Counter-intuitive Marketing: Disney Strikes Again!

If anyone knows how to market products and build a brand, its Disney. Disney World has been making 'Dreams Come True' since 1971; when the park first opened. The key to Disney's success is to keep the customer coming back. 

For those of you that don't remember the blog post I wrote in April of 2012 on 'Discover Disney: Decoy Marketing?' I compared how Disney was using a NeuroMarketing tactic known as decoy marketing to help push the release of their Discover Disney ticket for Florida Residents. As I have come to learn, this ticket becomes available a few days after the New Year, every year, just in time for my annual family Disney trip.

I followed the 'Discover Disney' ticket prices for 2012 and 2013 and was anxious to see how 2014's release compared; and Disney threw in another NeuroMarketing technique! See if you can spot the trend:

2012 Discover Disney Prices:

3-Day Pass: $99

4-Day Pass: $129

2013 Discover Disney Prices:

3-Day Pass: $119

4-Day Pass: $129

2014 Discover Disney Prices:

3-Day Pass: $129

4-Day Pass: $149

Most of you will say that Disney raised the price by $10 & $20 a ticket... Any other takers? The $129 price point. When they ran this 'special' in 2012 we learned that more people would purchase the $99 tickets than the $129 tickets because of the way consumers interpret the price. $99 doesn't sound as much as $129, it cost an extra $30 for another day...hmm... No, we will only purchase the $99. So they learned from this in 2012 and tested the results in 2013. They moved the price of the 3-Day ticket up (to $119) but kept the price of the 4-Day ticket the same ($129). Now the difference to stay an extra day is only $10.. "Okay, let's stay one extra day", is the response they are getting from the consumers. So this year, they used the same $129 price point that sold better in 2013 and used that as the base price for this years tickets then raised the price on the 4-Day. So rather than just raising the prices across the board, they used the same price we paid last year, and slightly raised the price on the 4-Day option. 

This technique is all about relativity; how the consumer see the product vs. the price. You paid the same amount as last year, you just got one day less. So they reel you in 3 years earlier at $99 then they keep you coming back by small increases in price so it doesn't jump from $99 to $149 then the consumer says 'ouch, no thanks'... But when you do small increments over a long period of time, the pain associated with the increased price doesn't hurt so much. So aside from great marketing and being the most MAGICAL place in world, they have really made an attempt to keep the Florida Residents coming back with their different and "cheap" ticket options. Just be careful to read into things before you just purchase them, you maybe being baited in by psychological marketing... or pixie dust :) 

Discover Disney: Decoy Marketing?

NeuroMarketing is the newest and most advanced form of marketing available today. It has taken large businesses over 20+ years to accept the merge of science and marketing; and with this new merge, businesses are capable of targeting more engaged audiences.

 

Walt Disney is a World Wide name and well known brand. My recent interest towards visiting Disney this month gave me a surprise. Many of you know that from January to June every year Disney runs a special for Florida Residents called the 'Discover Disney' Ticket. The ticket is always available the beginning of January and expires in June when season begins. However, this year their marketing campaign showed they were running off of a NeuroMarketing tip.

 

Last year, in January 2012, Discover Disney was released to Florida Residents with two different ticket offers:

(1) 3-Day Pass: $99

(2) 4-Day Pass: $129

This year, Discover Disney was released again, however the pricing was different:

(1) 3-Day Pass: $119

(2) 4-Day Pass: $129

Although the pricing for the 4-Day pass stayed the same, the price for the 3-Day pass increased by $20. This approach is called 'Decoy Marketing'. They did not change the price of the second ticket, but, by increasing the price of the 1st option by $20 they made the option of the 4-Day ticket seem like a better buy. So by increasing the price of the first option (3-Day Pass) resulted in the increase of sales of the second option (4-Day Pass). By creating this 'Better Buy' idea to its targeted audience, more 4-Day passes were sold thus driving more money, sales, and an extended stay for these buyers. So it was an all around WIN for Disney with this new pricing.

 

Decoy Marketing can be a very powerful tool in marketing products as you can see with this example. To learn more about this technique, check out this link to Roger Dooley's 'Brainfluence' Blog about Decoy Marketing.