Disneyization

Disneyization according to Alan Bryman’s ‘The Disneyization of society’ has 4 trends that are:
1. Theming
2. Dedifferentiation of consumption
3. Merchandising
4. Emotional Labour

To explain the concept of Disneyization, I will be focusing on Auckland City in New Zealand.

Theming
Bryman said “More and more areas of economic life are becoming themed.”. He went on giving examples such as restaurants drawing on cultural themes such as Rock, Music and Sport. An example of such a restaurant is the famous Hard Rock Café which draws on the Rock theme.

Another example of theming would be Universal Studios, Singapore where there are different ‘lands’ such as Far Far Away, The Lost World and Ancient Egypt. They used themes to attract tourists and guests.

In Auckland, I found a theme attraction named ‘Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter’. I found that it was based on two very distinct themes. Firstly, it would be the aquatic theme, showcasing marine life and biology. Secondly, I found that it was based on increasingly popular theme; Conservation. ‘Kelly Tarlton’s’ hold event such as Beach Clean Ups and they have a Turtle Rehabilitation Programme. This is unique and certainly attracts more tourists.

Dedifferentiation of Consumption
Dedifferentiation means “the general trend whereby the forms of consumption associated with different institutional spheres become interlocked with each other and increasingly difficult to distinguish.”.

To simplify this statement, simply picture a Shopping mall. It does not only have retail outlets, it also has food and beverage outlets, spa facilities, gaming and for some, even an amusement park.

An example in Auckland is ‘Crystal Mountain’. It’s main attraction is the museum, but around it’s vicinity, there are retail stores selling souvenirs, a café selling food and beverage and even a function centre to hold events.

This is done to encourage spending and thus increase profit. Bill Dawson said “The more needs you fulfill, the longer people stay.”. You might be going to ‘Crystal Mountain’ simply to visit the museum but you will have to eat as well, spending more money, at the café.

Merchandising
The term merchandising means “to refer to the promotion of goods in the form of or bearing copyright images and logos, including such products made under license.”.
This trend of Disneyization is the most obvious and most common of all trends.

Businesses nowadays will never fail to protect their products and they do it through copyrights and licensing. As said before, this is very obvious and can be seen in every business such as ‘Kelly Tarlton’s’, ‘Crystal Mountain’ and ‘Babich Wines’ which is found in Auckland as well.

Emotional Labour
Lastly, emotional labour is defined as the ‘act of expressing socially desired emotions during service transactions.’. It simply means that businesses do not want their staff to convey that they are working. Instead, they would like them to be cheerful and smile and have a bubbly attitude to convey to the guests that they are having fun, and this in turn would affect the guests’ attitude.

Personally, I have been to ‘Kelly Tarlton’s’ and ‘Crystal Mountain’. I found that the staff were certainly very joyful and elated when serving us. We did not feel like they were working. I thought they were one of the tourists there. Thus, I feel that emotional labour is very much a trend in most countries.

There may be problems when trying to convey a message a cheerful tone with someone half a world away, and I noticed that many businesses, especially ‘Kelly tarlton’s’ and ‘Crystal Mountain’ convey this joyous feeling through their marketing on their websites.

One such example would be from Kelly Tarlton’s, “Experienced guides and small groups guarantee a fun, memorable and personal encounter. We will team you up with our experienced dive professionals to guide you every step of the way. They have a passion for marine life, a wealth of knowledge and a focus on conservation - so you're in good hands!”.

In this excerpt, one feels almost compelled to go to the attraction seeing how fun and exciting it may be. Thus this concludes my findings on Disneyization in Auckland, New Zealand.