Willie Ratchford Assignment 4: Market Analysis In this course, I analyze an entertainment company to explore the various departments and operations of a business. This includes an analysis of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT); competitor research; and financial information. Program: Word, PDF. Skills: Research & Development, Market Analysis.

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A Market Analysis for
Universal Studios Theme Park
Willie Ratchford
Full Sail University
Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing
August 2nd
, 2019

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This is a market analysis report for the Universal Studios Theme Park & Resort, a theme
park division of NBCUniversal a subsidiary of Comcast. This report will show the success of
attendance at the theme parks based on a shift in attendance from an unexpected age group.
The young generation in the USA is loving the new rides as well as the intellectual property that
goes down well with people in the 18-34 age bracket. The increased in ticket sells and the
overwhelming new fan base of millennials, Universal's new theme park, Epic Universal should
be targeting that group that pays their bills.

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OBJECTIVE
The focus of this report is to understand the new shift of ticket buyers for Universal
Studios as management prepares for expansion in a new park called, Epic Universe, in Orlando
Florida. This research has been collected for the creative and engineering teams as they develop
a new park that is inclusive for all ages while bringing a whole new immersive experience.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The collected data was gathered from secondary internet research and surveying.
Majority information is quantitative with a small percentage of qualitative data. The month-long
research began in the month of June to August 2019. All resources and information are current
and up to date. The only information that is absent from this report is sensitive information the
company has gathered that is not public, such as ticket buying peaks during certain seasons.
RESEARCH AND KEY FINDINGS
Three visuals are required. You may include pictures or charts, tables and graphs within
the body of your paper. Each visual must be simple, clear and understood by the reader in less
than 10 seconds. If you did not create the visual, it must also be cited in the paper and on the
reference page at the end. Any interviews, large charts or other detailed reports that
demand more than 10 seconds of a reader’s attention go in the appendix at the end.
The movie-based amusements parks of the world are Universal Studio Theme Parks
owned by the famous entertainment giant Universal Studios. With 7 theme parks, located in
Florida, California, Japan, Singapore, Moscow, and Beijing; all owned by Universal, are
amongst the top most visited theme parks in the world. The theme park has several attractions
that are based on popular modern and classic pop cultures like music, video games, comics,

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cartoons, literature, television, and movies. Characters like Scooby-Doo, Marilyn Monroe,
Simpsons, Popeye, and the Transformers can be seen interacting with guests. The park also has
roller-coasters, water-rides and a simulator ride which has been based on the movies such as the
Despicable Me to attract its customers. Bhasin (2019) claimed that the parks have targeted
people from every age-group as its prospective customers. It encourages families, youngsters,
kids, and tourists from all over the world to visit its theme park. In the year 2007, Universal
theme park revealed Harry Potter as the theme of its amusement park, via The Wizarding World
of Harry Potter, this set records attendance.
According to "Themed Entertainment Association" (2016), the US, theme parks are
an $18 billion mature industry. The category is growing in the low single digits (+3% overall
attendance so far in US data). However, Universal is growing far faster than the industry, thanks
to their new attractions and innovations. Universal grew its visit share from 11% in 2014, to what
we expect to be 15–16% in 2016, which is remarkable. In 2018, Florida theme park did over 10
million in attendance, Los Angeles did over 9 million. Ages 18 to 34 is the world’s largest
demographic and enormously influential, and Universal Parks & Resorts has proven that
building relevant products for Millennials can pay off dramatically (Glueck, 2016). When the
Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando opened back in July 2014, the immediate
rise of Millennial visits was up 25%. That increased sustained for months proving that Harry
Potter and other licensed themes are working well for the park.

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Millennials, whom we define as ages 20 to 35 in 2016, numbered 71 million, and
Boomers (ages 52 to 70) numbered 74 million. Millennials are expected to overtake Boomers in
population in 2019 as their numbers swell to 73 million and Boomers decline to 72 million.
Generation X (ages 36 to 51 in 2016) is projected to pass the Boomers in population by 2028.
(Fry, 2018).
The success factor comes from the park's strengths in external opportunities. The
opportunities come from brands and licensing deals from blockbuster films, books or favorite
characters. These are great opportunity for the park as it always creatively brings more brands,
shows, and attractions to its parks to attract cult fans of deals and ticket sales. This is the main
premise of their business model of Universal Studios inspires its guests to "ride the movies", as it
features numerous attractions and live shows. This motivates the internal strengths within the

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parks "Guests Experience." Parks has something different to offer to the visitor with multi-
sensory experiences which engage all the senses and are highly unique.
Universal Orlando Resort is opening a brand new theme park, called Epic Universe, and
it’s their most ambitious theme park yet. Universal’s Epic Universe will take guests on a journey
where beloved stories expand into vibrant lands – and where that journey is as much a part of
their adventure as the ultimate destination. “Our vision for Epic Universe is historic,” said Tom
Williams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Universal Parks & Resorts. Expanding their
product to up their game in entertainment, Universal will develop this new park for all ages, but
with a focus to attract and appeal to the millennials and the generations after. With Universe
direct competitor, Disney wrapping up on their newly built Star Wars land with a hotel on the
way, Epic Universe is the step up to have even the mouse scratching his head. Epic Universe is
described as the single-largest investment Comcast NBCUniversal has made in its theme park

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business and in Florida overall, and in addition to the actual theme park, Epic Universe will also
play host to an entertainment center, hotels, shops, restaurants, and more. It will be located
within a larger 750-acre site that nearly doubles Universal’s total available acreage in Central
Florida. Indeed, while the existing Universal Orlando Resort is pretty contained to one area, Epic
Universe is located a few miles away from that hub, south of Sand Lake Road and east of
Universal Boulevard. According to Tom Williams, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for
Universal Parks (2019), he said that “the Universe (Universal Studios) is bigger than the world
(Disney World).” Maybe he will be correct with this investment and plans to dominate the theme
park industry.
CONCLUSIONS

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Tickets sell has been a steady climb since NBC, Comcast acquired Universal Studios in
2005. With over a decade of success from the millennial generation, it is only fair to expect
Universal to create and present to their guest a new experience to drive business at their location
and state. Research shows that if Universal continues to paly to their strengths that can capture
more guests from the intellectual property and have high numbers in return from millennials.
Don't know theme park details of what they will have and what technology they will bring, but if
they keep millennials in mind, they should be very successful with their investment park.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From this study, we see that Millennials, now the largest living generation, have untapped
resources to spend on theme parks and entertainment. This group responds well to concepts
directed specifically at their demographic. To draw in millennials, theme park should rely on
nostalgia licensing of content, films, and books while presenting it with a tech-savvy approach.
Eliminating long lines is another way to keep millennials engaged with the scenes that Universal
will immerse them in. Creating Epic Universe that is tailored to millennials on how they react
and participate will be the best direction for the new theme park.

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REFERENCES
Bhasin, H. (2019, March 29). Marketing mix of Universal Studios Theme Parks. Retrieved from
https://www.marketing91.com/marketing-mix-of-universal-studios-theme-parks/
Chitwood, A. (2019, August 1). Universal Orlando Announces New Theme Park ‘Epic
Universe’. Retrieved from http://collider.com/new-universal-theme-park-details-name-
epic-universe/#concept-art
Fry, R. (2018, March 1). Millennials projected to overtake Baby Boomers as America’s largest
generation. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2018/03/01/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/
Theme Entertainment Association. (2016). Global Attraction Attendance Report. Retrieved from
http://www.teaconnect.org/images/files/TEA_160_611852_160525.pdf
Statista (2019). Attendance at the Universal Studios Orlando theme park from 2009 to 2018 (in
millions). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/236182/attendance-at-the-
universal-studios-orlando-theme-park/