DVC hard sell on Main Street
I've long known that DVC has kiosks in the theme parks. Their very presence is a problem in some ways; it's not the pure Disney park with those things in there. But at least they don't intrude and turn into carnival barkers - that would be worse.
I've also long known that the Main St. exhibition hall in Orlando (where Lincoln is at Disneyland) is used an hour per day for a DVC presentation. This week I learned that they give out water, small snacks, and DVDs when you attend. I'm slightly more uncomfortable with that. It's not the hard sell you see about timeshares out there on 192, but it's still more than I think Disney should be doing. Do the gifts and water increase guest 'guilt' and make them more likely to buy? If that's even very slightly true, then the whole thing stinks.
If the product is strong enough to sell on its own without any external force (ie, the free bottled water), then fine. But Disney is on slippery ground here.
I've also long known that the Main St. exhibition hall in Orlando (where Lincoln is at Disneyland) is used an hour per day for a DVC presentation. This week I learned that they give out water, small snacks, and DVDs when you attend. I'm slightly more uncomfortable with that. It's not the hard sell you see about timeshares out there on 192, but it's still more than I think Disney should be doing. Do the gifts and water increase guest 'guilt' and make them more likely to buy? If that's even very slightly true, then the whole thing stinks.
If the product is strong enough to sell on its own without any external force (ie, the free bottled water), then fine. But Disney is on slippery ground here.
3 Comments:
at $16,000 minimum for a couple to enroll (usually requiring a serious financial check and/or loan), i'm not inclined to think that anybody would be the casual guilt buyer just because of a free $2.00 (overpriced, of course) bottle of water. :)
Ditto. And, for Jah's sake, it's July. If they're offering someone water to sit through a voluntary sales pitch, that's not a "hard sell." If they were running along Main Street roping people into the seminar, then yes - but Disney takes such a soft approach that anyone in that seminar ALREADY WANTS TO BE THERE - so why not offer them some freebies? It's not an incentive to buy, it's a thank-you for the time they're spending listening to the pitch.
For many years they have been offering free breakfasts and ice cream and the like with a DVC tour/pitch. Frankly, it just seems like a fairly minimal thing that they can do to ease the pain of a sales pitch, and (hopefully) display the kind of service you get if you buy in to the club.
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