YouTube marketing-tip video by Sandy Wardenburg Waggett (MSW Interactive Designs) advising businesses to look for missed opportunities to create positive word-of-mouth. Using a visit to the Branson Aquarium as an example, Sandy notes ticket-price sensitivity (compares a $75 Wonders of Wildlife ticket vs. a roughly $40–$50 Branson Aquarium ticket) and criticizes the aquarium's decision to charge an additional $15 for photos. She argues the aquarium should give the playful family digital photo away free so guests share it on social media, producing dopamine-driven positive reactions and earned marketing. The video closes with a prompt for viewers to audit their own customer touchpoints for similar missed opportunities.
Questions this video answers
December 4, 2020
$75
About $40 for an adult
About $50 per person
$15
Chapters
Good morning, everyone. Sandy Waggett here with MSW Interactive Designs. And today I am here with another marketing tip. So over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I decided to go down to Branson for a little getaway and do some Christmas shopping. And I headed into brand new attraction at Branson called the Branson Aquarium. Now don't not to be confused with Adventures of Wildlife or Wonders of Wildlife, The Johnny Morris one, which by the way, is a $75 ticket for the Muse and Aquarium at Wonders of Wildlife. Well, the Branson Museum or the Branson Aquarium was right at the $40 mark for an adult to get in. And by the time you added taxes and ticketing fees, it really approached the $50 mark per person to get in. Now, the aquarium is super nice. It was beautiful. So I am not saying anything negative about the aquarium itself. I love aquariums and it was definitely beautiful. But it's small. And if you go look at their reviews, their reviews consistently say was overpriced for the experience. People are saying, yeah, it's nice, but man, that was expensive. So the bad news is that they're getting this negative word of mouth when they don't have to. And I think that they could accomplish it without even having to lower their price. So here's the deal. When I went in, I'm watching families get their photo taken. It's part of the experience to get into the museum. They take a serious photo and a fun photo with their mascot, Aquarius, the octopus. And the fun photo is the family pretending they're being squeezed really hard by the octopus. And they're supposed to make crazy faces and throw their arms in the air. And then the serious photo is just, you know, everybody staged and smiling, looking happy, pretty. So you have to take the photo to get in. So then they let you in, you go through. It takes about 20 minutes to get through. So it's a pretty small aquarium, really, as nice as it is. The thing is, is on the way out, of course, you have to go through the gift shop and they show you your photos and then they hit you up for another $15 if you want the photo, including a digital version and a printed version. Now, I know paying for photos is not uncommon. However, I think there's a missed opportunity for the Branson Aquarium here and that they could have given the fun family digital photo out for free so that people could share it on their social media, on Instagram and Facebook. So there's two things that would come of that. Number one, the family would share it and they get all kinds of likes, loves comments. So it's a dopamine hit. So the person who feels like they overpaid at the end of the experience now is getting all these great comments and suddenly the experience doesn't feel so overpriced, right? It's that dopamine hit. And then the other thing is, with the sharing that fun photo and everybody looking like they're having a blast and making crazy faces, they get the free marketing hit out of it too. Now people might still buy the printed photo for the fif $15, but man, the boost that they would get. The missed opportunity with just allowing a family to share that digital fund photo for free is huge. So the point of this video is what in your business is a missed opportunity for? Positive feelings from your customers, Customers that have already paid that they'd be willing to go out and share with other people. Surely there's something right with the Branson Aquarium? Hopefully someone from the aquarium is watching because I see it as just a huge missed opportunity. But we all have those missed opportunities in our own businesses too. So take a step back and look at your current customer base, how you interact, how a happy customer leaves your business. Did they feel like they overpaid even though they had a good experience? Whatever it is, how do you get positive reviews? What is the missed opportunity for you? I hope that marketing tip helps. It's introspective and if you know someone at the Branson Aquarium, share this video with them. Sandy Waggett with MSW Interactive Designs have a great day.
