Disney's fabulous,credit card guaranteed to extend the magic

[freediverdude]

I don't know if this is true or not, but another thing I was thinking about the attendance drop, is that WDW has become so huge, with so many theme parks, and water parks, and shopping and dining venues, and on and on it goes, with umpteen million different ticket options and packages and everything, that even contemplating a WDW trip for a lot of families just seems overwhelming once they start to look into it. WDW is something, that if you don't know very much about it, becomes a major investment in not only money, but major time planning something like that. In comparison, some of the other parks seem much simpler to just book a nearby hotel and visit that park, with much simpler ticket decisions. Not that I think the other parks really compare to Disney in certain ways, but I think to the general public, sometimes it seems simpler and less expensive to visit one of these other places, and not have to take around a week off with major expense and planning to visit someplace like WDW. It may seem simpler to a lot of people to just pick up and spend a long weekend at Universal or the Busch parks. You would have to know Disney pretty well to be able to take a short weekend trip there and get much out of it I think. I'm wondering with maybe more uncertain times, people are getting less willing to commit to a longer, more involved and expensive vacation. If this IS the case, I'm not sure how Disney would get around this, except maybe trying to advertise the different resort/theme park areas of Disney as separate smaller vacations or something. Something like a promotion for "Hey, spend 2 nights at an Epcot area resort, and visit both Epcot and Disney Studios, with special 3 day ticket!" or something like that. Or maybe Disney thinks they are better off sticking to pushing the week-long vacations, thinking it will get better, which it might, who knows.

 

[raidermatt]

Again, their main concern is the bottom line. Why does everyone seem so surprised by this?

Nobody is surprised by this. What IS surprising is how some fail to consider the possibility that there is more to analyzing these types of programs than just figureing what the bottom line impact will be this quarter or this year.

A classic example was cutting EE. It immediately had a positve impact to the bottom line. Those who were already booked and paid still came, and Disney saved on operational costs.

Great move, right? After all, we can see that Disney is concerned with the bottom line, right?

Oops.

Disney didn't think very many guests would decide not to stay on-site just because EE went away. But they were very wrong. Bookings suffered, which had a carry-down effect to attendance.

Now, you may think that the elimination of DC will have no such impact, and you maybe right. But those who disagree are not forgetting about the bottom line, they just think the long toerm impact to the bottom line will be something other than what you expect.

 

[YoHo]

Will somebody PLEASE confirm for me whether The Disney Club card is gone or not. Half the posters here say its gonna stay and half of them are saying its gone. Somebody quote me a legitimate source saying its gone RIGHT NOW. Otherwise half of the complaints here are baseless.

And just to Clarify, MKC was gotten for free if you worked for a Disney partner company. MKC Gold cards were paid for and had significantly better discounts and value.

IF The Disney CLub card is still kicking around, then The Disney Visa becomes not so big a deal especially if you can stack rewards with Discounts and cheaper DC vacations with 6 Month's no interest etc.

 

[hopemax]

http://disneyclub.disney.go.com/images/TourImages/faq.html

 

[YoHo]

Thankyou, now let the anger continue.

 

[disneychrista]

Disney Club is still alive but barely breathing. Time of Death expected Dec 31, 2003, 11:59:59pm

 

[DancingBear]

A few points:

--The statement was made earlier that MKC started as a benefit for loyal fans. My understandings was that MKC was started as a promotional program offered through major employers. Since it was free to those company's employees, the program was not directed to loyal fans. The publicly available pay membership option was, I believe (and I was such a paid member), a secondary use for the program.

--Comparisons to the AMEX program are meaningless. The AMEX deal expired. Who knows what happened in the negotiations between Disney and AMEX.

--A disproportionate number of DIS Board members were Disney Club members, but in my experience helping friends plan WDW trips, the program was not well-known. I am sure that the Visa will be more widely distributed and promoted.

--Doing away with the Disney Club, and enticing those loyal members over to the Visa, had to be part of the Visa program negotiations. It would be very attractive for Bank One to get immediate access to these loyal customers, and Bank One wouldn't want some competing program out there diluting the strength of the Visa program.

--It seems to me that Disney has been taking many, many steps to overhaul its marketing efforts for WDW---codes, postcards, come-back rates, getting all of your info when you call CRO, etc. Undoubtedly there will be some missteps, and some decisions will prove wrong (EE), but I wouldn't assume that all of these issues aren't being considered by the powers that be.

 

[BeautyLLM]

When was EE eliminated?

 

[DancingBear]

EE was eliminated sometime after 9/11 (I believe around the end of 2001) and renamed (Magic Hour) and restored in Fall 2002.

 

[raidermatt]

Comparisons to the AMEX program are meaningless. The AMEX deal expired. Who knows what happened in the negotiations between Disney and AMEX.

They are not meaningless to a customer.

The AMEX deal expired because Disney chose another route, taking a deal they liked better.

Doing away with the Disney Club, and enticing those loyal members over to the Visa, had to be part of the Visa program negotiations. It would be very attractive for Bank One to get immediate access to these loyal customers, and Bank One wouldn't want some competing program out there diluting the strength of the Visa program.

If the DC was such a small group of customers, as you stated previously, this should have been of little concern.

Further, if there is value in loyal customers, is there not a significant risk in taking a program they enjoy away from them? And replacing it with something many of them will not qualify for?

It seems to me that Disney has been taking many, many steps to overhaul its marketing efforts for WDW---codes, postcards, come-back rates, getting all of your info when you call CRO, etc. Undoubtedly there will be some missteps, and some decisions will prove wrong (EE), but I wouldn't assume that all of these issues aren't being considered by the powers that be.

Nothing wrong with marketing efforts, but the problem comes when the value of something as significant to guest purchase decisions as EE is so blatantly mis-judged, and seen only as part of a marketing overhaul.

It does not prove the Disney Visa deal is a bad move overall, but it does bring into serious question Disney's overall understanding of their guests needs and wants (the importance of which is the first thing taught in most "Intro to Marketing" courses).

 

[KNWVIKING]

"Second, I don't by into Mgmt's line that WDW is bad solely because the ecomony is down. If that were true, then other parks would be suffering as well, but Universal is up as are other parks. That line is simply more Mgmt finger-pointing. The economy is down, 9/11 happened, but other parks are up, why not Disney?"

IMO, people go to Central Florida because of WDW. The economy,war,terror,etc has absolutely affected travel, especially air and international. IOA/US offer a great product,on a much smaller scale. It offers a great addition to a WDW trip, especially to travels that make frequent WDW trips. I don't believe the increase at IOA is due to people forgoing a WDW trip,but rather adding an IOA trip to a WDW trip. In other words, less people are traveling to Central florida/WDW because of recent events, but more of those that do go are adding a visit to IOA/US.