From Sports Cars To Theme Parks
When I hear “Ferari” I think Sports car, but with brands extending their product lines, nothing should shock you anymore. In 2016, Ferarri opened up a theme park, hotel, and resturant in Villa Seca, Spain. A couple of years prior, there was a Ferrari theme park built in Abu Dhabi, Dubai. There are those who believe that this is a brand extension gone too far. This is defintely beyond my expectations for a brand product extension. Ferrari has gone above and beyond what you can ever imagine.
Ferrari was founded in 1939, as a costly, exclusive, sports car company. Who would think that approximately seventy years later, the brand would have come to this. Honestly, it is a bit random. When I think of a theme park, I think of Disney, or Universal. These theme parks are based on characters which are youthful and exciting for children. A central theme which is cheerful, and colorful is more apealing for children. The ferrari theme parks, have a more German style, modern theme. Perhaps because it is not only built to only atrract children.
One of the main goals to build the theme park was to improve merchandising for the brand. Ferrari had only offered sports cars at the time, and for most people, it limited the brand to a small market of buyers. Now that the brand is not only about sports cars, it broadens the markets to reach more people.
As a company who had aways been about cars, and entering a completely new market, they faced a couple of issues running their theme park. After researching Ferrari World, I read many online reviews. People who visited the theme park were disapointed that their famous attraction, the fastest ride in the world, had only 16 seats. So here you have thousands of vistors who pay a set entrence fee which gives the access to all the rides. Yet they have to wait hours just to be able to get onto the ride that most of them came for. The problem is simple, it comes down to supply and demand. Being that the ride can only service 16 passengers, if half of the guests want to ride it they would have to wait endless hours for their turn. Aside from the fastest ride, which attracts many people, the other rides are said to be dull and are not as exciting.
To fix the supply and demand issue, and to alleviate visitors disapointment I would simply make more seats on the ride. If that is not possible, perhaps create an exciting experience to entertain the vistors as they wait online, to make their wait more exciting.
