{"id":481,"date":"2015-06-29T14:52:20","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T18:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/?p=481"},"modified":"2015-09-01T21:18:19","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T01:18:19","slug":"universal-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/universal-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"Universal Genius"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tim Turner<\/span><\/p>\n

As a follow-up to my article about the Disney\u00ae cruise, I wanted to share with you some experiences with the Universal resort in Orlando. We visited there after our cruise because our kids just love it.\u00a0 In fact, they love it more than Disney\u2019s Magic Kingdom, mainly because the rides are so much better.<\/p>\n

\"GreenEggs&Ham\"<\/a>

Green eggs & Ham Building in Dr. Seuss Land<\/p><\/div>\n

Genius point #1:<\/b>\u00a0 Universal provides unique rides and experiences that no other park offers.\u00a0 Sure they have roller coasters, but no other park has Dr. Seuss land.\u00a0 This section of the park is totally customized to make you feel like you are inside a Dr. Seuss book.\u00a0 I have been there many times and I am still in awe of the trees, the Caroseussel, and the building shaped like green eggs and ham.<\/p>\n

Our favorite ride there is just a small train that rides above Dr. Seuss land giving you a view of the entire Dr. Seuss experience but from above. What can you do in your business that is totally unique to you? \u00a0 If you say \u201cnothing\u201d, you need to spend a lot more time thinking about it.<\/b><\/p>\n

Genius point #2:<\/b>\u00a0 Universal capitalizes on megatrends.\u00a0 They don\u2019t sit on their laurels.\u00a0 They have jumped all over the Harry Potter craze and it has skyrocketed ticket sales.\u00a0 The newest Gringotts ride had a 7 hour wait when it opened.\u00a0 Absolutely unheard of!\u00a0 What demographic trend can you take advantage of?\u00a0 It might just be a specific niche like baby boomers, millennials, or seniors.<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Wands\"<\/a>

A Wand shop in Diagon Alley at Universal Orlando<\/p><\/div>\n

Genius point #3: <\/b>This one is not as applicable to the financial industry, because it has to do with \u201cupselling\u201d a product or service.\u00a0 In the new Harry Potter section called Diagon Alley, they sell magical wands just like in the other section of the park.\u00a0 These wands sell for $36.95 each \u2013 for essentially a piece of plastic.\u00a0 Now some genius figured out they could embed a chip into the wand and then hide the receiver\u2019s around Diagon Alley.\u00a0 You can then go around to different spots on a map to waive your wand, cast a \u201cspell\u201d and make things happen like making lights turn on or curtains in a window open.\u00a0 Not only does that make people want a wand itself when they see kids doing this, but it makes kids want the \u201cinteractive wand\u201d that costs $44.95 \u2013 a 20% premium. \u00a0 As a business person I found all of this tied together as pure business \u201cgenius\u201d.\u00a0 (I won’t comment on my thoughts about trying to do “magic”…)<\/p>\n

\"sandpool\"<\/a>

The incredible pool at The Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando<\/p><\/div>\n

Genius point #4<\/b>:\u00a0 If you stay at one of their onsite hotels, you get additional perks like early admission and free \u201cfast passes\u201d for almost every ride.\u00a0 The Hard Rock Hotel, for example, is a family friendly place, unlike the Vegas one.\u00a0 It has a sand pool, volleyball, dive-in movies, video game arcade, and a 2-story slide for kids.\u00a0 More importantly it is within walking distance of the park AND all the shops in City Walk.<\/p>\n

The genius here is to keep you and your dollars captive for your stay.\u00a0 If I am at the Hard Rock, how likely am I to get in my car and drive somewhere else to eat, to swim, to shop.\u00a0 Not likely, which means Universal captures all of my vacation dollars, except the gas I buy to get home afterwards.<\/p>\n

Hope you\u2019ve enjoyed learning about some of the business smarts behind \u201cUniversal Studios\u201d in Orlando.\u00a0 I think you\u2019ll agree it really is \u201cgenius\u201d…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SeussTrain1\"<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \"UniversalSeuss\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\"SeussTrain2\"<\/a>\u00a0\"Gringotts\"<\/a>\"DiagonAlley\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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By Tim Turner As a follow-up to my article about the Disney\u00ae cruise, I wanted to share with you some experiences with the Universal resort in Orlando. We visited there after our cruise because our kids just love it.\u00a0 In fact, they love it more than Disney\u2019s Magic Kingdom, mainly because the rides are so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54,40],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":559,"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions\/559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.torrid-tech.com\/community\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}