Pop Century has been upping their food game recently. We showed you brand new brick oven pizzas a few weeks ago that are spectacular and more recently Mickey shaped Whoopie Pies!, Everything Pop! This past week we stopped by and found a monstrous dessert waiting to be eaten.
Caramel Apple Monster Cupcake – $5.99
There’s a gigantic mound of icing on top with two eyes precariously placed on top to give the look of a weird monster face. Add a drizzle of caramel and you can figure out where the name comes from, but where’s the apple? We found the cupcake to be a regular vanilla cupcake but with an apple pie filling. Apple pie AND a cupcake that’s themed to Halloween? It’s as good as it sounds, served nice and cold from the cooler. It’s a solid, large cupcake that’s sure to put a smile on your little monster’s face.
It is nice to glamorize things with colorful writing and descriptions, buts let’s be honest here…. it is a CUPCAKE.
Put two candy eyes on the top and suddenly it is worth $5.99?
“Put a smile on your little monster’s face”, and a hole in daddy’s pocket.
There has to be some rational respect for money.
If this were priced at $1.49, there would still be PLENTY of PROFIT, and Guests would enjoy.
A company’s main goal is to maximize profit not to just get plenty of profit. $5.99 is the equilibrium price. Were Disney to raise the price, demand may decrease. Or if consumers no longer find the value in a $5.99 cupcake, they will demand less and Disney will drop the price. It really is all up to the consumer. You do not find the value in a $5.99 cupcake but enough consumers do.
I don’t see any value in a $5.99 Cupcake either… because there IS NO VALUE in a $5.99 Cupcake.
The simplistic economics outline you describe is that as long as people pay it, the company can grab any price…
However, things are much more complex, and the extra $5 profit grabbing on a .99 cent Cupcake, results in establishing a loss of Brand Loyalty, and that results in far greater losses when consumers no longer feel the Brand is so magical, and stop going to movies, stop buying merchandise, and stop planning vacations.
It happens over time, and the effects are not easily calculated, but what took 90 years to establish, can be lost in no time at all with the idea that you can charge as much as you want without effects.
In keeping with your economic outlook, the problem is that people keep paying the price, so the price continues to go up… So people should STOP buying these things, and the the price will fall in line with the real world, correct?
Value is subjective. You stating that there is no value doesn’t make that true for everyone. You find no value in it and you think the price is exorbitantly high for a cupcake therefore you won’t buy it.
The statement “people keep paying the price, so the price continues to go up” is not accurate. If people keep paying the price then the price would stay the same (all other things being fixed). Now if more people demand the cupcakes then the price goes up.
I don’t believe that Disney is profit grabbing with the cupcake. You do not find value in the cupcake therefore you believe the exchange is lopsided and Disney is wrong. With the laws of supply and demand Disney and the consumer have come to an acceptable price for which the consumer is willing to pay and for which Disney is willing to supply the cupcake. No one is being robbed, they are in a voluntary exchange where they both benefit.
If you personally no longer find the value (or magic) in Disney as a brand then your spending will reflect that, as it should. I don’t believe brand loyalty is being substantially affected because people are buying all things Disney. Will the majority of people no longer find the value in Disney at some point and therefore generate the demise of Disney? It’s possible, as with any business or product, and the consumers have that power.
Brand loyalty means that you would consistently pick one business over another comparable business. Is there a comparable business to Disney? Depends on the consumer. Those who say yes will find value somewhere else. Those that say there isn’t will pay for Disney movies, merchandise, vacations, and even perhaps a $5.99 cupcake.
The “Magic” of Disney Parks, is that Folks are NOT Customers, but they are “Guests”.
It is the feeling Guests have as being part of the Family, and welcomed as a Guest visiting Family in their home.
When a Guest is looked upon as a means to “maximize profits”, the feeling of being a Guest welcomed into your home changes to the feeling of being used and abused.
It becomes a feeling of betrayal, and scores of long time Disney loyalists feel this way.
Those who may have wealth can fork over $5.99 for a cupcake and see nothing other then eating a tasty treat…
Normal folks see $5.99 for a cupcake as a very high price, and simply don’t buy it.
This effects the experience of the Guest, and adds to the exclusion from that “Guest” feeling.
No one minds paying a fair price for perceived value…
$5.99 for a Cupcake is not a perception of value anywhere I know of.
I would pay $10 for this cupcake it is really that good. I am a foodie from NYC, LA and San Fran (don’t call it Cisco). This cupcake is AMAZING but I had it at art if animation a week and a half ago