Planning an Attraction - Unique Selling Proposition, Old Hong Kong

There were many success stories with attractions developed at Ocean Park. Like the special events, much of the success is due to the planning, design, and execution.   Planning always included testing the sales cycle.

1.      Who are the prospects for this attraction?

2.      Why are we building it?  Who are we building it for?

3.      Can it be a unique selling proposition (“USP”)?

4.      How is this to be pitched?

5.      What objections can we anticipate?

6.      Can we close?

Once we have these answers, we can begin to design.

One such successful development was “Old Hong Kong.”  35% of the visitors to the park were local Hong Kong residents. Ocean Park was originally developed for the people of Hong Kong in 1977 and even as it also became a landmark for tourism, it will always be for Hong Kong people. It is known as “Hong Kong people’s park.”  It was always appropriate to feature Hong Kong at the park.

Old Hong Kong was themed in circa 1950s and 60s. It would be a tribute to the people of Hong Kong and highlight many memories from those early days. It would also describe life in Hong Kong back in the 50s to tourists from around the world.

One of the featured attractions at Ocean Park was its iconic cable car. Essentially, 100% of all guests rode the cable car because it was the transportation that connected the lowland and the summit. Unfortunately, the route to the cable car station in the lowland was not a good experience. It was a bare concrete path and, considered an eye sore.  With 100% of guests utilizing this area, this route needed to come to life, be an attraction by itself, be special, a draw, meaningful and worthy of entertaining  all visitors to the park. It had to be a Unique Selling Proposition (“USP”).  The result was exactly that.

When the park opened in 1977,  parents brought their children to enjoy Ocean Park.   Today, those children are parents bringing their children to the park. The parents of yesteryear are grandparents enjoying the park with their grandchildren. Three generations reliving fond memories that resulted in loyalties to the park.   Grandparents used Old Hong Kong as a backdrop to tell their stories from the past. Old Hong Kong was like a back lot movie set featuring the glory of the past.

Old Hong Kong is a USP and it would be promoted accordingly. Even if you did not want to ride the cable car, you would still visit Old Hong Kong. As an attraction, it was strong enough to stand alone. Not only can we sell it, but we would enjoy sharing the memories. Old Hong Kong was one of many USPs at the park.

It does not matter what product you are designing and developing in any industry. Follow the sales cycle and ask those vital questions. The answers will tell you whether the product is appropriate or not and whether it can be sold. If it can be sold, build it, if not don’t build it. No attraction was ever developed at Ocean Park unless it passed the sales test.

How are you developing your products?