Disney’s MyMagic+ Wristbands Are Magic Money Makers
b. APA Citation:
Schaal, D. (2015, February 4). Disney's MyMagic Wristbands Are Magic Money Makers. Retrieved February 6, 2015, from http://skift.com/2015/02/04/disneys-mymagic-wristbands-are-magic-money-makers/
c. Source Summary:
This article entails the success of the MyMagic band (an all in one room key, food ordering system, and fast pass for Disney Parks). The author also brings up that his success could lead to the expansion of the hotels at Disney Orlando. The writer used multiple sources/quotes which help to back to his general opinion. At the same time, he doesn't really have an opinion, the bias just isn't there. He gives us facts and figures which help to prove his point.
d. Important Quotes:
1. "With MyMagic+, which is fully rolled out in Orlando and will be moving to other Disney parks in coming years, guests can swiftly enter the park, get FastPass access to attractions, make purchases, and open their hotel room door."
2."Hotel occupancy at Disney’s U.S. properties jumped 8 percentage points to 89 percent during the quarter, and per-room spending rose 4 percent."
e. Analysis:
Alright, I admit it, I touched on the topic before too, so now, my last two blog posts have been essentially about topics I have already touched on. Today however, I really wanted to touch on the My Magic Band technology and what it's doing for Disney. I mentioned two posts ago that Disney was working on implementing band technology, They actually started testing and implementing the technology last March in their parks, oops. The bands have lots of benefits, as many modern technologies do. You can book your hotel room online and have your band programmed to that room, you can walk into a restaurant and order your food from a kiosk with you band and go sit down, you get get fast passes for rides, and you can even get into the park itself faster. So yes, it does up the convenience level but also it ups the spending, which is beneficial for Disney but less beneficial for the consumer. If you don't have to physically pull out cash or a credit card to pay for something it kind of shuts down your "savings account" sensor and turns on your"free monies" sensor. Of course, the product really isn't free, but there's one less step between you and that product, which makes it easier to buy.
Because people are attracted to convenience they are, therefore, attracted to the park. The MyMagic Bands are new and interesting. I think that I should briefly mention Disneys marketing for this product, because it is also very central to why there is more attendance at the parks. First off, you can personalize the band, choose your color, add your name, etc. Also it's free with your stay, and free mementos are the best ones. So you have a cool band that gives you a free (seemingly, see above) pass to anywhere in the park. I think some of the advertising imagery itself is very telling, I took my first picture from the article I cited, by the way.
In this advertising image we see a girl so conveniently using her MyMagic Band and her whole family, by whole family, I mean whole family. I don't know about you, but when I was a kid I didn't go to theme parks, let alone with my grandparents. Most grandparents cup of tea is not located at a theme park keeping up with the energy of tiny humans, I'm sure many would much rather prefer an actual cup of tea. Also the race of the people in the picture is very carefully chosen. They're white, but not too white, and they're black, but not too black. This is an image for the "perfect" american family, and I know what you're thinking, but they aren't white and they aren't wearing red, white, and blue. But I, personally, see this as the perfect american family, a perfect medium and balance of culture and family life in America, which is ultimately what Disney is trying to portray.
In case you were wondering, I did just write a whole paragraph on one picture, its took me maybe ten minutes to write, but, in retrospect, Disney probably spent a good ten hours planning this image out. Everything Disney does in meticulous, targeted, and extremely specific. And they have to be, we are talking about a company that was founded in 1923, and is a worldwide company. So the elusive MyMagic Band (well at least its pretty elusive to me considering my previous post, and this is also coming from someone that lives 6 hours from Disney World) has come to light, and Disney is earning tons of money for it. Disney is not straying away from technology in the slightest, it makes them money and they know it.
No comments:
Post a Comment