Crappy Marketing

Jeff said:
Has anyone her actually taken Marketing 101?

Yip - Took 101, 102 and 103 as electives because I was really interested in it.

I agree that there's so much more they could do with the marketing they already do. Constant improvement should always be a goal, ne?

For one thing, the cost of admission needs to be contexutalized. My husband was totally resistant to shelling out the $38 (with discount coupon ) to go to the point this year because he thought it was too expensive. Until we went to the State Fair and the handful of rides I thought looked safe enough for our daughter to get on cost $4/ ride. Our kids were a newborn and a 2 year old, so they would get in free. So even with the cost of two adult admissions, Cedar Point was still cheaper than the State Fair, safer, with more to do for the whole family, more fun, AND my car doesn't get its windows smashed in and airbags stolen by the end of the day.

Second, I think a retro-inspired ad would rock. I loved the old Summertime Blues commercials becuase having a song that was so recognizable was great for thier brand. It would be great if they did an ad that mixed scenes from those commercials with new footage at the point, so you get it all: nostaliga, family friendliness, a longing to recapture those good times of your youth by taking your own kids there, family bonding and a good look at all the newer coasters. I remember when Cedar Point was the Amazement Park... regardless of how well they are doign with attendance goals, the advertising these days does nothing to generate that kind of excitement.

Outside of Cedar Point more say the Cedar Fair entire company I would like to see them go more on a national level. Getting the Cedar Fair name as more of a brand.

The other day for example Six Flags when they had their one day season ticket sale had a main ad on Yahoo.

Ugh. "Cedar Fair" is not a brand. It's like saying "Ficus Carnival." It doesn't make any sense. It's the combination of two different park names mashed together for the sake of giving the entity a name. It's not a brand.

What possible reason would they have to market regional parks nationally?

I'm not convinced the "Six Flags" brand is necessarily a good thing. If you went to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom and it was the first Six park you ever visited, would that give you a good impression of the rest of the chain?

Very true, the only place I can see a big brand work is Disney, Universal, and Sea World (Busch). They are destination parks where I see Six Flags and Cedar Fair's parks as being regional parks. Why market a complete brand when people aren't going travel to you're other parks?

Good points, I feel like an idiot. Did not think that one out clearly.

One thing they could do for the local advertisements is get rid of the stock footage and get good clean new footage. Also I think they should lower their drink prices dramatically for like a year and advertise that, believe it or not something stupid would get people in, look at Holiday World.

Holiday World is touted time and again (and rightfully so). But, I can't help to wonder why more parks don't do it. I mean, there are...believe it or not...smart people at the other parks. Could it be that the volume at some point would make it unattractive from a financial standpoint?

Is it just a matter of inflexibility on the part of larger corporations?

I don't think drink prices or free suntan lotion gets people in the door. But, it certainly leaves an initial positive impression which goes a long way. It has been quite some time since I paid full price to get into an amusement park. But, with the prices as they are these days I'm sure I would be feeling some trepidation after paying at the gate which I would probably remember thoughout the day when faced with long lines, a bad customer service encounter, etc.

If I walked in thinking, "wow...that was kind of pricey but I can drink for free all day" then I'm starting the day on a positive not that may help me to overlook some of the negatives I was about to encounter. I think that is the appeal of the all-inclusive resort. Yeah, you pay an arm and a leg to stay there but once you lay down that initial investment you keep remembering that you don't have to pay much else the rest of the week and if you get a bad piece of chicken at dinner it doesn't impact you as much.

Someone high up at CP must be reading these postings because a little Park Operations birdie said that a new Vice President was just hired to run CP's Marketing Department.