Despite Disneyland Paris fans talking
about Light'Ears for about a year, it takes a bit more work
for the general public and Disneyland Paris guests to understand the
concept of the product they are being asked to buy. Add to that the
European guests buying habits and perhaps you have a recipe for
disaster? We already know that in the past Disney have got it very
wrong with the European consumers, the way we consume and buy is
quite different to that of the American market. Happily, Disney have
learnt from mistakes made at Euro Disneyland and moved on to create a
Hong Kong Disneyland that takes into account the cultural habits of
the people of Hong Kong, and indeed they will be certain to do the
same in Shanghai for the upcoming Shanghai Disney Resort, in this
regard, Disneyland Paris's original failures have improved the future
for all resorts. The perfect example of getting European consumers
wrong was the original policy of having no alcohol in the park (thus
matching the parks American cousins), Europeans did not agree to this policy as
alcohol is a larger part of European culture and so Euro Disney management
reversed the decision and alcohol was served in Disneyland Paris.
Having said that, there is no real evidence that Light'Ears would be
a failure in Disneyland Paris, and in our opinion they are not a
failure; however there is no real success story either. We've taken
thoughts from you, our readers, and taken our own observations to
analyse Light'Ears in Europe (and to some extent Glow with the Show
in Disneyland Resort in California).
Point 1: Marketing and
Sales
There
is no nice way of putting this I'm afraid. Light'Ear marketing is
poor, very poor. In fact we are glad we knew what Light'Ears were and
how they interacted with Disney Dreams! As there was no real mention
to it in the promotional material given in the parks. We visited
every hotel in the main resort area and every shop
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| But what do they actually do? |
in Disney Village
and Disneyland Park to study the marketing and it really was shoddy.
Essentially what we are told in the shop displays are that these are
Light'Ears and that they are €20. Nothing more. Which, as a Disney
fan is quite disappointing; we've all seen the press event videos
presented to us by various Disney fansites, and Disneyland Paris
themselves and have seen them as an amazing piece of technology that
really could change the way we view Disney Dreams! forever. However,
that potential will not be realised due to, in part, Disneyland Paris
not telling guests what they do.
On the face of it, during the
daytime, these ears are a garishly coloured bonnet with white ears.
It is only at night where
these lights come into a life of their own. The problem is,
Disneyland Paris have not advertised this during the daytime hours.
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| This is the only image anywhere in the resort showing what the ears actually do |
The
image above is the only image in the entire
resort of hat Light'Ears
actually do, a small static image placed high up and slightly
obscured. If anyone is likely
to purchase these ears, it
will be guests in hotels staying multiple nights. We took a walk
through the Disneyland Paris resort hotels to take a look at how they
were being marketed to guests there. If anything, guests here will
see them as an investment right?
 |
| An impressive window display in the Hotel New York |
Regrettably,
Disneyland Paris seems to not think that this captive audience are
more likely to buy the ears than a day trip guest; aside from the
occasional window display, the displays are the exact same as in
Disney Village and Disneyland Park, equally as uninviting and
nondescript.
The only advantage to the
hotels is that guests will have hopefully seen them in action and
have been convinced enough by them to actually purchase a pair.
 |
| Look at the pretty colours |
Our first visit to Disneyland Paris was in 1999, since
then we've remembered the outdoor summer sellers of various light up
merchandise. From the light spinners to the hair band ear hats, this
sales tactic has clearly proven popular with Disney Parks customers
as often hundreds of these light up merchandise can be seen upon exiting the park, mostly due to children falling in love with the merchandise and
wanting it. It is therefore no surprise that this tactic has been
deployed to sell the Disney Light'Ears. We saw the old Emporium
outdoor sales units being used as well as the pin trading bike to
bring Light'Ears up and down Main Street U.S.A.
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| Guests seem interested in Light'Ears |
From
what we saw, guest were interested in the ears; every time we moved
nearby a mobile unit there were a good number of guests taking a
look, trying them on and perhaps even purchasing them. There
is a certain charm about Light'Ears at night, the colours are vibrant
and as more people bought them, others wanted to join in. We were
asked a few times where we bought the ears from, this was certainly
encouraging.
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| Summer outdoor sales of old |
The Disney Store in Europe are selling these ears for
£18 (UK) €20 (FR), with a personalisation option. If the marketing
was good enough, people could be tempted to buy them before their
holiday and thus not add to the increasingly important holiday
budget. It's a small psychological step, that could allow for major
gains. The personalisation, despite its price could be a big draw for
some as they become a much more personal buy, however we have no idea
how Disney Store's personalisation options sell, at the price (£4.95), we
imagine that most won't bother with it. We searched Light'Ear on both
UK and France stores, the UK recognised the search term and displayed
the item we wanted, the French store, however, did not recognise
Light'Ear, instead only showing when I searched 'Oreille'. Not really
ideal given the in park publicity calls them Light'Ears if Disney
fans can't find them by searching their actual name.
Perhaps the most important point to mention here is
Disney Store's facebook publicity, which finally explicitly mentions
the fact that they light up to the Disney Dreams! Show and even
contains the promo images that we all marvelled at in April.
Finally, park literature does advertise these ears, but
only in a minimalistic way. For example your weekly programme (Times
guide for our American friends) has a small advertisement at the top
of the page.
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| In park advertising |
The advert certainly is attention grabbing, and is very
clear as to what they actually do. Perhaps the best advertisement in
the resort for the product but we have an issue at Disneyland Paris
where not nearly as many people pick up the programme than the map.
The map however advertises them in a much more minimal way, a small
text advert (much like the one above) on the rear of the map (the
tips for the day, which everybody generally ignores), and a small
icon on the 20th anniversary specials on the park map.
However, I do agree that marketing on the map really is
a difficult one. I think it's been managed in the best possible way,
a map is a functional item; not so much to set up a purchase.
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| When night falls, CMs do their best to sell the ears. |
Point
2: Guest Takeup
Some of us realised that those press event images were a
one off, others dreamed of a press event scenario every night where a
sea of Light'Ears would illuminate Main Street USA. The reality
unfortunately varies every night depending on the guests of the day.
Depending on which view you took upon launch will perhaps affect the
way you see guest take-up. Each night at Disneyland Paris, perhaps a
hundred or so people wear these ears, which is perhaps similar, if
not a little bit better than our Californian cousins. Either way,
compared to the thousands of visitors to Disneyland Paris each day,
the turnout really isn't particularly great. We had two different
experiences, which you can read in our review. Ideally, a good guest
take-up would breed more Light'Ear purchases as it wouldn't be seen
as a worthless investment of €20 to not even benefit from the ears.
We asked our twitter followers their thoughts on Light'Ears:
@manicSara mentioned that she doesn't go to Disneyland
Paris often enough to see it as a worthwhile investment. Which we
understand, if you were only visiting Disneyland Paris on a day trip,
there are so many better things to spend money on, perhaps if you
were having a 3,4 or 5 night stay, the price per show drops. Local
residents will get the best value from these ears.
@imaginat1on told us that he wouldn't even be bringing
the pair he was given at Disneyland Resort for the World of Color
show, again we understand this point of view. These are a pain to
travel with, some people just don't like them and if you aren't
staying at an on site hotel you have to carry them around all day,
and no, they do not easily fold down. He told us that the DLR take up
was extremely slow.
@DLRPRoundup was more positive telling us that he
believes potential exists for them to be expanded even further (such
as at Disneyland Resort), they could be synchronised with shows,
attractions and more. We agree, this could be the start of a really
exciting development and would really help boost take-up! Otherwise,
these ears are essentially good for 23 minutes.
@Seiter_Klaudia mentioned the steep price mark. €20
doesn't sound a lot of money, but as soon as you think about a family
of 4 or 5 people, those €20 very quickly begin to add up and become
quite unsupportable. A one off €20 is a lot anyway, but as soon as
you hit that €100, that is a massive turn off.
We thank our twitter followers for their thoughts.
In the park we noticed a few things, people wanted
to buy Light'Ears, we were asked where we got them, others looked at
the ears during the show and were enchanted by what they saw. We saw
a few guests looking at buying them as they left the park, perhaps to
return with them another day? One of our stranger observations was at
the start of the show, as the earmitters begin to transmit and Main
Street USA is plunged into darkness, the ears actually turn off for a
few seconds. This caused a couple of guests near us to take them off
their head, thought that perhaps they had been deactivated and take
them off for the duration of the show.
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| However, to say Light'Ears don't sell is a lie. Take here at the Disneyland Hotel for example. |
Point
3: Guest Issues
European and American Disney Parks guests are different.
Generally speaking, Disneyland Paris does a great job in recognising
this and acting upon it. Mickey Mouse ears have never taken off in
our European park in the way that they have over at Disneyland or
Walt Disney World, does that mean that Light'Ears (which essentially
are a very similar product) won't sell? Not at all, if we've learnt
one thing, it is that novelty hats sell. Countless hundreds of guests
each day visit the stores and buy those big blue sorcerer Mickey
hats, thousands more take photos of themselves wearing the hats. So
hats sell, and light up merchandise sells. So would a combination of
the two sell? Logic would say yes, but European consumers are not
especially 'logical' in this sense. European consumers are quite calculating and
rarely buy something without thinking. A €20 hat for a 20 minute
show, whereas this sorcerer mickey hat is €21 and can be worn all
day; Sorcerer Mickey hat wins every time.
Add onto this that perhaps consumers do not know what
the hats actually do, perhaps they are seen as obtrusive (as
Disneyland Paris fan and guest @Timekeeper mentioned, a guest asked
him to take off his ears as they couldn't see). European guests need
to be educated and persuaded. A price decrease would certainly
persuade more Europeans to take the plunge.
Point
4:
Our Suggestions
Despite this article generally criticising Light'Ears
and the marketing of them, we are actually very favourable of the
product, in fact we gave them five stars. We believe the potential
exists for these Light'Ears to be a huge success, the aim of this
article was to point our flaws and to hopefully allow those to be
improved. However, we have thought up some suggestions of our own
that we would like to see implemented.
Our first idea is to give hotel guests a pair. Using the
logic of 'success breeds success' we think that more Light'Ears on
central plaza would actually sell more Light'Ears. Now, this doesn't
have to be a something for nothing type idea. Perhaps raising package
prices by a very tiny sum would cover the cost of this. People plan a
finite sum of spending money for their trips, especially in the
current tough economic climate. Perhaps by including them in the
price of the holiday you'll very sneakily get round this. The more
Light'Ears people see in Main Street USA, the more they are likely to
think that buying a pair would be beneficial. And besides, checking
into the hotel and having a little gift on the bed could make people
come back. It's the little things that make the Disney difference.
A reserved area for viewing the show for Light'Ear
owners. Another way of making people believe that there are more
Light'Ears than there actually are is to group them all together. Not
only that, but the promise of a good spot AND a near guaranteed view
of other Light'Ears might persuade a purchase. At the moment the
potentiality exists that guests will buy a pair and not see the
benefit. As more and more people come back with their ears, the
reserved area could be expanded initially before finally being
retired as hopefully enough people will be on Main Street each day
with their ears. We heard the rumour was that a plan to have an area
like that was envisaged, we'd love to see it come to fruition.
Using Light'Ears to synchronise up to Disney's
Fantilusion parade would be perfect. First of all, you have a clear
parade route to move up and down Main Street USA to sell the ears,
rather than the busy street where the sellers can't access the people
nearest the castle, secondly the ears synchronising with the parade
would be that perfect advertisement for more Light'Ears to be sold
for Disney Dreams!
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| They look amazing at night. The colours are vibrant. |
A big critique I have of Light'Ears at the moment is the
poor marketing in the Disneyland Paris stores, a video advertising
screen at each Light'Ear point of sale would make for an interactive
sales experience with a clear illustration of what the ears actually
do. We feel that this would improve sales as they will no longer be
seen as 'just a mickey hat with lights'.
We recently heard from our friends at DLRP Express that
Disneyland Paris have added announcements at 15 minutes before the
show advising guests that it is time to turn on their Light'Ears and
prepare to synchronise with the show, thus doing two things. Advising
guests that have already purchased the ears that there really is more
than meets the eye to the hats, and advising those who have not got a
pair that these aren't going to irritate you during the show; in fact
they are going to enhance your show. Now, we believe that this
announcement comes to late. In the summer with 15 minutes to go, you
are in your place and you won't move to buy a pair of ears. (We
realise this isn't a sales announcement), however this announcement
perhaps 15 minutes earlier could facilitate more purchases without
even changing the announcement wording, in a way this is very sly
advertising. Advertising with blatantly advertising.
Finally, we know our friend @plazagardens would like to
see a sort of offer system. Be it a buy one get one free offer, or
buy 3 pairs and get the 4th free or even half price ears
through a receipt at a Disneyland Paris restaurant (such as the free
drink offer).
We hope this article has outlined some of our concerns
about Light'Ears in a constructive manner, and also provided plenty
of positive points. Once again, we are very positive about Light'Ears
here and their future direction (as shown by our eagerness to get a
pair!), but we feel that there really is work to be done and that
Disneyland Paris, should and can easily commit themselves to this
products long term future, of which we have not doubt that there will
be one.
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| Good night from Town Square |
DLP Town Square tried out Light'Ears in August 2013, and gave them five stars in our recent review. Once again, this wasn't an article to criticise Disneyland Paris, more to point out flaws in the hope of improving the future.
We'd love to hear your opinion, comment below or tweet us @dlptownsquare
The Glow with the Show technology debuted in Disneyland Resort in the Summer of 2012 to widespread 
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