Disneyland Targeting the Pinstripe Crowd : Reversing Old Policy, Park to Serve Alcohol at Private Business Parties
Don’t look for Mickey and Minnie to be hoisting bubbling brews.
But in a bid to persuade corporations to host parties at Disneyland, the Anaheim theme park will reverse a 31-year-old park policy and serve beer, wine and champagne on the park grounds.
During regular park hours, it will still be all soda pop and lemonade. But Disney is now introducing a new program called “Enchanted Evenings.”
Starting this spring, the park will rent individual theme areas to businesses that want to host off-season, weeknight parties at Disneyland after regular park hours. Available hours, except for during the busy summer season, will generally be from 8 p.m. until midnight.
“We’re just trying to be smarter business people,” said Bob Baldwin, director of sales at Disneyland. “There is a market out there that we have not been capturing.” Since 1967, alcoholic beverages including hard liquor have been served at Club 33, a private club inside the park. But the club has a limited membership, and alcoholic drinks have not been allowed outside.
Disneyland, however, is not alone in wanting to pin down the pinstriped crowd. In order to better serve corporate clients, rival Knott’s Berry Farm recently applied for a full liquor license, said Patsy Marshall, a Knott’s publicist.
Knott’s, which has hosted corporate bashes for a dozen years, also has no plans to sell liquor inside the park during regular hours. “We will not have Scotch and water at Camp Snoopy,” said Stuart Zanville, director of public relations. Knott’s now sells beer and wine at two restaurants located in the shopping area directly outside the park grounds.
The latest Disney action is one in a series of aggressive marketing moves made by the park since Michael D. Eisner, the former Paramount Pictures Corp. president, took over as chief executive at Walt Disney Co. in late 1984. Since that time, Eisner has tried to bring the theme park up to date, primarily by appealing to the lucrative teen-age market.
A Michael Jackson video, “Captain Eo,” is on tap for the park in September, to be followed in early 1987 by a multimillion-dollar, “Star Wars”-type ride designed by producer George Lucas.
Last year, the park also added a $3-million teen night club, Videopolis. Disneyland also began a promotion last year giving away a new car every day. That program is scheduled to continue through September.
As a result of these actions, Disneyland posted record attendance of nearly 12 million last year, and the turnstiles are clicking at an even faster rate this year, park officials say.
The new program, aimed at executive clientele, will be open to groups of 500 or more. For an evening, companies will be able to rent various areas of the park such as Main Street, Tomorrowland and New Orleans Square. In the past, the park could only be rented in its entirety by groups of 7,000 or more.
“A lot of companies are looking for unique ways to showcase their products,” Baldwin said. “You couldn’t possibly do this kind of thing in a hotel ballroom.” The parties will cost $30 to $70 per person depending on the area of the park, the type of food and entertainment requested.
Disney officials are counting on two key groups--Anaheim-area convention groups and Southland businesses--to host events ranging from Christmas parties to award dinners at the park.
“Any time you can give people new reasons to visit the park, you’ve done your job” said Steve Clark, managing partner at Management Resources, a Tustin-based amusement park consulting firm. “It’s a great idea--a sophisticated way to go to Disneyland.”
As a corporate host, Disney will effectively become a competitor to the many of the same hotels that house its guests. But most hotel executives say they welcome Disney’s new marketing efforts.
“It will only add to Anaheim’s destination appeal,” said Judi Cabrera, vice president of marketing of the Wrather Corp.-owned Disneyland Hotel.
