Cedar Point - and growing name brand recognition
As we've all learned so well in the past few years - a park with a good product - and just as importantly, a strong identity - is essential to get your park recognized on more than just a local scale, and essential in highly competetive markets. Most people with some knowledge about amusement parks know that Sea World is going to have sea animals, that Disney is going to have great family attractions, and so on. In competetive markets, like, lets say, Ohio, PKI has taken a route never before seen in the midwest. with higly themed stuff like the new Scooby Doo ride and Tomb Raider, and in constantly adding to what is already the best non-disney kids area in the world. Its a complete about face from what we've been used to seeing in Ohio for more than 20 years and most here would agree its working (at least from an otherwise completely in the dark enthusiasts' point of view.)
Here's the point:
How's Cedar Point doing? Obviously, on a local level, they're kicking butt as they pretty much always have, but its not too hard to see things changing nationally, at least from my perspective. For one, I worked at a park over 500 miles away from CP this summer, and I probably saw at least 2 Cedar Point shirts everyday. I know it seems kinda small, but I also think its pretty remarkable. You can attribute some of those people to just being enthusiasts, but I tried to talk to as many as I saw, and many of them weren't - they had just heard about Cedar Point from a friend, or on TV, or on the web, and just had to go. I found that pretty cool seing as how far away we were from CP.
I know that in Central Kentucky, virutally no one I talked to had heard of Cedar Point 5 years ago. This spring I know of at least 3 high schools in the area that went to CP for senior trips, usually something portioned off for Disneyworld, or the beach. Cedar point is slowly becoming a household name in a market that was once dominated by PKI and now shared with SFKK (and maybe even Holiday World.) Has CP's brand recognition grown elsewhere?
I don't think I'm too far off in saying that Cedar Point wants to be known as a resort amusement park with the best damn coasters in the world, and as a resort, get their repuatation as far out as possible. I think its remarkable how quickly CP's name has spread, has anybody else noticed it?
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If the shoe fits, find another one.
I was at Lake Compounce this summer and I saw 3 Cedar Point shirts, and they said they were non-enthusiasts.
I work at a grocery store, and last night I talked to a guy who was wearing a Halloweekends shirt, he said he wasn't an enthusiast. Watch out, CP shirts are everywhere, Holiday World shirts are popular too. Especially tie-died Legend shirts.
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Shivering Timbers for president.
*** This post was edited by Binaural on 10/2/2002. ***
Much of the park's revenue growth has been with the hotels in the last few years, so naturally I expect they'll try and keep that trend going. I suppose building huge rides like Millennium Force and the new one gets them the national attention they need to sustain that. It's a gradual process, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them start advertising much further away in the next few years.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure
The interesting thing was that a few years ago there was some speculation that Cedar Fair might try to capitalize on their well-known national brand name, but it appears they're not going that route as the Michigan park has not been renamed "Knott's Michigan Adventure." Knott yet, anyway.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Ravenguy - so you *didn't* fall off the face of the earth! ;)
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A day is a drop of water in the ocean of eternity. A week is seven drops.
When I worked in Orlando I saw a lot of Cedar Point t-shirts...Magnum and Raptor in particular. Jeff is right, hotel accommodations has been a focus in the past several years. I am not sure the Point and the Sandusky area are in a great need for national exposure as hotel occupancies in the area continue to be strong.
Now, if the Point and surrounding hotel companies added another couple thousand hotel rooms then a larger marketing campaign to a larger audience would start to make sense.
I've often wondered why I have never seen any CP advertising in Chicago? I think there's a HUGE untapped market here for the park. Great America continues to grow it's attendance annually so folks are looking for the thrills. And it's got no competition. CP is less than 300 miles away, the next closest major park.
Even more surprising to me is the lack of advertising for MiA. It's an easy three hour drive and a perfect day trip and no one I know has ever heard of the place.
But what do I know. Seems Cedar Fair is doing alright without my input.
The co-worker who went with me to MiA for Kara's 1000th lap was extremely surprised not to see one sign advertising MiA on I-96 as we were heading there. No advertising in the Detroit area at all that I have seen.
But, onto the topic, a friend who spent 18 months in London said he was surprised at the number of Brits who were aware of Cedar Point. Now THAT is far-reaching!
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
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Cornball Express- America's first stand up woodie.
lol Cedar Point 1, great signature! And oh so true
I think just about everyone I know at my school (Northwestern Indiana) know what Cedar Point is and what the Millennium Force is. I love the place...I can't wait to return in 2003 to ride this new MYSTERY ride
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-Eric
According to the general public, lots of coasters go straight down.
*** This post was edited by Glitch01 on 10/2/2002. ***
My father takes a group of 40-50 high school kids his church's (12 hours away in Illinois) youth choir on a trip. In 1976, on their first trip, they went to Cedar Point. Not a single kid or parent heard of it. To this day they are still going, as are more groups from the area who take the day drive. Now, most churches and school trips go there it seems! My dad's group has gone to other parks, PKI, SFGAm, SFKK, WOF, Kennywood, etc. But, every year they ask to go back to CP (with the occasional requested sidetrip to Kennywood.). They can't wait to go every June. (I usually try to join them and chaperone ) It's truely evolved into a destination resort over the last 15 or so years.
We've never been dissapointed spending a few days there. There was one trip the kids were dissappointed in. In early 2001 we went to another Ohio park (not PKI), and the kids hated it, and voted not to go back. Sure that park may have improved, but there's an example of damage done. I kept my big fat enthusiast mouth shut when we were there, but it was very interesting to hear the high school kids negative comments about the place....
CP has done a great job turning themselves into something not seen outside of Orlando or LA. Keep up the good work!
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- Peabody
*** This post was edited by Peabody on 10/2/2002. ***
There is at least one Cedar Point advertisement that I know of in Chicago. It's something about Wicked Twister and such.
Back to the topic, a lot of my friends had no idea where or what Cedar Point until about 2 years ago when one day I was surfing GTTP during studyhall. Now, almost every one of my friends has heard of Cedar Point and their coasters. Last summer one of my friends actually took a trip out to the park with his family. It's amazing how something small like that can turn into a family vacation.
Last February when I was at Six Flags Magic Mountain I recall one op. stopping me and saying (jokingly of course) that I couldn't wear my Cedar Point sweatshirt there. Same thing happens at Disney if your wearing Universal things or vise versa.
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The top 3 all time cobrarolls.
1)Raptor's
2)Deja Vu's (times 3)
3)Batman Knight Flight's
I was wondering seriously though why PKI had a greater attendance in 2001 than CP and CP is more popular/well known etc. Sure, they didn't add anything and PKI did, but shouldn't they be able to hold onto that previous year's attendance pretty much without major loss? I know a large part of PKI is the local visitors and season pass holders, but I'm just not sure exactly why Kings Island would have more visitors than Cedar Point. Cedar Point has more coasters, more history, more records, more everything pretty much. The two parks seem to bounce back and forth year to year as the highest attended park in Ohio, so this is interesting to know. Maybe more operating days at PKI has to do with it? Can anyone help me out here? Thanks! :)
Danny
*** This post was edited by Koaster King on 10/2/2002. ***
The coaster shows have helped a lot to. Cedar Point usually has 2 or 3 of the top five coasters in the country.
"Our #5 rated steel coaster takes us to Sandusky Ohio for the Raptor...."
"For our #2 rated steel coaster we head back to Sandusky Ohio for the Magnum XL200....."
"And for our #1 rated steel coaster we return to Sandusky Ohio for the Millennium Force....."
And then this summer, they had the 'Largest Amusement Park in the World" show, an hour long behind the seens show about Cedar Point.
Families across the country watch the coaster shows and see three of the top five coasters at one park and say "Mom, Dad, when can we go!"
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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.
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A rollercoaster? What's that?
Cedar Point billboards are somthing we'll see more and more of in Chi-Town. I'd go as far as say that the Point is Great America's only competition. As long as CP sees potential in an area, they'll advertise.
Does everyone see now what SFWoA is going up against?
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Never Has Gravity Been So Uplifting.
*** This post was edited by BullGuy on 10/2/2002. ***
Yeah, that billboard caught me by surprise when I took my mother and her husband to Midway airport.
However it is toward the southern suburbs and from that point its a straight shot (Indiana and Ohio toll roads) to Sandusky.
If SFGAm is CP's competition as BullGuy states, thats a pretty sad statement for SFWoA.
Does CP have any advertisements in the Cincinatti area(PKI's stomping grounds)?
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2 superheroes in Gurnee next season? Oh the humanity. :)
Koaster King said:
I was wondering seriously though why PKI had a greater attendance in 2001 than CP and CP is more popular/well known etc. Sure, they didn't add anything and PKI did, but shouldn't they be able to hold onto that previous year's attendance pretty much without major loss? I know a large part of PKI is the local visitors and season pass holders, but I'm just not sure exactly why Kings Island would have more visitors than Cedar Point. Cedar Point has more coasters, more history, more records, more everything pretty much. The two parks seem to bounce back and forth year to year as the highest attended park in Ohio, so this is interesting to know. Maybe more operating days at PKI has to do with it?
I'm pretty sure that is has to do with the fact that PKI is open a month earlier, and it already relatively warmer that CP at that time. They also don't have the lake effect weather and climate that can be pretty sporadic. The biggest contribution would probably be the month of extra operation.
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LocoBazooka--Sevendust, Nonpoint, Stereo Vent, Mushroomhead
Korn Tour (With no name)--Korn, Puddle of Mudd, Deadsy
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