How Disneyland Secretly Manipulates Its Guests

(This is my first time posting any form of writing publicly, so hoping it goes down well)

Due to Walt's obsessive nature and the abundance of his involvement during the construction of the original Disneyland, which opened on the 17th of July, 1956 in Anaheim California, Walt managed to create what is now considered the start of the greatest chain of theme parks in existence.

However what many people don't know is how Disneyland secretly psychologically manipulates its guests. The main focal points I will be covering include how Disneyland induces spending and how Disneyland uses color to manipulate guests.

Color

Color plays a significant part in manipulating guest flow in the Disney parks. One of the biggest and most obvious uses of color is actually fairly boring, and it is through the use of dark coloring for the pavements and walkways. The dark color attracts heat from the sun, and since Disneyland is in California the additional heat makes standing in place for a while extremely uncomfortable. This is the reason that (besides rope drop park openings, fireworks, or parades) congestion and “traffic jams” are infrequent and guest flow is smooth and consistent in Disneyland.

Another use of color throughout Disneyland is through a color that Disney actually invented themselves. Uniquely named “Go Away Green” The color is an extremely bland shade of green. You see a lot of this color around the park, but you probably wouldn't even notice it. The colors primary use is to manipulate the average person so that they would just glance past it, hence it's name. The reasoning for using “Go Away Green” is to not hide as much as to blend in areas of the park so that some areas are unconsciously blanked out and forgotten about. Some uses of these include fences, parade gates, staff doors, but, perhaps most famously, the door for Club 33. If you are unaware of Club 33 well, that's a story for another day. However, the basic idea is that it's a “secret club” inside of Disneyland and the unique color is used to disguise the entrance. The premise is to have an extremely bland and unnoticeable color, right in the middle of the bright colorful and vibrant Main Street USA. The color is so dull and passable, most guests unconsciously glance over it. Hence why the majority of people who have been to Disneyland probably haven't seen this door despite it being right in the open in the Main Street of the park.

Club 33 door in Main Street USA- Disneyland at Anaheim California

Inducing Guest Spending

Temperature

A tactic used inside of Disneyland to induce guest spending is the control of heat. The Emporium is the biggest store on the Disneyland property. It is located on Main Street inside of the main Disneyland park (adjacent to the previously mentioned pavements) and is the coldest, most heavily air-conditioned building in the entire park.

While initially, you might think it's a way to cool off the what would be the highest capacity store in Disneyland, the real reason is so that Disney can sell specific merchandise in the store. No one in their right mind would buy a sweatshirt in the middle of the summer in California when the temperature outside is upwards of 85 degrees. But if Disney cranks up the air conditioning, it could be very easy to forget the scorching temperature outside and thus feel the need to buy a sweatshirt. This is one of many tactics Disney uses to induce spending at the parks.

Smell Pods

Another example of this would be through Smell Pods. Smell Pods will, as the name suggests, pump out a specific smell into the park. Usually, in largely populated areas of the park or near particular stores, pumps out smells such as popcorn, vanilla, etc. This would in turn induce the guests to buy Disney products and foods related to that smell. Let's look at an example: Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor. A smell pod is used outside the store, and surprise surprise it is one of the most popular stores on Main Street. Vanilla is pumped through a vent underneath the window of the store (it looks like a speaker) so this brings guests in off the streets (and bonus fact, vanilla is proven to create a calming effect on people)

The Emporium on Main Street USA

I hope this gave you at least some insight into the extensive details that theme parks posses. I will try to expand on this in the near future with an analysis of how Disney uses "visual magnets" to control guest flow, and then on to more interesting topics I promise. Thank you so much for reading.