Читать книгу Blind Spot - Nathan Shedroff - Страница 16

Start by celebrating a company that probably gets relationships better than any other. If you have small children, you’re likely familiar with Disney. First, your kids fell in love with the movies. Then your shelves filled up with Disney books. Your kids may even have a favorite character and imagine it to be real.

Then one day you take your kids to Disneyland, which is no small investment. A single day for a family of four costs almost $400, not including extras, and there are always extras. But as you walk through the gates, you immediately know it’s worth it. Disneyland delivers on every promise. There are real castles and real characters. Mickey Mouse is there, and you never see two Mickeys at the same time (which reinforces the faux reality). There are rides and parades and a massive world to explore.

As a parent, you begin to notice something else, too. Disneyland has been designed by people whose attention to detail borders on the insane. You can’t find a single corner of the park, no matter how obscure, where someone hasn’t thought about the toadstools or the trash cans. Not only that, but Disneyland even has many hidden treasures that you can encounter only if you look in the most unlikely places. Here’s a very short sampling of the hundreds of extras in the park:

• The park is filled with hidden images of Mickey Mouse. You’ll find them stamped in concrete and barely visible on the ceilings of rides. Some of the lighting is designed so that objects throw Mickey-shaped shadows.

• In Cinderella’s castle, if you look overhead, you can find the mice from the movie peeking out from the rafters.

• The Haunted Mansion is filled with hidden surprises. For example, when you get off the elevator, there is a room that looks like an office off to one side. You’re not supposed to go over there, but if you do, you’ll see that the book on the desk is a dictionary opened to the word “death.”

• If you pick up the vintage phone next to the Candy Store on Main Street, you’ll hear a conversation between a woman and her daughter about what they should buy.

• If you linger in the parking lot, you can get a goodnight kiss from the castle 30 minutes after the park closes.

This all may seem obsessive, but it’s necessary. Disney has to be magical for the kids who visit it (and, possibly, the adults, too), no matter what they do or how they explore the park. Of course, everyone takes a different path and has different experiences each time they go. You might take a wrong turn and end up in an unlikely place. Or your kid picks up a phone she shouldn’t have. To fill your child with wonder, even the most unlikely interactions have to be perfect and potentially filled with wonder. Disney understands this.

So, Disney gets relationships. It creates a delightful number of places infused with wonder. It doesn’t rest. It always delivers. And the company gets a reward, too. It can charge far more for a visit than any other theme park. Its visitors also tend to come for a few days in a row to make sure they haven’t missed anything. Good relationships build value. They really do.