Archives for Disney

Making Leftovers Extremely Popular – The Secrets of Party Magic

Disney does it.  It seems that at one point Disney equipped the inside cabins on their ships with video screens that looked like portal windows.  At times during the day various Disney characters would appear and talk to the kids in that cabin.  For this Disney charged a premium. Who takes your poorest value offering and charges a premium for it? In American Fork, Utah there is a restaurant called Wingshak.  At lunch the line is incredible.  Mostly men.  All there for the Hot Parmesan flavor wings.  With a hundred seats, this place is just jumping with businesses.   My four
Continue Reading

Part 4 – Revelation & Vision for the Future – Skills That Will Create Significance

Today, and in the future, where mass-customization is the call of the day, we will do business “with” my Starbuck’s, my doctor, or my Disney vacation. “When I go to MY Starbucks,  they know me personally.   I appreciate that fact when they put MY name on MY cup of java.” Like the Pied Piper, the future will vacuum us into personal relationships with others and their organizations.   Disney’s Magic Plus, or a Harley-Davidson HOG weekend, or even the personalized shopping experience of a Zappos shoe purchase, will become the norm.  It will become the expected. Your competition will change from
Continue Reading

Good versus Evil Profits – 3 minutes to read

When your customer ranks you “12” on a 1 to 10 scale. When you delight them beyond their expectations. Good profits are not mandated by some executive in a corner office. They are created by the personal interactions between one employee and one customer. There are many Starbucks coffee houses, and not all of them provide awesome customer experiences, but on the whole they try to create a customer experience that evokes a warm emotional and trust laden relationship. The coffee has to be good, but the interaction needs to be better.
Continue Reading

The first one to blink will . . . . .

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were at the head of the respective lines waiting to perform their magic on the waiting masses of young lasses in Toon Town at Disneyland. It was clear that each “actor” had been chosen from thousands of applicants, since each was indeed an incarnate of their cartoon counterpart.
Continue Reading

Laundry Soap, Travel Agents, and Computers . . . and what they have in common with a Moving company?

Are you tired of competing on price? Introducing the Bankruptcy Gap. Remember when there was only one Tide laundry detergent?  I counted last week, there are now over 70 sizes, types and smells of Tide at the supermarket.  There are versions for top load washing machines, front loaders, for smelly clothes, for whites and even a version in a tube that you can get the coffee stain off the front of your shirt at the office.  What about personal computers?  When I first started selling PCs in the 1980’s (ancient history I know) there were 3 or 4 major brands,
Continue Reading

TransBrands – The future of business – lessons from Pandora and the blue Na'vi

My friend Carol had to go back and see the Imax version of Avatar in 3D a second time last Saturday. Carol, Glenn and I had gone to the morning show and it was awesome.  I think it represents the future of entertainment.  It is a true TransBrand. A what? Turn the clock back one hundred years.  Farmer John used to take his eggs and milk into town.  His neighbors brought their produce and they traded with each other or exchanged dollars. Then the world got sophisticated.  It certainly got bigger as the cities grew.  No longer did the luxury
Continue Reading

Put a Bullet in it – Customer Service is Dead. But rising from the ashes. . .

Customer Service is the minimum ante to get into the game.  It used to be what you strived for.  Not anymore.  Unless you are moving past customer service to Customer WOW and creating Customer Experiences you are behind.  This is a world where the customer is enveloped in a stage play like production that involves the product, service or shopping event.   Customer Service was getting the patron to their seat in the theater. . .but the customer experience started with the raising of the curtain.   For example, Customer Service was what you got when you went to Kings Point or
Continue Reading

Merger of Disney and Wal-Mart Announced

Disney is about to announce a major merger between themselves and Wal-Mart Stores.  Each has their individual claim on the customer and leads their industry in creating a unique customer experience. Disney has over 25 million visitors to their theme parks each year.  In one recent news story it was suggested the price for a family of four and a visit to Florida would put the trip at $5000 or more. Wal-Mart on the other hand, gives the customer an experience starting with their “Greeter” and cookie cutter store plan, right through to the check out.  84% of all Americans
Continue Reading