All you need is faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust.

Let me start by saying that I love consumer products and definitely need certain things to maintain my level of comfort. A few of my favorite things include: my BlackBerry, iPod Touch, Coach purses, and Banana Republic clothes. Though largely “unnecessary,” I would like to think that these products enhance my life. However, experiences take a product to an entirely new level, one that I believe brings great long-term memories and satisfaction. As much as I like all these products, they cannot top the experience that I had seeing Taylor Swift at my first concert or the wind that I felt in my hair when I visited the Golden Gate Bridge. Experiences are defined as: involving the entire living being; resulting from direct observation and/or participation in events – whether they are real, dreamlike, or virtual; and complex, but can be categorized. Given this definition, my most meaningful customer experience is visiting a Disney theme park.

Disney parks are a very personal experience for me. The Walt Disney Company, as a whole, makes up a significant part of my life. My walls are adorned with Disney artwork, Disney songs crowd my iTunes, and reading Disney online news is as much a part of my daily routine as taking a shower. However, I am going to focus on the actual experience of visiting a Disney theme park.

I’ve been a avid Disney fan for the past decade, frequenting both the California and Florida resorts. For me, and many others, the Disney “experience” begins when I start planning my vacation. I can tell you that my Walt Disney World vacation is 79 days from today. (Disney conveniently provides a counter on their website, as proof that guests are so excited about their vacation that they count down each and every day.) For me, the entire vacation process is an experience, from booking the flight/planning the car trip, to packing, to making restaurant reservations, to hardly being able to fall asleep the night before. A trip to a Disney theme park overwhelms my senses to the point that it is difficult to describe in words. Disney is about family, friends, not acting my age, wishes, relaxation and, in short, pure magic.

Disney theme parks fit several of the Strategic Experiential Modules. However, for the typical theme park patron, it most clearly fits into the SENSE module, which are sensory experiences created through sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.

• Sight: Disney theme parks always have a large icon (which, interestingly enough, Walt Disney coined a “weenie”) that serves as the center of the park. Disneyland has Sleeping Beauty Castle, Animal Kingdom has the Tree of Life, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios has Mickey’s Sorcerer Hat. Besides making a great photo opportunity, these icons are very tall and can be seen before entering the park, sometimes, miles away. These icons serve to build excitement and enthusiasm about the fun that waits inside the gate.

• Sound: The moment that you approach the perimeter of a Disney park, you are surrounded on all ends by Disney music. Like the park icons, this builds excitement and helps to set the tone of the park. At Animal Kingdom, you will hear jungle sounds, while at the Magic Kingdom you’ll hear songs sung by the Disney princesses. Background music is not always noticed at a conscious level, but it plays a huge role in the overall theme park experience. I have several Disney soundtracks that I listen to between trips so that I can close my eyes and imagine that I am in the park.

• Taste: As any Disney fan knows, certain foods are unique to the parks, such as pineapple Dole whips, Mickey ice cream bars, and turkey legs. When I visit a Disney park, I look forward to eating certain foods because I have so strongly associated them with my vacation. (Side note: Many of these foods have changed as a result of me recently becoming vegan.) Disney also does a great job of theming their foods to the land or park in which they are located. You can eat pineapple soft serve while you are waiting to watch the Enchanted Tiki Room, where Polynesian birds sing. In this case, pineapple soft serve enhances this experience, because pineapple and fruits are associated with tropical islands. Likewise, Disneyland serves gumbo in their land themed after New Orleans.

• Touch: Disney parks are a very sensory experience, and touch is no different. One of the best ways that Disney utilizes this sense is the change in pavement texture as you walk from one “land” to another. In Fantasyland, there is cobblestone, while there is wood in Frontierland, and rougher pathways in Adventureland. Ride vehicles and the way that each one is designed for a different feel also helps to enhance each individual experience.

• Smell: Disney intentionally controls certain smell, while other ones are natural. For example, when you enter Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom, you find yourself on Main Street, U.S.A., at the turn of the 20th century. Shops and restaurants line the street and you find yourself consumed with the smell of fresh cookies. Incidentally, Disney pumps certain scents into the air in order to drive you into their bakery. Intentionally or not, these scents add to the overall customer experience by involving all the human senses. I could describe a number of other scents that make me think of Disney parks, from the musky smell of the Pirates of the Caribbean boats, to the strange, distinctive smell that emits from the jeeps at the Dinosaur ride.

In addition to being a sensory experience, Disney is also incredibly emotional, placing it under FEEL marketing as well. Disney is widely associated with magic, dreams, wishes, and family fun. A child’s first trip to a Disney park is considered a rite of passage for many parents. Many young couples get engaged, or even married, in front of Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom. The beauty of Disney parks is that they are cherished around the world by people of different ages, backgrounds, and walks of life.

Because Disney is such a personal experience for me, I could abstractly place it into the remaining experiential frameworks of THINK, ACT, and RELATE. As cliché as it sounds, the philosophy of Walt Disney and the entertainment empire that he built from humble beginnings does encourage me to think about chasing my dreams as much as I can. I feel that I am able to relate to certain Disney characters in some ways. I acted upon my lifelong dream of working for Disney and I took a semester of from school to go to Walt Disney World, because I believed wholeheartedly in the company so much.

Experiences are a very personal thing, but also largely subjective. While Disney parks are an amazing holistic sensory experience for me, many people could visit Disneyland (the product) in the exact same way and not have the “experience” that do. For example, I took my best friend to Disneyland hoping that she would share in my love of the Disney magic. While she had a fun time, it was not anything that she wanted to write home about. In short, she just “didn’t get it,” (“it” being the Disney magic). In order to create suitable experiences, it is crucial to understand the consumer, and their motive and usage of the product. There may be universal products, but there are few universal experiences.

I am concluding with this video, because it sums up everything that I just said and demonstrates why Disney is the ultimate consumer experience.

Personal Persona

The most difficult challenge of creating a persona is to include details that provide key insights, while still being general enough to apply to a greater segment of the population. A persona seems to serve as a bridge between the general segment and different individuals. As I wrote the persona for “Elizabeth,” I found that insights seemed to jump out at me, and that those stories and experiences that often seem trivial really are not.

Elizabeth – Budding Young Professional
Age: early to mid-20s (i.e. “20-something”)
Education: Undergraduate degree from a public university
Income (post-college): $40,000 – $48,000

Elizabeth is a 20-something who is making her transition from college to the real world, or already in the first two years of her career. She is educated with a bachelor’s degree from a large public university. Elizabeth earned good grades in college and is very bright, but was not a “star” graduate.

Sometimes Elizabeth has trouble finding her niche, both in social situations, job opportunities, and even with the products that she uses. She is fashionable, but her style is still closer to the girl next door than models on the runway. Elizabeth enjoys learning and intellectual conversation, and has difficultly striking the right balance between finding professional friends who are on the same intellectual level, while still sharing some of her more superficial interests. Elizabeth enjoys country music, though she is clearly a city girl. She listens to mostly mainstream music, and an avid user of the iPod touch. She also enjoys Broadway musicals, such as Wicked, Jersey Boys, and The Lion King. Elizabeth loves analyzing lyrics to any song, and always tries to find a connection to her life. She also enjoys using lines from her favorite songs in everyday conversation because she feels that some songs were practically written for her.

Heath is very important to Elizabeth, who buys largely organic food at local co-ops or Whole Foods. She enjoys cooking both for the health aspects and the monetary savings. Elizabeth subscribes to cooking magazines and frequently finds new recipes on websites and blogs. However, Elizabeth does enjoy going out to eat and it is one of her most common social outings with friends. Elizabeth looks for restaurants that are trendy, but still cater to health conscious customers. Elizabeth is typically the one to make restaurant decisions among her friends because she has been deemed as the most picky. She recently became vegan for the health aspects associated with that lifestyle. Again, Elizabeth finds difficultly establishing her identity as a vegan because she does not fit the vegan stereotype of a hippie, anti-conformist, PETA member. Elizabeth strives to show people that vegans can be normal, healthy people who still enjoy corporate American and eating great food, beyond only salads. Elizabeth always sets a goal to work out, but generally feels that eating healthy is more important than physical activity. If she does work out, she is more likely to do Pilates at home then go a gym where she feels intimidated by more athletic individuals.

One stereotype that Elizabeth does fit is the Type A personality. Elizabeth believes that sleep is overrated and generally waits for her body to send a signal that it’s exhausted before going to sleep. She enjoys setting alarms and checks email on her BlackBerry before getting out of bed. She has a love-hate relationship with the BlackBerry, as she loves the keyboard but hates the browser. Elizabeth always wants to be accessible to people who want to contact her, and rarely goes longer than a few hours without responding to texts, emails, or phone calls. She is also constantly connected to the web, an avid user of Facebook, and reader of online news sources. Elizabeth enjoys watching prime time TV, but tends to watch increasing amounts of shows online after they air, due to her busy schedule. She loves to-do lists and sometimes puts simple things like cooking, cleaning, and shopping on lists, along with more substantial activities, so that she can feel good as she formally checks these things off. Elizabeth still prefers paper agendas and lists to online calendars, and typically color coordinates recurring events.

Elizabeth always ensures adequate time to get herself ready in the morning. She gets up at least two hours before she has to be somewhere because rushing around makes her stressed. Elizabeth firmly believes that she cannot be her best at school, work, etc. without looking her best. The best way to describe her style is consistent. Elizabeth lives by the philosophy that you never know whom you will meet anywhere you go, so you should always be presentable. Elizabeth generally wears her hair and makeup in the same way, using a mix of drug store and higher-end products. She mentally plans outfits for a week, and tries to match each outfit to the situation. Her overwhelmingly favorite place to shop is Banana Republic, with a smaller mix from Tommy Hilfiger, Express, and American Eagle. Elizabeth is passionate about retail, and takes a considerable amount of time trying on clothes and making purchase decisions. She prefers to shop alone because she does not feel guilty about keeping the other person waiting.

Elizabeth is very much a planner, and has difficulty injecting more spontaneity to her life. She believes that every minute of everyday should be productive, from work to social outings. She is frustrated when friends call her to hang out at the last minute, but welcomes making plans days in advance. Elizabeth thrives on stress, and becomes very frustrated when people tell her not to stress out. She is an introvert on the outside, but an extrovert on the inside and enjoys talking to people, particularly people that she knows very well. Elizabeth does not focus on adding casual acquaintances, but rather building strong relationships with a few key friends. Elizabeth is an only child and is still extremely close to her parents. Being an only child is something else that Elizabeth constantly gets negative comments about, much like being vegan. Unfortunately, Elizabeth largely fits the only child stereotype that all academic literature has produced.

To sum up: Elizabeth – 20-something hopeful young professional, focused on climbing the corporate ladder and hoping that relationships will sort themselves out along the way. The girl next door with a twist.