with increasing distances. • The willingness to travel to an attraction is for tourists (from their holiday destination) lower than the willingness of the domestic visitors. © FUTOUR WENZEL Consulting Gmb. H

Average spending per visitor

Discounting !!? ? Entertainment Value per hour • Football game • Movie • Musical/theatre • Theme park

Pricing

Work to do: The ‘why-question’(5 minutes) Mintel Research august 2013: Theme park visitation on decline! Teens 12 -17 years: 2008 76 % 2012 67 % Reasons: ? ? Adults : Steady on 22 -23 % 55+ : 23 %

The best memories People, places and objects are as interesting as the story they tell! If you take away the memory, what is left ?

The fairy tale of ‘the red shoes’. . . or: ‘What is it that we are actually selling ? ’

Show business sure is business, Otherwise we would have called it show! Woody Allen

Why do we need marketing? CHOOSE THE RIGHT WORDS: ‘The power of words’!

Joe Pine & James Gilmore: The Experience Economy The story and the emotion behind the product!

The Experience Economy van de economie position Transformation Experiences Services Products Commodities PRICE

So……, we are selling : ‘Stories behind products that create emotions of memorable experiences’ In fact, we are reselling people’s own best youth memories

What ís marketing anyway? Taking a product To the market

Marketing: an expensive word for easy questions: Horse Sense: • What? • How? • For who? • By whom? • When? • Where? • For how much? Marketingmix: • Product • Positioning • Public • Staff • Promotion • Place • Price

What is marketing? 1. Answering to those easy questions of the marketing-mix 2. Being passionate about our story, business and product 3. Being alert to every chance and challenge that comes along.

Marketing • Mission • Vision • Strategy

The Future Trends and developments Predicting is always difficult, especially when it’s about the future!

De Crisis: New soberness is HOT ! “Don’t tell me what’s new, tell me what’s never turned old !” • • • Saving instead of taking loans Hybrid instead of SUV Spend your holidays in your own country (and thus a daytrip to a park…. ) Sustainability instead of luxury Fairtrade and regional products Second hand shops flourish Postpone your buying to sales period Environmentally and socially responsable business Absolute transparancy. Lying, hiding and cheating is no longer possible (Wiki. Leaks)

Joe Pine: What Customers really want. Customers want Transformations If you ask money for tangible things : Products or commodity's If you ask money for the time spent with you/ your product: Experiences If you ask money for the outcome of what you offer your cutomer/guest: Transformation What can I do, what can my company do, my product do, to make you, visitor, guest, client, more happy?

Authenticiteit en transformatie naar: ‘Geluk’ INSPIRATION NATION In the small Himalayan country of Bhutan, economic wealth is based on Gross National Happiness rather then Gross National Product.

Identity and Image

Identity Hotel xxxxx is a small hotel at xxxxx, a beautiful little town in the heart of region xxxx. You start every day well with a generous breakfast and in the entire hotel you can use free Wi-Fi! The hotel has well-kept rooms with private facilities. The breakfast buffet includes various kinds of fresh bread, fruit, yogurt and delicious delicacies

Image Review: 13 december 2011 I was here for a conference. It's a small hotel. The staff really tries to make something out of it. The total ambiance is nice, but the rooms are very basic and old. My room was located in the basement, see picture. It was one of the most unpleasant rooms I ever stayed in, a very small window, which could not open, old furniture and equipment. I have never been in prison, but these rooms could fit in that idea

Quality

Always ask yourself What are the 5 key-words that our product is based upon? What are the 3 most important things that people (customers) will tell about our product? (Chip Conley, founder Joie de Vivre hotels USA) ‘TOP OF MIND AWARENESS’

There is (you create) a great quality product Start advertising your product Product becomes a ‘brand’ The market takes over : ‘Lovemark’

The market takes over: Lovemarks ! of storytelling

Lovemarks!

The marketing responsabilities (the output) • Research : Market research, trends and customer research (to measure is to know) • Pricing and chanelling : rack rate, yield management, group discounts, online sales, upseling, price/quality balance • Sales: set and realise targets in different target groups • PR: Press, promotion(teams), events, guest relations, publications, specials. • Social media strategy/ online strategy • Data base management and digitalising • Brand management & design • Advertising But: ‘The days that it was your job to buy media on a nice budget are over!’ (David Ogilvy: the 50% rule…. . no longer excists!)

Ten things you want to know from your marketing manager: 1. Who are our audiences/ potential visitors? Target groups, target area, demography, spending capacity, tourists 2. What do they want? What do they expect from us? See, hear, experience, attractions? Entertainment? 3. What is our price-elacticity? What is our price stategy? What is our channelling stategy? 4. Who are our competitors? Why? In what league are we playing? 5. What are our competitors doing? New attractions? Pricing? Discounting? Joint Promotions? Advertising? Flyers?

Ten things you want to know from your marketing manager: 6. What are our competitors spending? 7. Target group segmentation? 8. Visitor planning throughout the year, holidays, special days for special target groups 9. What if anything goes wrong? (crisis-communication) 10. Measuring is knowing 11. What is our campaign?

The full stack marketeer • • • • • Is a natural leader Has good skills in mathematics and knows how to use them Has a great sence for trends and guest demands Is Is a good and down-to-earth researcher Is a top consultant to his CEO Can produce a flyer using Photoshop Reads Google Analytics and undertakes conclusions Knows how to use programs to increase the number of clicks at a website Meticulous designs a social media strategy Is a good writer Speaks the modern languages Knows the laws of contentmarketing Has PR-skills and contacts at the media Has basic skills in HTML, CSS and Javascript Is a social person and a great motivator to the team Knows and is able to organize events Is always focussed on increasing the conversion (changing visitors into buying customers) • Colaborates closely with customer-service

Tools for the full stack marketeer Social Media: Hootsuite. com (Dutch) Sproutsocial. com Twitter: Buffer to schedule content & analytics: bufferapp. com Analyse Twitter-followers: followerwonk. com Analyse hashtags & terms: tweetbinder. com Productivity: Trello. com Gantt-chart. com E-mail: Fining people’s profile: rapportive. com Improve your writing skills: writerkata. com Presentations: Giving presentations and getting real feedback: presentain. com For surveys: surveymonkey. com

Famous Failures Hard Rock Myrtle Beach (US): 2008: 4 months of opening (-/- $ 400 mio. ) Space Park Bremen (Germany): 2004: 6 months of opening ( -/- € 500 mio. ) Mystery Park (Switzerland): 2003 – 2006: (-/- 53, 5 mio)

Hard Rock Myrtle Beach: 4 months of opening ! $ 400 mio down the drain!

DUBAILAND Universal Studios Dubai

Walt Disney: “If you can dream it, you can build it” Story first, business second, product third !’ Bob Rogers: “People like to collect memories rather than things”

Our campaign • • What is our story? What do we want to achieve? What is going to happen around us? Who are our competitors? In what League? Can we beat them? If not: Guerilla-marketing! What is our strategy? What will be our campaign? What is our story?

I am in. . .

Honey

Thanks for your attention! Twitter: @rvanassendelft