STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD: A Short Guide to Creating Remarkable Visitor Attractions

Philip Drake - March 2024

*Main photo by Photo by Joseph Chan on Unsplash*

Understanding how Differentiation, Positioning and Feasibility can be used to
create unique and exceptional attractions and theme park developments.

Abstract:

In this short guide, we will look at how to develop strategies to “Stand Out From the Crowd” when developing a new Visitor Attraction, Theme Park, Tourism venues or Themed Entertainment destination.

Phase 1: The Red pill or the Blue pill?

It’s no surprise that one of the main goals of any business is to stand out from your competitors. I remember from my Business School basics that developing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is Business Plan- Day 1. Of course, you need to have something that sets you apart from competitors and a reason for customers to come to your business, rather than someone else’s.

At the outset, there are two main roads you can take – a lower price than everyone else or uniquely different to everyone else.

Lower Price

If you can deliver the same quality of product, service or experience as your competitors at a significantly lower cost then you will certainly get customers attention. This is not always simple or sustainable and might work well for some base products, with no value-adding, but I would struggle to think of a single part of the Experience Economy that would fit that description. Furthermore, if you can do it cheaper, pretty soon someone is going to figure out how to go cheaper again – and then it’s just a race to mediocrity or bankruptcy.

Uniquely Different

Notwithstanding that in a market that is crowded with attractions, distractions, and myriad recreation choices that compete for your customer’s attention, time and money, Differentiation, or “Standing Out From the Crowd” is going to be essential for the success and sustainability of your business. To stand out, you will need to think about what will make your business actually unique and remarkable.

Here’s the thing about Differentiation

In tourism and attractions, unique experiences are everything. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the biggest, the latest technology, or a huge investment cost, but it does have to represent unique value to your target market.

In the space we work, Visitor Attractions, Theme Parks, Tourism and Themed Entertainments, EVERYONE will claim to be unique - everyone will claim to be the best, and frequently assert they have the biggest, the longest, the tallest… ‘new thing’. We are in an industry where businesses are constantly offering new things, and yes, that is one way to Differentiate.

However, I would argue that the newest, longest, tallest, fastest ‘thing’ will not be the newest, longest, tallest or fastest for very long, and therefore a more specific strategy is needed to instead position your business on a more solid foundation to becoming sustainably unique.

So… where to start?

Phase 2: What will be your Superpower?

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the key element that distinguishes your business from others in the market and the core of what sets your identity in the minds of potential customers.

To define your USP:

2.1. Get to know your target market:
Research and develop an understanding of the demographics of your target customers, what they need, their preferences and what they are looking for. What do they want from leisure and recreation choices? If you can, try to understand what your target customers do not like about your competitors.

It’s important to note here that the more you can niche down on your target market segment the better you will be able to develop a strategy to appeal to them.

It is a mistake to build a brand by trying to appeal to everyone. There are too many brands that already have claimed a position and have become entrenched leaders in their positions. A product that seeks to be everything to everyone will end up being nothing to anyone.
(Ries & Trout, 2012).

It is OK to focus on a couple of market segments, either as separate channels or when able to be successfully interlinked, as long as you don’t get too broad. Simply saying “We want to appeal to Families” or “…Teenagers” is not a useful target definition that will help you find a competitive edge. The more specific you can set the target, the better, for example: “Families who live within a two-hour drive, who have income between $x and $xx AND with children between 5 and 15 years old AND who are looking for outdoor physical activities to share together as a mixed age group on weekends and holidays”.

This is not to say people outside this niche will not visit, but it will give you focus and a way to make decisions about developing your unique product offer. Once you get rolling on successfully attracting this market, there will be a flow-on capture of adjacent segments.

2.2. Analyse Competitors:
Assess what your competitors are offering and identify gaps or areas where you can excel.

Remember that competitors may not simply be another nearby attraction or amusement or some business that looks like yours. Your competition is anything that competes for your potential customer’s attention, leisure time or discretionary budget.

I have worked with so many businesses who want to believe they have few competitors until they start to list just how many other ways their potential customers could choose to spend their leisure time and their money – be it something like Netflix or spectator sports – they all compete for time and attention.

2.3. Develop Your Differentiators:
OK this is where the hard work ramps up.

Determine, very specifically, what will make your venue, attraction or service unique. What will set you apart from competitors, to the degree that potential customers will choose you over anyone else? What will make you unmissable, unforgettable, bucket-list material?

Going beyond minor differences is the crux of valuable differentiation. Your differentiator must meet certain criteria to truly stand out and attract customers:

Firstly, it should be unique to your business. This means it can’t be easily replicated or imitated by competitors. If your offering is something that others can quickly adopt, it ceases to be a valuable differentiator.
Moreover, your differentiator should be tailored to your specific target markets.

There are numerous Differentiation strategies you can adopt, depending on your business goals and competitive landscape. Here are a few to get you thinking:

Product Differentiation: You can develop unique features or attributes that no one else can copy.
Quality Focus: You can develop a high-end, superior quality experience – so good that people will be willing to pay extra for it.
Customer Service Excellence: You can prioritize exceptional attention by staff with a unique personalised experience.
Niche Targeting: You can target a very specific, very narrow niche market with a tailored experience that no one else can replicate.
Innovation: Positioning your attraction as a leader in innovation and cutting-edge technology can appeal to a very particular market – just factor in having to continually stay up to date to maintain this differentiator.
Accessibility: An overt focus on inclusivity, accessibility or particular ease of all-ability inclusion.
Environmental Responsibility: Appeal to environmentally conscious consumers through significant sustainable practices and advocacy.
Unique location features: You may have a unique location feature such as a canyon or particular view. The tricky question here is knowing if that alone is enough for people to choose your experience over others. What can you add that would make it so?

These are just a few of many options and you may be able to choose several to focus on, they just need to be very particular to your business. If you are struggling to put together a convincing set of differentiators, there is definitely more work to do. Keep going until you can clearly envisage what will set you apart to your target market or markets.

Phase 3: Treasure or trinket?

What constitutes a valuable differentiator?

Now, once you have some ideas written down, question if these are actually valuable differences. You may need to take several rounds to evaluate and revise. Remember, whatever sets your business apart from “the crowd” has to represent unique value to your target market.

If you can’t clearly define the value of your differentiator over your competitors, then neither will your potential customers. They will not have a compelling reason to choose your business.

And, again, it would be important to say that simply because you have minor differences - a different set of rides, in a closer location or offer slightly more variety than a competitor – that alone may not be enough.

Here are some criteria you can use to evaluate the value of your differentiators:

They will Resonate with your target market.

Resonance goes hand in hand with the trait of Engagement. It occurs if the experience has a meaning beyond simply the act of doing. It may be aesthetically engaging, exciting or evoke wonder and amazement or it may spark memories of childhood or other happy times.

They will Provide Social Validation, or a Connection to other Humans.

Although we value experiences for different reasons, we all seem to value more highly those that we share. Of course, when we participate in experiences with friends, family or loved ones, personal meaningfulness is greatly heightened. This will be different for every person but the key here is being able to proactively set up for these moments of connection to occur.

They will provide Significant Memories

Memories are an essential trait of significant experiences. However, they are also often the most tangible things we actually take away from experiences. They can bring an experience back into our consciousness and give the sense of re-living it.

They can be Transformational:

Beyond simply doing more things and having more memories, experiences can be transforming. Frequently, experiences can more readily take us from one place to another, from one mental or physical state to another. To start with one mindset and end with another. Could your business do that?

Experiences commonly provide the opportunity to grow in a much more demonstrable way than the simple purchase of a product or service. Notwithstanding the ability for products or services to be tools to help us grow, the purchase alone does not. We must use them to facilitate the transformation. In other words, we must participate in the experience of the product or service or activity to enhance the transformation.

They can make us Happy:

Of course, not all experiences will make us happy but in terms of assigning value, people are willing to set the scale high for experiences they perceive will make them happy. They are also less concerned about the price of associated goods or services through which the experiences may be delivered. The price you paid for the golf clubs is insignificant to the anticipation of a winning experience.

They can be Customised:

Greater value is assigned to experiences which are adaptable to specific needs, personalised, or those where we have greater choice. What this means to businesses is that the main focus is not on endless iteration or innovation, and not on simply adding more features. But a way to tailor features, services and experiences in a way that is more relevant to each individual customer.

They offer Personal Attention - we feel like We Matter :

What matters to many people is not the lowest cost but the best experience. When we eat in a restaurant what matters is not just the best food but amazing service in the right atmosphere, one that matches our expectations.

They enhance a Sense of Self:

We are the sum total of our choices and experiences. Our experiences become part of our total make-up of who we are. They are our identity and our Biography. What we do and what we encounter and what we learn along the way is embodied in our being or our ‘Sense of Self’. In this way we often place a higher value on experiences that broaden our knowledge, increase self-esteem and feelings of achievement.

They enhance Perceived Status:

As an offshoot of Sense of Self, we may also want to collect bragging rights to our own unique experience so we can post it on Instagram or TikTok or pin a photo on the wall of our office so people will ask us about it. Experiences could make your customers feel like a King or Queen for a day. The sense of self can also be wrapped up in perceived status.

Phase 4: Hearts and Minds - Understanding Positioning and Marketability

Ok, when you have thought long and hard about how you will be unique, and how you will be different from your competitors, what’s next? At this point, I have to say something about Positioning.

Positioning:

Positioning is the art of shaping how your target market perceives your brand in relation to your competitors. It involves identifying and communicating what sets your business apart and why customers should choose you over alternatives. Much more than simply Marketing, effective Positioning clarifies your Unique Value and creates a distinct place for your offer in the minds of customers. It is heavily linked to your brand story and needs to be authentic. In other words, what do your potential customers think when your business comes into their mind, what does it make them feel, and what value would they assign to it?

Positioning is a part of a much bigger topic which we will have to discuss in a future article.

However, the reason it is important to mention it here is because, assuming you are still at a development stage, the key factor is how you will communicate your unique differentiators to your target market.

Which leads us to Marketability.

Marketability

Marketability is not marketing – however, it is a fundamental building block of marketing. Essentially it is about giving your business something to get out there in front of customers.

Differentiators need to be communicated somehow to your potential market to achieve your positioning goals. While this can be done by words, slogans and marketing taglines, one of the strongest communications is through visual means. Not only directly in your marketing, which sets up the anticipation, but also in your physical space which needs to embody your differentiation strategy and your brand story and provide material to feed your marketing collateral.

I always recommend developing a concept of your marketable icons at the beginning, right after your differentiators. That is, determining what is the visual snapshot that people will both recognise for your business, but also stay in their minds as a continual reinforcement of the unique experience they had.

Try thinking about what image will go on a roadside billboard that would make a driver pull over to note the business name or the website address. Think about a few hundred Instagram images and what impression your customers will be conveying about your value. What should their photographs show, and what should they NOT show? Think about when a marketing team asks what images they should use in your advertising - what will you tell them?

The time to start thinking about that is now. Being able to communicate your unique differentiators goes hand in hand with creating them – so it is worth considering in the very early days how you will do it.

Phase 5: It’s very pretty… but will it fly? - Feasible and Sustainable.

The final item to discuss here is to ask if your differentiators are feasible and sustainable.

Every project needs to involve some analysis of feasibility. You will need to make sure what you envisaged fits into a viable business plan. Do you have enough budget and even if you do, will the paying customers come?

It is important to be very careful about a “build it and they will come” mentality. This is thinking that if you build the biggest, tallest, longest, or fastest new “thing”, everyone will come and buy a ticket. Of course, they may come to see it once… but is this sustainable? Will they come back? Your “wow factor” has to be true for more than just one “big thing”. It has to be for the whole experience, including the interactions, the physical environment, the communication, the staff, the engagement – it must meet or exceed the value proposition.

Once you have developed a differentiation strategy you will need to revisit your entire business plan to see if what you have planned is both Feasible and Sustainable.

Feasibility relates to getting it done:

Do you have the know-how (technical, financial, regulatory) to achieve each differentiator?
Do you have the personnel to create or support these differentiators?
Do you have the financial resources to develop your planned differentiators properly?
If you answer “No” to any of the above, can you get them?

Sustainability means: can you keep it going?

Are your target market or markets large enough to be sustainable as your minimum viable customer base?
Does your business plan show you can financially sustain what is required to maintain the quality and extent of the differentiators that you envisage?
Are you certain you are not going to over-promise and under-deliver?
If you answer “No” to any of the above – sorry, but you will have to go back to Phase 2 and start again.

I didn’t say it would be easy.

OK, Let’s Wrap it Up - Conclusion and Summary

In the journey of developing a new visitor attraction, theme park, tourism venue, or themed entertainment destination, standing out from the crowd is paramount for success and sustainability.

This short guide has outlined the essentials of Differentiation, starting with the decision between offering lower prices or unique experiences. While price competitiveness may attract attention initially, it is providing unique value that fosters lasting customer loyalty and interest.

To carve out a distinctive identity, understanding your target market is crucial. Niche targeting and detailed demographic research will enable you to tailor your offerings effectively. Analysing competitors and identifying gaps in the market further refine this process. However, true differentiation lies not just in minor differences but in providing unique value that resonates with your target audience.

Differentiators should meet specific criteria to truly stand out: they must resonate with the target market and be unique to your business. Some ways you can test this is to ask if your differentiators: provide social validation, create significant memories, could be transformational, and/or offer customization and personal attention. Furthermore, if they can enhance a sense of self and provide a perceived status boost, that will score double points.

Positioning and marketability play vital roles in communicating these differentiators to the target audience. Positioning shapes how the brand is perceived relative to competitors, while marketability ensures that the unique value proposition can be effectively communicated visually and verbally.

Finally, feasibility and sustainability are critical considerations. A differentiation strategy must be not only achievable but also sustainable in the long term. This requires careful planning, sufficient resources, and a thorough evaluation of market dynamics.

Differentiation is not just about being different for the sake of it; it’s about providing unique value that resonates with your target audience and sets the business apart in a crowded market. By following the steps outlined in this guide through several iterations as you develop and refine a new attraction concept, a business can position itself to “Stand Out From the Crowd” in the competitive landscape of visitor attractions and themed entertainment.

However, that landscape changes endlessly so don’t forget to continuously re-evaluate, reiterate and refine those strategies to stay out in front.

Thanks for reading.

References:

Ries, A., & Trout, J. (2012). Positioning: The battle for your mind.