Volume 1, No. 22. November 30, 2001
Photo of Bemboom sitting on his marketing stone. Photo courtesy of Jan J. van Morkhoven
A stone's throw
Reading our show issue of THE LOOP
(November 16, 2001),
Jan J. van Morkhoven felt we slighted the induction into the IAAPA Hall of Fame
of his fellow Dutch native son, J.H. "Henk" Bemboom. As van Morkhoven pointed
out, traditionally IAAPA honors only one living inductee every year, and this
year the association inducted two living members, with much of the spotlight
shining on outgoing IAAPA CEO John Graff.
Bemboom perhaps deserves special notice precisely because his name is not well-known
outside of Europe, even within the industry, despite his important innovations.
The kind of creativity he was bringing to the European amusement scene in the
1960s is the kind of outside-the-box-thinking that could give the industry a
much-needed shot in the arm today.
While running a traveling trade show in the late '50s, Bemboom saw his own childhood
dream come true when he bought his first pony. Taking notice of the affinity
between his own children and that pony, Bemboom founded in 1963 Ponypark Slagharen,
a holiday park that rented bungalows, each with a real pony and cart. He started
with 24 bungalows, grew to 160 within four years and by the end of the decade
was renting 300. He also installed mechanical rides at his holiday park.
In 1971 he introduced pay-one-price admission to his parks. As his colleagues
predicted chaos, Bemboom tested the system one fall day by announcing to patrons
that to celebrate his own birthday he would not charge for any rides the rest
of the day. He continued celebrating his birthday for a couple more weekends,
and he opened the 1972 season with the all-inclusive entrance fee in place.
Many other parks followed his lead.
Bemboom's thinking was simple. Adults seemed to leave early in the afternoon
when they exhausted their budgets, even though their children still wanted to
play. Consequently, nobody left happy. With pay-one-price, he could keep patrons
in the park, he needed less staff, and the environment seemed happier.
This was the kind of idea that arose from Bemboom's unique but effective form
of marketing research: most afternoons he would sit on the "philosophers' stone"
in the park observing and listening. He never spent a guilder on formal marketing
research. Perhaps every park should add such a stone to their capital improvements
plans for the 2002 season.