3 branding lessons from theme parks

I noticed a few interesting things about the experience that made me think about brand strategy. Maybe it was because the work I left behind was still fresh in my mind, or that a theme park is basically a giant brand (containing many smaller brands and properties). It was hard not to think about it, even though my wife suggested I not think about work during vacation.

Instead of following my wife’s suggestion, I came up with some brand strategy lessons we can learn from theme parks:

1. If you are going on a water ride, plan to get wet.

One day we went on a Jurassic Park-themed water ride. It was hot and I love Jurassic Park, so the combination of cooling off and having dinosaurs yell at you was too much for me to pass up. When our turn came, we jumped into the front seats of the log boat, and everyone around us started to explain how wet we would get. The people in the boat in front of us were covered head to toe in rain ponchos; only their faces peaked out.

Why ride something designed to get you wet only to hide under a plastic sheet? Don’t get in the log if you are afraid to get wet.