Test-Market Magic
For anyone in this city who hasn’t heard of Club Disney, it’s a fair bet they don’t have children.
Like most things sporting the mouse ears of the Disney logo, Club Disney has, since its opening seven months ago, been an attraction with powerful magnetism.
On a daily basis, the 24,000-square-foot entertainment center at the upscale Promenade at Westlake is a busy hive of gleefully squealing children running around in stockinged feet from one fun zone to another.
“The popularity of Club Disney has exceeded all of our expectations on every level,” said Jay Rasulo, the attraction’s president and general manager.
Although Club Disney was a foray into new and untested waters, it was never a crapshoot. Rather, it was a meticulously researched business venture that carefully selected Thousand Oaks as the test market.
Why Thousand Oaks? Because it has lots of families with plenty of disposable income.
“We wanted something close to our headquarters,” Rasulo said from Disney offices in Burbank. And, he added, “We needed an area that had young families.”
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Of the more than 40,000 households in Thousand Oaks, three-quarters are classified as family residences that have, on average, at least one child, federal and state statistics show.
Another bonus for Disney was the fact that Thousand Oaks residents enjoy life in the upper-income brackets. Census figures place the city’s median family income at more than $62,000.
Disney executives have decided to begin Phase 2: opening a second club in West Covina by the end of the year, with about 100 more outlets to follow in cities across the country.
Club Disney opened Feb. 21 to lines of people who had come from as far away as Palo Alto and stood in line for up to five hours to get a taste of Disney’s newest magic--at $8 a person.
Although the establishment is more Chuck E. Cheese than Disneyland, Club Disney offers a variety of entertainment for children up to 10 years old, including an enormous jungle gym with 30-foot slide, and Applaudeville Theater, where kids can dress as their favorite Disney characters and participate in a fashion show.
At its Thousand Oaks site, Disney has also tried to foster greater interaction between parents and their children. Its activities such as problem-solving games and cartoon coloring exercises are not only fun for the youngsters, they also require the guidance of adults.
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Additionally, the club features more than a dozen private rooms reserved for themed birthday parties. The site also includes a special program called “Ed-Ventures,” which officials bill as education with a playful Disney twist.
While only the scale of such enterprises is new, the Club Disney concept is one that seems to be spreading. Other entertainment empires, including Sony, Six Flags and Steven Spielberg, are delving into this new entertainment genre--with mixed results.
Sony plans to open a four-story entertainment center in downtown San Francisco within a year, while Six Flags has put its Funtricity video arcade into the dust bin.
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Disney’s dip into the waters of suburban entertainment has so far proved to be a success, and officials think their formula of revamping the site every six months will keep the place fresh and profitable.
Industry analyst Tarun Kapoor, a hospitality industry professor at Cal Poly Pomona, said prolonged success hinges on the proprietors’ willingness to sink big money into constantly remodeling and upgrading a site’s entertainment.
“The question these companies have to keep asking themselves is, now that these people have visited, what’s going to bring them back?” he said. “The answer is always to make that next visit a new experience.”
And to do that, Kapoor said, it’s only going to be deep-pocketed companies such as Disney that have the resources to pull it off.
Already, Club Disney in Thousand Oaks has gone through two face lifts, with more on the way.
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The current theme follows Disney’s newest film, “Hercules,” which opened earlier this summer. The play site features an area named “Herc’s Gym.”
This winter, Club Disney will have a new theme focusing on “Flubber,” a remake of the 1960s movie starring Robin Williams. It is scheduled for Christmas release.
The vast majority of Club Disney patrons report being pleased with their experience. But not all.
David and Marsela Broden came from Agoura Hills after their two children made repeated requests to visit. Both parents and children said they left disappointed.
“After about 20 minutes it got pretty boring,” David Broden said. “The kids just whipped through everything and then didn’t know exactly what to do anymore.”
Laurie Rutter went so far as to write complaint letters to both the Moorpark Elementary School District and Club Disney about the “Ed-Ventures” trip her son made to the club earlier this year.
“I’ve got no problem with going there to have fun, but to learn?” she said, adding “Ed-Ventures” is nothing more than a sly ploy to market Disney products to children.
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But Disney officials said such criticism is to be expected and would rather look to the thousands of families who have enjoyed their visits.
“I was surprised that I had so much fun, not to mention the kids,” said Ellen Kaye after a two-hour romp with her children. “It’s a lot of help for parents who don’t have a lot of options for the kids during the afternoon.”
