Providing for a niche seemed to favor one company over the other.

Of all the strategies used by theme parks, providing for a niche seemed to favor one company over the other. The statement almost always referred to Universal Studios capturing the young adult market or conversely failing to capture the family market. In 1999, Newsweek notes: “the park is Universal’s $2.7 billion gamble that it can attract older thrill-seeking kids”. That same year, The Charlotte Observer notes: “Universal Florida has scored high marks from teens and young adults over the past 10 years”.

Most allusions to Walt Disney World are about its lack of appeal for teenagers and its capture of the family market. In 1990, Newsweek notes: “the sole chink in Disney’s armor, some industry analysts says, is that its parks don’t appeal strongly to teenagers”. The same year the USA News & World Report notes: “the Disney-MGM park clearly emphasizes fun over fright and is perhaps better suited for young children”. Nine years later, a source in The Denver Post perceived that “Disney owns early childhood”. Kids are a strength for Walt Disney World, a fact clearly noted in the popular media outlets observed in this study.

For the most part, media polarized the two companies. If one theme park lacked something, the competitor filled the gap. That is probably why the two companies seem to have successfully co-existed for so long – they are so different. More recently, however, the two parties fought over a niche market. In 2004, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes: “these days, Disney and Universal are locked in an escalating competition, and it’s all about pushing new, fantastically expensive and elaborate rides aimed at adrenaline junkies”.

Other than thrill-seekers and children, several other niche markets turn up periodically in the data. Most controversial was the offering of services for upper-class consumers. In 2003, the USA News & World Report notes: “then there’s the VIP tour, you just have to ask (and pay)”. Both Universal Studios and Walt Disney World now provide services for their more affluent clientele, a strategy that is more visible in the media in recent years.

Of all the strategies examined here, this one most closely related to quality, and the two were often paired together. For this reason, luxury was often found as a potential strategy. The reason it did not become a recognized category is because statements about the upper class nearly always referred to either a niche focus or a quality focus. Also, where other strategies highlighted the parks’ extreme renovation or development budgets, niche was only mentioned once.

Convenience

Convenience appeared 20 times in the mass media analyzed, or 8.89 per cent of all the statements collected. The most common year for convenience was in 1999, although overall, it appeared more frequently after the year 1999. Half of the statements collected were from 2000 to 2008, and that proportion jumped to 75 per cent if 1999 is included. Convenience was the only strategy of the eight that was most present in the twenty-first century.

Saving time was the primary convenience-related theme. It ranged from spending less time waiting in lines to being able to move between theme parks quickly. Transportation was the most common focus related to saving time. In 1999, the New York Times suggested: “[Universal Studio’s] compactness – the three sections are an easy walk from one another [. . .] – is an advantage for those with limited time”. In 1990, the USA News & World Report claimed:

Disney is making it highly attractive to stay on Disney property and visit only its attractions. Frequent shuttle service runs tourists from Disney’s 15 on-site hotels [. . .] to the Disney-MGM park, for instance.

Building quicker ways to get around town was a strategy for both theme parks consistently. One of the earliest mentions was in 1990 from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noting the following:

[. . .] the Starway is a planned 900-foot-long, light-bedecked moving walkway designed to scoop up park visitors at the top of the mammoth Universal City hill and gently whisk them to the valley below.

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There were few mentions of waiting in theme park lines, a common concern for theme parks. In 2000, a New York Times article notes the following:

[. . .] guests who stay at one of the two hotels on the ground of Universal Orlando [. . .] now step right in any time the parks are open – and not have to wait.

In the convenience category, short lines were mentioned only four times, all in the twenty-first century.

Value

Value did not show up as a primary concern for theme parks in the mass media. This could be because theme parks are normally a vacation destination, and therefore, people have already committed to spending large sums of money for the experience. Value appeared only 20 times out of the 225 collected statements, matching convenience in frequency. However, value was more stratified than convenience and niche strategies. Value was not evident until the 1990s.

Nearly every reference to value by either Walt Disney World or Universal Studios was in the form of discounted tickets or ticket packages. Most interesting were the references that indicated pricing models designed to make guests think they were getting more value. In 2013, Time Magazine notes: “the point of such a pricing structure is to make the multi-day passes look like bargains, relatively speaking, compared to the rip-off that is the single-day ticket”. According to the Los Angeles Times in 1990:

[. . .] tourists [. . .] tend to buy the passes because at $102 apiece they’re a better deal than the $31 it would cost to enter any one of the facility’s parks for just one day.

Both companies used this strategy to bring in more guests for longer periods of time.

Over the years, there was an observable trend of the parks offering longer packages to sustain their competitive advantages, thus, continuing the value strategy into the twenty-first century. In 1990, the USA News & World Report notes the following:

[. . .] by eliminating its popular $80 three-day pass in favor of four- and five-day admission tickets that costs $100 and $117 respectively per adult, Disney recently made it more expensive for tourists to spend a day elsewhere.

Thirteen years later, the Orlando Sentinel notes: “Walt Disney World [. . .] will offer a seven-day package for the price of four as it tries to bring back tourists who have stayed away because of war worries”.

Providing value has been described for decades in business and tourism research (Buhalis, 2000; Porter, 1980), and it was the first strategy identified in this study. Value is also the only strategy with direct references to the Florida theme park sector in the academic literature (Braun and Milman, 1994).

Quality

The least mentioned strategy for the theme park sector was quality. It appeared only 12 times, or 5.33 per cent of the data collected. Quality existed in only six years of the mass media: 1989, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2008. It appeared most frequently in 1990.

Most of the data in this category focused on providing quality lodging. Luxury is commonly mentioned to attract new clientele. In 1990, Entertainment Weekly highlighted a guest’s experiences to illustrate the quality of theme park accommodations:

But once we got there, the sheer beauty of it all – lovely combinations of the grand and the grandiose, the intimidating and the user-friendly, the overdone and the just right – was tremendously energizing.

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Disney and Universal acknowledge directly that quality is important in their business. In 1989, the St. Petersburg Times notes: “history has proved the quality present is what the public wants”. Nearly 20 years later, the Orlando Sentinel notes: “both Universal and Disney insist that the immersion of customers into a good story, not the latest technology, must remain the foundation of their attractions”.

Whether or not the media acknowledges the importance of quality as frequently as other strategies, the academic community speaks frequently about its relevance (Augustyn and Ho, 1998; Fyall et al., 2008; Kandampully, 2000; LeBoeuf, 1987; Mayer, 2002; Parasuraman et al., 1990; Porter, 1980). According to Augustyn and Ho (1998), customers are becoming increasingly more sensitive to quality, so it stands to reason theme parks must consider quality an important strategy.