Secondary Spend
parkworld-online.com
As part of Park World’s ongoing look at ways to maximise
secondary spend within parks and attractions, we spoke to
Phil Hettema of The Hettema
Group (pictured) for some insight into how attraction designers can keep the merchandise and F&B teams happy without comprising
their creative vision. Here are his tips and observations.
The detail of retail Top tips for parks and attractions
Design Vs retail When guests visit a park, they buy merchandise to emotionally extend their stay and memorialise the good feelings they have about their visit. Per capita merchandise spending is an important part of
“ Diagon
Alley is in many respects a
shopping mall but it's also a great
experience. I would argue they’d still be doing great business with the retail even if the attractions weren’t there
park revenue, and designers always plan on optimising purchase ability in any new attraction through an appropriately designed exit retail shop. Merchandise revenue, however, is rarely the primary motivator in new attraction selection. I don’t recall an instance where the merchandise team was a major voice in the identification of a new concept. Of course they will be consulted regarding the appropriate size of any new retail spaces, but product design doesn’t usually begin until the concept design is fairly well established, so that the product design team can begin to create new items appropriate to the specific attraction. Increased attendance projections are usually more important than increased merchandise per capita in evaluating the desirability of a new attraction.
Mouse ears and wizards I can name a couple of notable exceptions to the above, where merchandise has played a major role from the early stages of the project concept. Disney’s Glow with The Show concept at Hong Kong Disneyland, where you can buy headpieces that light up and sync in time to a parade or show, demonstrates a tremendous amount of creative interface from the conceptual level, not to mention significant increased merchandise revenue. The watershed event that really turned conventional
merchandise revenue models on their head is the retail and F&B effort by Universal for the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando (and subsequently in Osaka and soon Hollywood). Diagon Alley is in many respects a shopping mall but it's also a great experience because it fulfils the expectation of the guest as to what it is in their
mind when they visit. It’s beautifully executed at every level and, even though the attractions are technologically about as advanced as you can get, I would argue they would still be doing great business with the retail even if those attractions weren’t there. Butterbeer is a case study in itself! JK Rowling did Universal a huge favour because she practically created the inventory of products and described them in great detail in her books.
Magic wands and chocolate frogs I think one of the most incredible things about Potter are the wands. Here is an interactive experience that becomes a personal extension of the attraction and the intellectual property. I can hold the wand in my hand and walk around and make things happen on a one-on-one basis. It really brings the experience to life first hand, but also drives remarkable merchandising revenue. Those wands cost, by the way, north of $50, but what parent is going to tell their kids they can’t have one of those wands? If you’ve got two kids, God help you! Universal have really delivered on the quality of the
product throughout as well. Someone gave me a chocolate frog from The Wizarding World, and I opened the box expecting a scrawny piece of chocolate in a big box. It was anything but that. There is really a sense of quality to the product; they went the whole nine yards to make the whole experience great.
Photos will never die! There are many layers to photo capture within a theme park. We all walk around now with thousands of pictures on our phone, yet somehow having that hard copy, if you can frame up and present it in an attractive manor, still has great cache. Increasingly, I think we are also going to see new ways to monetise a digital image.
The future of retail Some things will always be there: the impulse buy, the hat you want to wear while you are in the park, the balloon you want to carry as you watch the parade. And there will certainly be big retail at the exit of attractions. Just as we are seeing brick and mortar stores beginning to become more like showrooms, I think ability to order, pay and fulfil digitally is going to make real changes to the shopping experience within a theme park. The experiential part – how can I get a better, faster or qualitatively different experience? – is going to become an increasingly important. I think there will be more of “I want one of these and I want it packed up and waiting for me at the gate, sent to my hotel room or even shipped to my home.” Also, I think customisation of product will evolve as well
The light-up mouse ear headpieces that sync in time to Disney’s Glow With The Show at Hong Kong Disneyland and Walt Disney World (pictured) demonstrate a tremendous amount of creative effort, not to mention significant revenue potential
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and we will see retail moving more into things like the queue line experience. How about interacting with something really cool and have it create something for you and sent to your cell phone just by using an app? If you’re waiting 30 minutes or whatever for a ride but being entertained, suddenly that’s a compelling offer.
MARCH 2016
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