Assignment: Question one, essay on Merlin
Word count: 1,406
The purpose of this essay is to investigate future pricing policy for Merlin for the tower. A brief review of Merlin’s management of the Blackpool Tower will be highlighted, and then using economic tools of analysis, it will clarify the concept of pricing discrimination and how companies use prices to attract certain kinds of customer. Followed by, the use of price and attendance data from other attractions, such as Camelot and Alton Towers to support the argument. Finally the essay will come to a conclusion.
`Merlin Entertainment in 2010 took over the management of Blackpool Tower, one of the U.K.’s more iconic tourist attractions. The Tower was built in 1894, and
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This should also bring supplementary visitor spending of £36 million and create up to new 1,000 jobs (The Times of London, 2010). Placing these figures in a demand curve will show a dramatic change (See Figure 3, Appendix 1)
It is recommended a bit of both first and third pricing discrimination for Merlin. It is recommended that prices be raised, overall, as the service offering is improved. Recommending discounts for family groups, senior citizens, the disabled, and college students. Under prior management, entrance to the tower was priced at £17 for adults, £14 for seniors and children payable at the door, with a £3 discount for those booking online. For this, customers gained access to all facilities, as well as admission to the circus show. Merlin has the monopoly of the market therefore having market share in the entertainment sector put Merlin in advantage.
By recommending, as averred above, a very aggressive price discrimination strategy for Merlin’s as part of its pricing strategy for this project, and as a means to differentiate the theme park’s offerings from those of rivals, Camelot and Alton Towers. But this will be accompanied by other marketing changes. Rival Camelot currently charges £24 for adults’ entry to its theme park, the same price for children over a meter tall, and £15 for senior citizens. Alton Towers charges £31.68 for an adult ticket, £24.48 for a child, and does not offer a senior
Thorpe Park is a theme park located in Chertsey surrey and is owned by a company called Merlin entertainments, and is the second largest location based entertainments business in the world. The only company that is bigger than Merlin Entertainments is Disney world.
Thorpe Park is already at a stage where they are on track to become the world’s largest entertainments business, with Disney the only company standing in their way.
Thorpe Park Resort is a theme Park in Chertsey, England. Thorpe Park was built in 1979 on the partially flooded gravel pit which was left after the demolition of Thorpe Park Estate in the 1930s. Thorpe Park is owned and operated by Merlin entertainments. Usually kids above eight years with parents, teens and young adults aged 16-24 who are thrill seekers are the main target audience of Thorpe Park. Thorpe Park Resort now operates three yearly events. Club nights occur every Saturday night a month from April to September which features known music artists playing a variety of themed nights. Summer Nights are held when the Park reopens after a normal day on Friday while Fright Nights is Thorpe Park's Halloween event, an annual event that has been running at Thorpe Park since 2002 (Bigné et al., 2005). Organization are faced with various challenges and just like any other organization Thorpe Park has management challenges which affect the smooth flow of operations. Such challenges need to be addressed and the necessary recommendation put in place to ensure proper running to satisfy visitors, the company workers and directors. This paper is focuses on some of the management issues at Thorpe Park resort on human resources, and on customers experience and quality of services offered.
Barack Obama, and Mary Stewart. They do not seem to have much in common, and in reality they do not, except they both share the title of being the only one to have done something. One is the only black president, and as for Mrs. Stewart, well she was the only person to have created a Merlin that we could empathize with. One who seems, well exactly what he is, human. According to Professor Thomas Hoberg, what I’ve said above is true. He claims that Mary Stewart, and Mary Stewart only, has managed to make Merlin into such a character, a view I agree with completely.
Euro Disney marketers have recognized a trend. People are going to theme parks during the weekends for adults as well as children entertainment. Indeed, there is an existing need for entertainment of this kind. Therefore, an opportunity exists in the European market that Euro Disney could have taken advantage of.
The legend of King Arthur has inspired, and continues to inspire, many retellings of the well known stories and cast of characters. Ranging from film to literature to art, these retellings often include depictions of two key characters in the legend: King Arthur and and the wizard Merlin. Disney’s The Sword and the Stone (1963) and the British Broadcasting Corporation program Merlin (2008-2012) both showcase the relationship between Merlin and Arthur in the development of Arthur, but they differ in approach; in the animated version, Merlin assumes the role of a mentor while the television program depicts Merlin as a friend to Arthur.
In all the long history of literature, some fictional characters have loomed above others, written about again and again by various authors of various eras. Arthurian literature is one area of fiction that has always been popular for writers to recreate in new versions, and one of the most intriguing characters of all Arthurian literature is Merlin, the magician/ prophet who aids Arthur early in his reign. As the Arthurian saga develops, so does Merlin, changing from an aloof, druidical character into a more human, magical being, though always retaining some traces of his Welsh origins.
The Warsaw Marriott case that’s assessed in this paper is a decision case where Stan Bruns (at the time general manager of the Warsaw Marriott) had to make important decisions regarding its pricing strategy and think of ways to protect Marriott’s work force from its comp set.
The anticipation of heightened demand dynamically affects admission price for theme parks. Walt Disney World and Disneyland recently introduced variable pricing in 2016 so that park tickets will cost more during holidays and peak period weekends. This only applies to one-day tickets, and not multi-day packages. Disney’s major competitor, Comcast’s Universal Studios, has also adopted demand-based pricing. One difference though, is that their system provides incentives for visiting on off-peak days, and/or booking tickets online in advance. Guests can get $5 to $20 off the walk-up price, with the bigger discounts saved for midweek, low-demand periods. A variety of other discounts, packages, and promotions are available to guests that are all designed to bring down the per-day admissions cost for visitors, while simultaneously ensuring a longer stay for guests. A longer stay is a win-win situation because it means more money spent overall at theme parks, restaurants, hotels, and gift shops.
from issuing any more of his verse for a period of ten years. During these ten
In the article, “Price discrimination land”, reporters explained how Disneyland will be implementing peak pricing. Peak pricing is congested pricing where customers pay an additional fee during periods of high demand. Also, Disney have already introduced surge pricing in February 2016. Surge pricing, is the temporary increase of a service because the demand is extremely high. The article compares Disney’s surge pricing to the well known company, Uber, explaining that when the mechanisms were disabled a various amount of issues took place. Further studies shows, that Disneyland is not participating in surge pricing but they are participating in, price discrimination In class we learned that price discrimination is the action of selling the same
The Blackpool tower was reopened after it had the 10 month restoration programme. This restoration projected, was trying to encourage the families to stay longer at the resort. This meant that they had to reinvest in £20 million of the tower and the promenade. The Blackpool tower eye has a floor to ceiling glass; this is good because people can look at the coastline. Other features that were introduced at Blackpool is the 4D cinema and it also has the vibrating floor.
The range of service also warrants a higher price of the race tickets. In this case, the Esplanade Steps Premier Grandstand Seats were priced at $2,588 as it offered a bevy of services ranging from exclusive gifts to premium meal services and a complimentary open bar. Although there is extra cost for providing these services, the ticket price reflected is not proportionate to these costs. As such product-form pricing is clearly highlighted.
Once the visitors are in the Castle, they can access many attractions. For adults, they can enjoy the art and historical display; children can experience the outdoor playground and some indoor displays which are design for kids on ground floor. Furthermore, Nottingham Castle hold different events and tours throughout the year. (Table 1) These information shows that Nottingham Castle provides high variety of services. However, when there is no special event, the outdoor facilities
Given that a vacation to a theme park is more of a luxury good and not a necessity, people will not spend their money on it unless they have extra disposable income or high purchasing power for they would rather use the money on basic necessities first. As such, demand for a vacation at a theme park is highly price elastic. This means that when prices increase, demand for the product will decrease more than proportionately and the organization will experience a decline in profits. On the other hand, when prices decreases, demand for the product will increase more than proportionately and the organization will experience an increase in profits. As such, theme park organizations need to be very careful about their pricing strategies for they can result in drastic effects on total revenue and profits which the organization can earn.