Disney Revolutionizes the Vacation Industry

Approximately 52 million people visit Walt Disney World each year and its annual profit comes to about $12.6 billion. How did Walt Disney transform his amusement park into a bucket list vacation destination for families from all over the world? The simple answer… marketing.

Disney has revolutionized the vacation industry as it broadens its marketing strategies to include almost any activity you can imagine. Disney has magical amusement parks, thrilling water rides, gourmet restaurants, five-star hotels, luxurious cruise lines, private islands, collectible merchandise, and so much more. Whether it is the walking foods-of-the-world tour in Epcot, opportunities to meet your favorite Disney characters, or thrilling rollercoasters that will have people shouting: “We HAVE to do that again!”, there is surely something for everyone at the parks. Most importantly, Disney gives the assurance of a trip filled with memories that are sure to last a lifetime.

Disney acknowledges that the amusement park experience might not be for everyone, so they have introduced a variety of activities that attract a more diverse customer base using a myriad of marketing strategies. Some people love all the fanciful facades and creative foods. However, others prefer a nice massage or relaxing by the hotel pools. My family is up at the crack of dawn to beat the crowd to the gates when the park opens. We are the first in line for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and we stay until the park closes. We go every year and find an experience that keeps each trip interesting and unique.

Marketing Disney Plus

With the recently increased popularity of streaming services, Disney entered the game strong with Disney Plus. In addition to the plethora of nostalgic movies and shows aimed at younger audiences, they also market their platform to a variety of demographics utilizing some of the most popular movie franchises in history like Marvel, Star Wars, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Using these marketing strategies, Disney Plus has become one of the most successful streaming service as people looking to escape the stress of the pandemic can find relief in uplifting films and tv series.

Online Marketing Strategies

Disney has been at the forefront of online marketing which has enabled them to subliminally reach the 16-24-year-old crowd that, on average, spends 3+ hours a day online. Disney has over 72 million followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter combined. That’s a lot of potential customers who might not regularly watch TV or read print that Disney can influence daily. Through magical commercials, Disney is able to interact with starry-eyed children without access to social media who beg their parents for the trips they see on TV.

Targeting the interests of Children

Disney’s marketing strategies were also revolutionary as they began to target the interests of children as well as adults. Children make up 22% of the US population and have an increased impact on family decisions than previously recognized. Through movies, TV shows, stuffed animals, and apparel, Disney has built brand loyalty starting with infants and continuing through adulthood.

“The Happiest Place on Earth”

The Happiest Place on Earth” is Disney’s well-known slogan which basically encapsulates everything that Disney is and tries to be. Who doesn’t want to go to the happiest place on earth? Disney evokes this happiness through nostalgia, happy stories with happy endings, and wholesome characters. Marketing “happiness” is what keeps visitors flooding through their gates every year. Including my family, and Julie’s family!

Marketing items to high schoolers is very different than other age groups. High school means freedom. This includes the ability to get a job, drive, and buy things without asking parents.

Social Media

As the first generation born into technology, Gen Z has grown up with the internet. For high school students in particular, social media surrounds our daily lives, making it easy to access new products and reviews faster. When targeting a high school audience, the first thing you will want to do is create a social media presence, especially on Instagram and Tik Tok.

Marketing to High Schoolers with Trends

For products such as clothing or make up, it is important to follow trends. Stay up to date on the latest styles and aesthetics. In typical high school manner, everyone wants to fit in, this means providing products similar to the current high school style. In regard to social media, creating content that follows popular trends will increase the chances of your product being seen. For Tik Tok, use popular sounds with a unique idea, making the Tik Tok more likely to get on the for you page.

Accessibility and Inclusivity

High schoolers are cheap! Most income comes from a minimum wage job or allowance from parents. The price of a product can immediately deter consumers, especially if is not a well-known name brand. Make sure the price is reasonable for the product. It is also important to make products inclusive to all ethnicities, body types, and genders. Exclusion can create bad reviews and overall dislike for a company.

Visuals

Once the consumer has clicked on the website, visual organization is a key part of reliability and user attention span. As someone who frequently purchases products from Instagram or Tik Tok, the first thing I notice is the website’s aesthetic. If a website looks low quality, chances are the product is also low quality. By using attention grabbing visuals and colors, while also maintaining the clean look, users will trust the product more.  Secondly, in a world of 15 second Tik Toks, the average attention span is much shorter. When websites are difficult to navigate, most users will simply give up. By making products easy to find through a search bar or navigation tabs, people are more likely to stay on the site.

When Marketing to High Schoolers, Think Like One

Overall, when marketing to a younger audience, it is important to think like a high schooler. What you may like or dislike, could be completely different because high school is its own world. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I see a product that would be amazing if one little thing was changed, such as a childish image or an older print. Step outside of your world and think like you are 17 again!

Our new high school interns Abby and Anna will be joining us on the Porch this summer.

Everybody say hello to our interns from Ursuline Academy of Dallas. Every summer we host interns from this high school, and give them a little taste of what a professional marketing career might look like. They’ll be visiting clients, creating content, researching topics, preparing branding documents, learning some analytics and PR skills, and we’ll even have them write a blog post here on our blog. We are proud to support and mentor the next generation of Ursuline Academy students, as we have for the past seven years.

We asked our Ursuline interns Abby Sanders and Anna Wilson a few “get to know you” questions, so y’all could learn more about their GenZ perspective.

Ursuline Intern Abby Sanders

1. What makes you want to have a career in marketing? I have always been really creative and have a playful sense of humor. I believe that marketing may be a good way for me to be able to express these traits while pursuing a career I enjoy.

2. What is one of the biggest lessons you have learned so far in your life? During the pandemic, I learned the value of not stressing out over the small things and how much I should value the time I have with others. 

3. If you could describe yourself in three words what would they be? Friendly, Optimistic, and Hard-Working 

4. What are your goals for your time at Front Porch Marketing? I am really excited to learn about what a profession in marketing would look like and develop skills that will be helpful throughout my life. 

5. If you could go to dinner with one person living or dead, who would it be? I would choose Walt Disney because he followed his dreams and pursued his passions to become immensely successful doing what he loves. My family and I love to go to Disney World, so I would love to meet the man that made those bonding experiences possible. 

6. What is a fun fact about you? I love to travel with my family and I have been able to visit 7 different countries!

Ursuline Intern Anna Wilson

1. What makes you want to have a career in marketing? I want to have a career in marketing because I love social media and understanding people. Marketing is always growing, especially with the influence of social media. It allows people to gain so much information all in one place. I also find it fascinating the way people consume information and how one Tik Tok can immediately make someone buy a product.

2. What is one of the biggest lessons you have learned so far in your life? One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that balance is a necessity is all aspects of my life. Whether that be between school and my social life, or making time for myself, I feel the best, and do the best work when I do not overwhelm myself with one thing. 

3. If you could describe yourself in three words what would they be? In three words, I would say I am enthusiastic, caring, and determined.

4. What are your goals for your time at Front Porch Marketing? My main goal at FPM is getting exposure to the marketing world. Seeing as marketing is not a class in high school, I want to learn as much as possible through real world experiences. 

5. If you could go to dinner with one person living or dead, who would it be? I would go to dinner with my grandma to hear her advice and understand her life from my current, older perspective.

6. What is a fun fact about you? One fun fact about me is that I love cows and think they are really funny!

Two Rockin’ Additions to the Front Porch Team!

Going Digital is the Future

If there’s anything we learned from the pandemic it’s that going digital is the ultimate way to survive as a business. No one expected an event like this to disrupt the world as fast as it did, but we adapted. Lots of corporations switched to being remote or hybrid; and Zoom became a household name. With the world going digital many of us started to realize the importance of marketing ourselves online and there’s no better place than LinkedIn. Membership has climbed to reach over 780 million since the pandemic hit. So there’s no better time than now to upgrade your LinkedIn!

Personal branding is a topic we’re all familiar with. We all know it’s important, but many of us don’t give it the attention it really deserves. Most of the time were just too busy to give it any real time or thought. We think “I know there’s more I could be doing to improve my LinkedIn.” However, in this day and age its crucial to have your personal brand looking clean and professional. Here are a couple of tips and tricks to improve your LinkedIn profile.

Upgrade Your Profile Picture

Your picture is the first thing people see when they click on your LinkedIn profile. It’s important that you get this right. First make sure the picture is a recent photo of you, then make sure your face takes up about 60% of the frame. No long distance shots, and smile with your eyes!

Choose a Background Photo

Choose a background photo that represents either what you do, or your interest in visually interesting way. If you don’t have your own photos to work with, I recommend using a free hd stock image site called Unsplash. Also try to stick with a photo that fits within 1584 (w) x 396 (h) pixels for the best quality.

Get Creative With Your Headline

Your Headline doesnt just have to be what your business is. Try to add a little bit of flair or creativity to it. For example take a look at EA Talent Recruiter Jason Yuan’s LinkedIn headline, “I don’t usually stalk profiles, but when I do I usually have a career opportunity for you. Want to connect!?”. See how he managed to hook your attention and explain what he does? This is what you should be shooting for.

Expand your Network

Linkedin has amazing networking opportunities and has made it very easy to expand your network. One helpful tip is to link your profile with your email address book. LinkedIn will then suggest people you should connect with. Once you start connecting with people you may even notice that you have connections working at companies that you are currently applying for. I strongly suggest if you are in college that you connect with those who go to your school in your major. You never know when that connection may come in handy.

Take Skill Assessments

These are free tests that LinkedIn has created to help you stand out amongst the crowd. According to Linkedin candidates who have certified skills are 30% more likely to get hired. I recommend to getting certified in the Microsoft Excel assessment. It’s a universal skillset that will always help you standout. Obviously the more certified skills you have the better.

Publish Your Own Content

The best way to get noticed on LinkedIn is to publish engaging, long content. You should start pumping these out to start conversations. Make sure it’s interesting. A good tip is to look at the trending articles on LinkedIn News on the right hand side of your account. Look at the trending topics on the platform and share your thoughts or experiences on the topic. If you can don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a little emojis. It may sound stupid but it actually increases reader engagement. Just don’t over do it. Also try to steer away from politics on LinkedIn. This is a platform for professional networking, it’s not Facebook or Twitter.

A Brighter Future Awaits

Upgrading your LinkedIn doesn’t have to be done all in one day. Try to take it in small chunks. These steps may seem trivial at first, but I promise if you knock these out when you have your lunch break, or when find yourself with extra fee time you won’t regret it. Allow LinkedIn to work for you by taking the first step!

This week, we’re welcoming Andrew Porter, our newest intern rocker, to the team!

1. What makes you want to have a career in marketing, Andrew Porter?

I’ve grown up watching my mom create this awesome company from the ground up and achieve so much in little time. It really motivates me to be successful seeing her achieve her dream and work so hard to obtain it. I want to be able to do what I want in the future as well and achieve my dream. Marketing has a special place in my heart and really does interest me in my future career endeavors.

2. What is one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far in your life?

There are many obstacles in life, but you end up gaining more from these obstacles than you have lost, if you choose to conquer the obstacles.

3. If you could describe Andrew Porter in three words, what would they be?

The three words I’d use to describe myself would be hardworking, funny, and committed.

4. What are your goals for your time at Front Porch Marketing?

I really want to get my foot in the door with this marketing internship, and get some real life business experience for the future. I have 5 specific goals that I’d like to conquer while at Front Porch:

1) I will be able to professional handle myself according to the certain business or personal situation that is present. And learn from those that have more experience than I do.

2) I will be able to communicate with clients and strangers effectively for the benefit of me and others.

3) I will be able to effectively navigate the internet accordingly while also being proficient in Microsoft 365.

4) I will be able to successfully balance the many activities that go on in my everyday life with my multiple jobs, hanging with friends, and sleeping.

5) I will be able to build a basic understanding of marketing principles to assist clients in attaining their long-time goals.

5. If you could go to dinner with one person living or dead who would it be?

One person I’d definitely want to go to dinner with would be Chris Farley. He is my favorite comedian and is literally so funny. I’d love to see him in person do his Matt Foley: Van Down by the River skit from SNL.

6. What is a fun fact about you?

I am currently the Vice President of Recruitment of the Interfraternity Council (IFC) at Rollins College and the Brotherhood Chair of SAE.

When was the last time you took inventory of your company website?

Are you scratching your head trying to remember when you last took inventory of your company website? Chances are, this might very well be the case. We sometimes overlook the critical role our website plays in our marketing efforts. For marketing to be effective, every touch point needs to be in alignment – including our website. While you’re spring cleaning your brand, don’t forget your website!

Now that you’re thinking about your site, let’s spend a few minutes talking about some of the questions you’ll want to ask yourself to determine if your website passes the test or if it could use a refresh or maybe even a complete redesign. 

Company Website Inventory Questions:

• Does your website reflect your brand? What words have you heard your customer’s use to describe your website? Are they in alignment with how you want them to perceive your brand?
• How does your site stack up to current design trends? Is your design aesthetic simple and minimalistic?
• Is your content current? If not, why? Are you just not taking the time to update your content regularly? Or does your website platform make you rely on someone else to make changes?
• What website platform are you using? Is it using the latest technology and plugins? If not, your visitors may very well not have the best user experience on your site.
• Is your site getting a lot of bot traffic? If so, it may be time to improve your website security.

Steps to Take in an Inventory Process

These are just a handful of the questions you might ask yourself. Others can range from SEO to responsive design to supporting a content marketing strategy. Whatever the reason, if you answered a resounding “Yes” to one or more of these questions, it might be time to dig in your heels and get started. Which leads to the question, what steps are involved to launch a refreshed or new website?

• Audit your current site. Ask yourself. What is working? What isn’t?
• Research your competitors for best-in-class sites
• Develop your creative brief (define your target audience, brand guidelines, what are we communicating, goals, priorities, etc.)
• Establish a timeline
• Wireframe development
• Content development
• Design your site
• Develop and test your site
• Launch your new site

Why Your Site Needs to be Just Right

It may seem overwhelming at first, but when you breakdown the “Why” behind redesigning your site and the steps to implementation, you’ll realize that a new and improved site is right at your fingertips!

Setting up and running a successful marketing internship program is an important step to the future success of both your company and the next generation of marketers. Bottom line: what’s in it for you as a company is the creation of a skilled employee pipeline. You’ve taught them, you’ve trained them, and they know your business. All of those attributes will most likely make these interns your best next employees.

How to start your internship program? Start small with the intention of hiring one intern for one semester. With a 5-6 month window for the internship, you can more easily structure what the intern will do during their tenure with you. Be sure to ask your intern what they want to learn, and what they would like to get out of the internship. Also, take the time to coordinate with their college if need be, so that they receive college credit for their internship if that is an option. And most importantly, pay your intern a fair hourly wage for their contribution to your business.

Marketing Internship 101 – Training.

Begin an intern’s employment with introductions and training. Have a blog and/or website? Add them to the team and write an introductory post so clients, customers and the general public can get to know your talented intern. This also gives the marketing intern a link that they can include on the LinkedIn profile, legitimatizing their career before they graduate. In turn, introduce the intern to each person in the company, and ask them to explain what they do and how it fits into the big picture.

Ideally you’ll want your marketing intern to spend some quality time shadowing different people in your company to get the full picture of marketing: PR, copywriting, design, social media, analytics, etc. Encourage the rest of your company to be supportive of your intern in their language and actions. Make sure their first experience in marketing is a positive one!

Interns learn by doing, so show them how to do it.

Then, help your intern get comfortable on the platforms you use to do business, whether that’s WordPress, Google Analytics, Buffer, or any of the social media platforms. For a marketing internship, shadow days can help with this learning. After initial shadow days, interns can be given compartmentalized parts of jobs to complete: image search on a stock site, compiling social media stats monthly on an Excel spreadsheet, and even writing blog posts on topics that they are learning in school. The more you teach them, the more they can run with something and help you!

Set them free and watch them succeed!

Once your intern has mastered some tasks, give them something that they can own: a specific client report, a research project, a white paper, or an organizational project. They could also own a role like proofreading or coordinating employee content for blog posts. Your intern could then teach everyone what they’ve learned at the end of the project.

When you help the next generation of marketing students gain access to a “real” job by offering them an internship, you are paying it forward for everyone that helped you in your early career. And at the end of the internship, you’ll most likely have a successful full-time employee ready to hire. At Front Porch Marketing, we regularly hire one or more college student interns all year long, and add high school student interns from Ursuline Academy of Dallas. We love working with interns and highly recommend adding them to your staff.

Marketing leaders, what are you doing to nurture relationships with your customers?

Consistency and connection nurture relationships. Sure, loyalty and points programs are tactics that bring brands and customers closer together.

But genuine allegiance is an outcome.

A recent conversation with a marketing leader provided inspiration. This marketing leader has had some challenges. But realized the value of marketing.

The company had cut the marketing budget. All the momentum that person built was put to a halt. And then the company brought in a consultant. First, he asked her what was happening on the marketing front. To which she replied, “Nothing.’ And, obviously he was shocked.

How to foster genuine relationships.

Business leaders do these four things:

1. Conviction – Know the brand. Marketing leaders walk the talk. And they demonstrate it every touchpoint. Then, clients and their customers can see it and feel it.
2. Consistency – Do you have a message map for your client? Share the value proposition of the brands you work on, on every platform, consistently.
3. Communication – Know your audience. Then recognize: how do they want to communicate? It isn’t about you. It is about what works for them. Marketing leaders will recognize this and pivot messaging to solve clients’ problems in a way that is meaningful and relevant to the client.
4. Connection – If there is consistency communicating the message, then the connection will happen. But as a marketing leader, how do you deepen the ties with your client and their customers?
   • Weekly meetings with clients
   • Weekly catch-up calls on both status of projects, and how pain points with consumers are being addressed
   • Notes on special days to recognize achievements
   • Boundaries set on both sides, so that both marketing and client are set up to succeed

Marketing leadership: Take inspiration. Deepen connections. Accelerate growth.

We love to partner with smart leaders who value marketing. And, if we can help, let’s talk about mutual partnership to grow top line sales.

Pinterest fails like these make me snort laugh.

It is terrible, I know, but they are so funny! Perhaps because they are relatable. You see something, you think you can do it, it turns out differently than you planned.

“The more the plans fail the more the planner’s plan.” Ronald Reagan

It’s time to evaluate your marketing strategy for the second half of the year. With Q1 in the rearview mirror, and Q2 well underway now is the time to plan what comes next.

We wax the marketing plan lyrical often, additional reading can be found by searching Marketing Plan right here on Off Your Rocker, because it is a topic we keep coming back to because it is that important. Running through your activities, business, leisure or really anything without a plan often leads to failure and even the best laid plans fail. When and if plans start failing it is time to dig and plan some more.

Planning 101: Be Proactive

For any project or initiative to succeed, it must be carefully thought out. One of the key qualities of any project manager is to be proactive. This comes because of good planning. Proactively address potential problems and prepare possible ways to fix them while they are still predictions. Challenges like inadequate funds and resources, low staffing, or poor time management – are likely to arise in any plan. Effective planning lets you see them and fix them before they hinder the desired outcomes. 

Pinterest Fail? Evaluate and Pivot

It is easier for teams to pivot from a plan versus starting from scratch. Existing plans guide and ground activity. Even if an initiative or project is failing or failed pivot and plan some more! In the pivot remember the importance of staying positive and true to your brand.

Now is the time to look at the 2022 plan and evaluate what stays in, what stops and what needs to be added. Let’s get ready for the second half and move forward with purpose and intention to thrive the rest of the year. If you need a marketing planning partner, give us a holler!

Recent readings over Spring and Easter Breaks provided four great reminders for me as a business leader. And I hope they do the same for y’all too.

For those of you who do not know, one half of my heart – my son – attends Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, right outside Orlando.

We stayed at one of my favorite beaches over Easter, New Smyrna Beach, which is a hour drive from my “son~shine.” And, where I purchased a beach condo, aka short-term rental investment property, earlier this year. It is affectionately deemed the “money pit.” But that is a blog for another day. I digress.

Reminder One: Be a GD Cheetah

A beach read was Glennon Doyle’s Untamed. She shares a visit to the zoo and the Cheetah Run. The cheetah, Tabitha, is tamed. She performs on queue.

A little girl asked, “Doesn’t she miss the wild?”

Zookeeper comes back with a BS answer.

Doyle writes that Tabitha would sigh and say, “I should be grateful. I have a good enough life here. It is crazy to long for what does not even exist.”

“I’d say: Tabitha. You are not crazy. You are a GD cheetah.”

That had such a profound effect on me. I later cried as I read the excerpt aloud to my daughter. Without the GD, of course. And I asked her to promise me to always be herself. To be a cheetah.

Reminder Two: Finding Leverage

Not as an emotional experience for me, but profound none the less. Reading the latest issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.

Time is our inventory.

An article by Adam Bornstein explores business growth by not necessarily adding more people. Rather, exploring this. “Smart growth is not about spending more time, nor is it about maxing out your time. It is about finding leverage.”

Reminder Three: Damn the Sycophants

I cannot remember what the article was about. It was the word. The word I had to look up.

I was reminded, although sometimes painful, I treasure those around me who are not this.

Surround yourself with talented people. Those who are smarter than you. Formidable team members push back. They may not think like you. But they make the organization better. These folks fill in for your short falls.

Reminder Four: Being Too Efficient

In a past life, I was ultra-organized. I am a Franklin Covey Planner Training Course graduate for heaven’s sake. Organized all the things in my office and life.

Then, I started Front Porch Marketing. And, had my second child at an “advanced maternal age.”

Words quoted from Edward Tenner in another Entrepreneur Magazine article spoke to me. In summary, big business always has the advantage. However, entrepreneurs combine technology with connection to people. Something big companies cannot do.

Jason Feifer, author of the article, cited Blockbuster and Netflix as an example. Early in my career collaborating with folks at Blockbuster and Viacom shaped me into who I am today. And I am eternally grateful for those experiences. I saw how they tried to evolve. As well as saw what was attempted and did not happen. These learnings were invaluable.

So I hope these four reminders for business that I learned this spring will resonate with you too!