Guest Test of Magic Bands (Official Notice)

[Robo]

Well...I'm feeling a bit bummed about the survey. While it DID ask me a few questions basically asking if I felt three FP+ was enough (I said no each time)...it only gave me the option to select one out of a limited number of responses and never allowed me to write any comments or concerns about my experience. It was all multiple choice. So, while I feel I was able to indicate that three FP+ was not enough...I don't feel like I was able to explain why. Kind of frustrated about that.

Flawed, incomplete survey questions yield flawed, incomplete survey results.

I'm of the mind that this whole "new system" was a result of flawed, incomplete survey Q&A.

"Would you favor being able to schedule your favorite attractions so that you would not have to wait in lines after entering the park?"

(Who would say "no" to that?)

 

[mom2rtk]

Flawed, incomplete survey questions yield flawed, incomplete survey results.

I'm of the mind that this whole "new system" was a result of flawed, incomplete survey Q&A.

"Would you favor being able to schedule your favorite attractions so that you would not have to wait in lines after entering the park?"

(Who would say "no" to that?)

Yep. Totally agree.

 

[squirrel4569]

Well...I'm feeling a bit bummed about the survey. While it DID ask me a few questions basically asking if I felt three FP+ was enough (I said no each time)...it only gave me the option to select one out of a limited number of responses and never allowed me to write any comments or concerns about my experience. It was all multiple choice. So, while I feel I was able to indicate that three FP+ was not enough...I don't feel like I was able to explain why. Kind of frustrated about that.

I'd email them in addition to the survey. Considering you were a tester they will probably call you and discuss it at length.

 

[doconeill]

Flawed, incomplete survey questions yield flawed, incomplete survey results.

I'm of the mind that this whole "new system" was a result of flawed, incomplete survey Q&A.

"Would you favor being able to schedule your favorite attractions so that you would not have to wait in lines after entering the park?"

(Who would say "no" to that?)

It isn't necessarily that it was incomplete...by restricting the answers to a rating system, they can feed it into a computer easily...and push a button to give the one-page "executive" version of the survey results, which more than likely looks a lot like this:

Still, they could have had some freeform feedback questions...unless they got enough of that from the focus groups.

 

[bcrook]

This is all very interesting: From that Bloomberg article...

"Thomas Staggs told Bloomberg that 1,000 people recently took place in a trial which led to increased spending. Staggs offered few details, but said the wristbands showed guests spent more than the average because they had fun with the technology."

Only a 1000 people tested?

People with the bands spent more than the average AKL visitor?
Do they know how much these guests spent in the past?

I wonder how they determined that they spent more because of the band and having fun with the technology.

 

[Robo]

This is all very interesting: From that Bloomberg article...

"Thomas Staggs told Bloomberg that 1,000 people recently took place in a trial which led to increased spending. Staggs offered few details, but said the wristbands showed guests spent more than the average because they had fun with the technology."

Only a 1000 people tested?

People with the bands spent more than the average AKL visitor?
Do they know how much these guests spent in the past?

I wonder how they determined that they spent more because of the band and having fun with the technology.

Shhhhh...

Maybe they can decide that they can "make back their money" (and save face) just by the use of the MagicBands,
and not HAVE TO fully bludgeon the FP system into FP+.

 

[bcrook]

Well...I'm feeling a bit bummed about the survey. While it DID ask me a few questions basically asking if I felt three FP+ was enough (I said no each time)...it only gave me the option to select one out of a limited number of responses and never allowed me to write any comments or concerns about my experience. It was all multiple choice. So, while I feel I was able to indicate that three FP+ was not enough...I don't feel like I was able to explain why. Kind of frustrated about that.

I think that the summary from Staggs shows that as long as spending goes up and the mymagic+/fastpass+ are "tolerable" for guests it will be a success.

I still haven't seen much that is sincere from Disney brass that this is really about making the park experience for guests. It will happen for some I know, but this isn't the goal. Nearly everything officially released is about increasing profits - very little information has been released about how it will make life better for everyone. All of those details we are left to speculate.

 

[WillAustin]

Do they know how much these guests spent in the past?

They must have an average number for AKL guest spending based on charges on KTTW cards.

They could also compare spending if a guest used their KTTW card for charging on a previous trip.

 

[andrewilley]

Flawed, incomplete survey questions yield flawed, incomplete survey results.

Quite. WDW surverys are very good at biasing guest responses in the direction that the researchers want to them go.

"Do you think this new process is A) Excellent, B) Very Good, C) Enjoyable, D) Worthwhile, E) Not Bad."

Loaded questions are never useful for anything other than loaded answers.

Andre

 

[bcrook]

Shhhhh...

Maybe they can decide that they can "make back their money" (and save face) just by the use of the MagicBands,
and not HAVE TO fully bludgeon the FP system into FP+.

I think they will be able to. They are going to increase spending simply by having the convenience of the band, generate hundreds of millions in band sales and accessories, and then mine the data for further direct advertising, they don't need FP+ as a carrot to get people to use it. I think everyone will use it for the "fun" and the interactive queues perks.

 

[pilferk]

They must have an average number for AKL guest spending based on charges on KTTW cards.

They could also compare spending if a guest used their KTTW card for charging on a previous trip.

I would offer it could very well be a false correlation, anyway.

It may not be the tech causing them to spend more. It could very well be other factors (decreased use of the dining plans, increased appeal of merchandise, increased acceptance of electronic forms of payment in certain areas, other economic factors particular to the group who are testing, etc...even something as simple as different weather patterns during the different comparison times).

Granted, we don't have their data. But simply comparing average spending of the test group to average spending by those NOT in the test group isn't really a valid comparison.

But I'm relatively sure that's what they're doing. I doubt they're setting up a similar sized, demoed, and econ equivalent control group to make those comparisons. At least not for the purposes of his statement in this article.

1000 people, even if completely randomly selected, is simply too small of a relative test group to think it's a poll-able sample size for something like this. For public opinion? Different story.

But spending habits are a little different.

What's also interesting is he says they "spent more"...but not how much more. 1%? 5%? 10%? How much is "more".

 

[pilferk]

I think they will be able to. They are going to increase spending simply by having the convenience of the band, generate hundreds of millions in band sales and accessories, and then mine the data for further direct advertising, they don't need FP+ as a carrot to get people to use it. I think everyone will use it for the "fun" and the interactive queues perks.

That's the other point:

How much of the increase is "band accessories"?

Because if it's a sizable portion...they're not like pins. You can "equip" pretty much a finite set of accessories on your band at any given time. The question then becomes..do the accessories generate long term revenue like pins (with people collecting the various themes and rotating) or are they one time purchases (and on future trips...they've bought their favorite theme on previous trips and just re-use them).

The answer is probably both...but how many, and what % of guests, fall into each category?

That trend is going to factor into the "spend more" equation, too. You might see a short term revenue jump...but then a flattening out longer term.

 

[WillAustin]

It may not be the tech causing them to spend more.

I don't think it's much of a stretch to imagine guest spending would increase, at least a little bit, with the "touch to pay" system.

I agree the correlation might not necessarily be there, but by making it physically easier to spend, in a lot of cases it will happen.

 

[patrickpiteo]

That's because they are already touting it as a success- it is making people spend more money...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...tml?cmpid=yhoo

Thank you, whatsarahsaid, for your updates during all of this- and for trying to get our voices heard.

Tom Staggs says MyMagic+ has boosted sales during test periods ..

Watch them push this out as fast as they can now more $$$$$$

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I posted essentially this in the other post about the Bloomberg article, but since we're discussing it here, too...

Thinking about this...they didn't say that they spent more in comparison to an AKL guest, just that they spent "more". More than who? The average Disney guest? Of course, they only test at a Deluxe resort. I would assume that generally people who are willing to spend 4 times as much on a Deluxe room than a Value probably have more disposable income than people who go to Disney and stay at Values (there will be exceptions, but I'm talking generally here), or stay offsite. So you're testing on a more affluent group who likely spends more than the average guest anyway. It's a self-fullfilling prophecy when you only test your more affluent guests and then compare their spending to the entire universe of Disney guests. of that's what they did.

The fact is no matter what, after making this huge deal out of the Magic Bands, they HAVE to call it a success, otherwise they just spent $1B for nothing and wasted shareholder moeny. They will spin in the media until the cows come home, and if they're only talking to reporters who accept the spoonfeeding, we're never going to see anything public that talks about this negatively.

 

[bwang123]

My feeling is that it's more of a backend data throughput issue. When I was last there (President's Week) I mostly could find a fairly decent signal, but there just wasn't enough data capacity

Andre

wifi is shared bandwidth, so you trying to use disney apps while 4 people are trying to watch netflix will bog everything down. your signal will look good though. unfortunately, this is a limitation that currently exists with wireless technology.

 

[pilferk]

I don't think it's much of a stretch to imagine guest spending would increase, at least a little bit, with the "touch to pay" system.

I agree the correlation might not necessarily be there, but by making it physically easier to spend, in a lot of cases it will happen.

Logic would dictate the above to be true. Convenience has typically yielded such increases in other places. I'm not sure (again, not having seen the data) what kind of increase there is here, though. Swipe a card and sign vs tap a band and input a pin. There's some, sure. And the "newness" of the tech, itself, probably lends itself to a "wow" factor. My wholly unfounded opinion is that, yes, you'd probably see some marginal increase in guest spending.

The difference is: We're assuming, opining, and supposing. Not commenting for an article in a respected business publication. That's sort of where I take issue.

Because logic and spending don't always go hand in hand. That's consumerism at it's simplest, actually.

The issue is one of presentation, to me. His statement, all things considered, doesn't pass the sniff test in term of data analysis. Because I would be surprised if they were doing the kind of actual analysis required to prop up that statement. To do it, they'd need a control test group of similar demos, numbers, and econ factors to do it, who were touring at exactly the same time.

I suspect they are, at best, comparing to overall average guest spending at the resort the guests are staying at (and maybe...MAYBE..using similar time frames as basis points).

 

[andrewilley]

they didn't say that they spent more in comparison to an AKL guest, just that they spent "more". More than who? The average Disney guest?

The testers probably spent more on MagicBand accessories than the non-testers did. QED.

In short, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Andre

 

[pilferk]

I posted essentially this in the other post about the Bloomberg article, but since we're discussing it here, too...

Thinking about this...they didn't say that they spent more in comparison to an AKL guest, just that they spent "more". More than who? The average Disney guest? Of course, they only test at a Deluxe resort. I would assume that generally people who are willing to spend 4 times as much on a Deluxe room than a Value probably have more disposable income than people who go to Disney and stay at Values (there will be exceptions, but I'm talking generally here), or stay offsite. So you're testing on a more affluent group who likely spends more than the average guest anyway. It's a self-fullfilling prophecy when you only test your more affluent guests and then compare their spending to the entire universe of Disney guests. of that's what they did.

The fact is no matter what, after making this huge deal out of the Magic Bands, they HAVE to call it a success, otherwise they just spent $1B for nothing and wasted shareholder moeny. They will spin in the media until the cows come home, and if they're only talking to reporters who accept the spoonfeeding, we're never going to see anything public that talks about this negatively.

Even if they narrow down by resort and similar time frame, there are going to be differences.

The Contemp, for example, hosts a lot of conventioneers. I have no earthly idea what their spending habits are in comparison to the average tourist guest..but it wouldn't surprise me if they were quite different.

And who knows what econ factors were in that relatively small group that could have predisposed them to spend more.

 

[d1gitman]

while Staggs touts an increase in spending...i wonder if it is truly an increase in spending or they are just able to track more of it. How many people used teh MagicBand to shop who otherwise would have used cash, giftcards or their own credit cards which wouldn't necessarily be tracked by Disney....increase in spending could be a false reading by WDW.