As we have discussed in class most businesses have switched over to value-driven methods of providing there products. When I was on my trip to California I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain and saw what a company looked like who didn’t effectively value its services to it’s consumers.
Most People know that Six Flags Magic Mountain provides the largest array of thrill coasters in one park throughout the world. Six Flags as taken this approach to differentiate its theme park from all the others in the Southern California region (Disneyland, Universal Studios, Knotts Berry Farm, Seaworld). When you come to the park you don’t necessarily come for the environment (the presentation is lacking) but you come for the stomach churning and jaw-dropping feelings while riding the rides.
I have attended Six Flags twice in my lifetime and both experiences were quite different. I first attended Six Flags in January of 2008, it was a great experience because there was short lines, it was cheap and the rides were amazing. However, this time around my visit was sour.
The ride experience was the same (with a few additional gems) but one specific introduction got to me. In 2009, Six Flags introduced a mandatory locker policy. This really got to me because of the inconvenience it created to the consumer. It simply made it feel that they wanted to find any way possible to get money out of me and didn’t value me as a possible future consumer. When looking at theme parks most people attend them on vacations and rarely attend more than once. However, with this approach of mining money out of the consumers pockets is not value driven and will bite Six Flags in the near future despite this idea of only having a one time interaction with the consumer.