Ouimet also talked about his career after leaving Disney.
"The things that you give up when you leave? You give up the brand. There's not a phone call in the world you can't make, to get someone to answer the phone, if you say you're from Disney. And the amount of resources. I had to retrain myself. Now, some of that is satisfying. I probably had 84 less people to ask, [but] I have 83 less people to do the work."
Still, fewer resources can still lead to success, provided you focus on what the public wants, that you do best.
"Knott's is having best year in its history," Ouimet said. "About three or four years ago, that was not the case. So we took a step back, went out, and talked to the consumers in the marketplace, and we were trying to figure out why [Knott's] wasn't doing as well as it had done before. Part of it was our fault. We'd starved the asset."
"We did focus groups, and we weren't getting much," Ouimet continued. "So the moderator said, 'I'm going to go back in the room and I'm going to tell them that Knott's is closing.' They started crying. Out of that, we came back to the basics."
Over the past three years, Knott's Berry Farm has moved from competing with Six Flags by building more iron rides to refocus on more family-friendly attractions. Under Ouimet's leadership at parent Cedar Fair, Knott's refurbished its Timber Mountain Log Ride and Calico Mine Train, added the Voyage to the Iron Reef interactive dark ride, and next year the park will celebrate the 75th anniversary of its Ghost Town with improvements throughout the land, including a rebuild of the Ghostrider coaster and Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant.
"We have a saying: Having fun should be fun," Ouimet said. "The day you go to the park, it shouldn't be about - with my apologies to the organization that did so well for us - it shouldn't be whether I'm going to get my $100 worth. It should be about, am I going to create a memories? I'm going to relax, enjoy the Chicken Dinner restaurant, ride the Timber Mountain Log Ride. It shouldn't be stressful."
Ouimet credited a focus on the community over the corporation in making a connection with potential customers.
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