Magical Moments from Marketing’s Disney Study Tour

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what is the greatest marketing class of them all? MK349 Customer Experience Management: Disney Study Tour.

Have you ever imagined a world where you can take a college course that goes to Walt Disney World? Well, dreams do come true. Customer Experience Management, otherwise known as the Disney Study Tour, is a marketing elective class here at Loyola. The course starts off with lectures on Loyola’s campus, and then over spring break, you attend seminars throughout the parks at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. MK349 gives you the opportunity to learn from the experts about creating magical experiences for each one of your customers.

Now, it is not free costing just shy of $2,000 + airfare. Here is why it’s worth the cost even if you’re not a huge fan of Disney like I am.

Let us take a journey down from North Charles St. in Baltimore to Main Street at Disney World in Orlando. This article will give you the course break down of what you can expect if you register for this course.

Lectures on Loyola's Campus

Offered only in the spring semester, the class starts off on campus meeting for a 3-hour lecture each Wednesday night leading up to spring break but not after spring break. The hours you would have spent going to weekly lectures the rest of the semester are replaced by the hours you spend in seminars at Disney World over Spring Break.

The lectures on campus lay the groundwork you need to understand customer experience management (CXM).

“Customer experience management (CXM) is the discipline of understanding customers and deploying strategic plans that enable cross functional efforts and customer-centric culture to improve satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.” (Gartner)

You will get an overview of topics, definitions, and frameworks for CXM. Then you will learn through real-world case studies.

Think about all the steps involved in creating your Starbucks order. Is there a long wait? Can you read the menu, or is the font too small? Are there places to sit? Is it clean? Is it too loud? All these factors come into play before you even order your drink. All these questions and how your company answers them are relevant to managing and delivering a great customer experience.

Assignment 1: Customer Journey Map

One core concept you will learn about is how to create a customer journey map. This particular assignment gives you the chance to learn outside of the classroom and try out a local business with some new friends.

Students will form groups and visit a business in the Baltimore area to create a real customer journey map. “A customer journey map is a visual illustration of the steps the customer takes to engage with an organization/brand.” (Klink, Zhang, and Athaide, 2018). Your group will follow an imaginary customer along each step of their journey by identifying the range of emotions and pain points from beginning to the end of your customers interactions with your company.

Your team will present your findings to the class. Groups will also have to write a report that goes more in-depth with their recommendations for the business you examined.

Assignment 2: 5 Keys of Disney

The second assignment occurs once you are at Disney World. It requires students keep an eye out for examples of the 5 Keys of Walt Disney World throughout the parks. The five keys are Disney’s gold standards of providing excellent customer experiences: safety, courtesy, show, inclusion, and efficiency. After you take a picture or video of each example, you will need to explain their role in delivering high quality experiences, and then upload your findings to the class forum (aka GroupMe).

Take “show” for instance. It is way more than the fireworks and parades. “Show” is about how Disney remains fully on brand throughout all their parks. Disney takes show down to the littlest detail like for example, the Remy themed sewers in EPCOT’s France. There are hundreds of other examples throughout the parks. But you will just have to take the class to experience them for yourself.

There is actually a whole book written about the five keys of Disney: Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service by Theodore B. Kinni which is the required reading for the class. Kinni talks about Disney’s “guestology” aka Disney’s core values that are used to consistently provide great customer experiences.

Assignment 3: Career Development

When you return from Florida, you will have one week to write a reflection paper on your experience with the course. Plot twist, you are actually writing to the CEO at a company you might work at one day. (This is a hypothetical scenario; you are not required to actually send anything). You will share the details of the course and explain how this experience will benefit the company.

This is not just busy work. This will help you prepare for the day where you could leverage this experience in a job interview. There are plenty of advantages that come from this course. First, most universities do not offer a course like the Disney Study Tour so right off the bat, your experience in the class sets you apart from the competition. You also have learned customer experience management from the world’s acknowledged foremost expert in CX, Disney!

So not only is this class a great learning opportunity, but it also gives you a killer element to add to your resume due to its valuable and unique experiences.

Bonus: The course also serves as a great way to build your network. You have plenty of opportunities to meet new people and become closer with other Loyola students. One night during your trip to Disney, the professors host a networking dinner with Loyola alumni. Alumni are always super happy to meet Loyola students and share their experiences working for Walt Disney World.

Group of Loyola students in front of Cinderella's Castle

More Information/Requirements

You do not have to be a business major to take this course. All you need to do is take the prerequisite, MK240: Marketing. This introductory class allows you to build the foundation of your marketing knowledge before going into a more specialized marketing course.
For more information, check out the course website.

If you have not already, definitely make sure to register for MK349 Customer Experience Management: The Disney Study Tour. Take this incredible marketing class to add a sprinkle of magic to your college experience.