New Tack For DVC Marketing?

[rinkwide]

From the Latest Walt Disney World "Hello!" (whatever the heck that is) in my email box yesterday:

"October will mark the 15th anniversary of Disney Vacation Club, the innovative vacation-ownership program that lets families enjoy savings by securing decades of future vacations at today's prices."

Seems like they're pitching a more straightforward "savings" angle. I don't really pay much attention to such things; Have they used this concept - prepaying your vacations as a hedge against inflation - to market DVC in the past?

 

[prez65]

I heard this at the sales pitch in March06.

 

[gchiker]

This was the pitch in '03

 

[Johnnie Fedora]

That angle is pitched on the looping DVC sales video that plays in all the WDW resorts.

 

[Judy WI]

Heard this pitch in the first two years I was looking into the DVC.

 

[rinkwide]

Nothing new then. Got it.

The only savings pitch I had heard went something like "recoup your initial investment in as little as 5 years". Hadn't heard the hedge against inflation one yet.

Hopefully it's going to be their continued focus as that's what DVC is really all about.

 

[JimMIA]

The only savings pitch I had heard went something like "recoup your initial investment in as little as 5 years".

I think that strategy involved buying 1,000 points with a minimal down payment and renting them out.

 

[dianeschlicht]

No, we were given the "savings" angle way back when we first looked at DVC in '94. BTW, we were told by our agent then, that renting was allowed, but not encouraged.

 

[Disney Doll]

They mentioned that in 1997. It wasn't the whole focus of the presentation, but I remember something about "buying tomorrow's vacations at today's prices".

 

[rinkwide]

I think that strategy involved buying 1,000 points with a minimal down payment and renting them out.

Yes, but I'm told it wasn't universally employed. According to unnamed sources, the purchase code permanently attached to points moved via that strategy was known as STAG - Short Term Autonomous Guide. That code let other guides know that the points were sold to a member at a time the guide knew he/she was leaving the company and had essentially stopped caring.

You can easily find these STAG contracts on the resale market as they stick out like a sore thumb (and are about as desirable).