Mark
Strata Poster
I was speaking with a colleague about this and she expressed that there is the possibility the public perception of wooden coasters being unsafe is because of our familiarity of the material used. In the UK, in our everyday lives we view steel as a symbol of structural integrity and safety. We use it absolutely everywhere; buildings, bridges and so on. Do we use wood for those things? Nope - but we used to. Even when you do see wood used structurally in this country it is often the beams in the roof of an ancient building. Wood is often viewed as being weaker than steel and in effect it is intrinsically programmed into us that Steel is stronger, safer and so on. The fact that Steel was actually designed to replicate or mimic the strength and properties of a material that was naturally occuring, such as a decent seasonsed oak is a point often overlooked. It is all about our perceptions of the materials themselves and even more so, the comparison between the two.
Over the pond in the USA, houses are commonly made from wood. This suggests that an Americans viewpoint is that wood is effective and structurally safe and therefore, it is more concievable that a wooden coaster can be structurally safe from an American viewpoint. They are far more familiar with its structural properties than we are in the UK. That certainly adds gravitas to the fact that Americans seem far fonder of wooden coasters.
However, I'm going to throw in a curve ball now.
So we know that according to the research Alton Towers have found that guests are put off the idea of a woodie as they percieve them as unsafe. I am not entirely discounting this but I find it hard to believe to be honest. I mean part of the pull of a coaster is that it is 'death defying' and 'scary'. You have to overcome your fears to ride and all that jazz.
Bear in mind that a very recent coaster, within the same company, was even marketed as being un-safe; The Swarm. It was a huge PR stunt that was on a national press level and implied that the ride was un-safe because you might lose limbs. Did the mass public go with that vibe? Judging by the comments made on their Facebook page at the time they certainly did! It was hilarious. Has it had an impact and stopped people riding it? Has it heck!
With that in mind, it doesn't really marry up to the arguement that Alton wouldn't go for wood because it is percieved as unsafe. If people will go on a ride that is intentionally given the image of being unsafe why wouldn't they also go on a woodie? If they are that concerned about whether people view a coaster as unsafe, that Swarm stunt would have never gone ahead.
So this makes me question whether or not the answers that were revealed were entirely truthful. I daresay that Wooden coasters cost a lot more to operate? Someone please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. It may be an assumption on my part. We all know that Merlin like to keep things as cheap as they can (just like any other business out there - I am not having a dig at them for this) and so there is the prospect of a costly wooden coaster that potentially has even more maintenance involved, such as frequent replacements of wood and so on. I would also note that there is a possibility that wooden coaster maintenance COULD be more expensive in the UK than it is elsewhere in the world such as the USA. In certain areas of America the weather is far more consistent than it is in the UK. We have a bit of everything which isn't great for the structural integrity of wood and therefore may require more maintenance. Would Merlin be so forthcoming in saying that they don't want a woodie because the maintenance and operating is costly? I'm not convinced they would.
If they were to publicly acknowledge that they are not prepared to pay large maintenance and operating costs it makes the company sound tight and could possibly give the impression that they have a similar ethic with other attractions. The last thing that Merlin want is for people to think of them as beancounters and would rather that people believe that no expense is spared in looking after and operating the rides. Saying that they wont get something because maintenance is too expensive doesn't really give that impression.
But why bother revealing a non-truthful answer to a survey you ask? Well, for starters, as has been mentioned, we don't know what the questions were and how they were asked. If you question someone by saying "Do you percieve a wooden coaster as being more dangerous or less dangerous" you immediate evoke that word dangerous and by requiste, imply the danger - even if the person answers less dangerous the word danger is involved. If you were to ask "Do you percieve a wooden coaster as being more safe or less safe" the word safe is implied and totally changes the tone of the question. In essence they can use the questioning to subtly influence or manipulate the outcomes depending on what it is they are looking at and what their desired outcome actually is. They use the public answers to justify or support an arguement. (A nod to the marketing officer we have at work that explained how companies construct their questionnaires exactly in this fashion).
It should also be noted that a company very rarely reveals their survey results unless it is intentionally trying to send out a clear message. Effectively, announcing survey results acts as another arm of the marketing department and can be used accordingly and so from the startpoint a marketing team can manipulate the questioning to get the 'right' answers ready to reveal them to the public. I always said this was the case when Alton Towers ran the poll about the nations favourite coaster. Alton are very aware that Nemesis is held up high by many enthusiasts to begin with. By making sure enthusiasts knew about the poll and allowing them to vote every day it was almost guaranteed to be Nemesis would win. They wanted Nemesis to win to then give them the launching platform for the expansion of the Nemesis story with SubTerra.
Im not accusing the company of lying but I don't think they are being totally transparent in what they are revealing and therefore I wouldn't put too much stock into it. Basically, they are never going to explain all the considerations involved when it comes to maintenance and their company image and therefore the decision they have made because it would, for the most part, be pointless. Most people really couldn't give a hoot, it is only us 'enthusiasts' that are interested. So for any company, or in this case, Merlin, it is just far easier to feed the line that actually it is the public percpetion preventing a wooden coaster from happening. Essentially, what I am saying is that the reasoning for not getting wood may possibly have very little to do with the public perception (in the UK) of wooden coasters.
Over the pond in the USA, houses are commonly made from wood. This suggests that an Americans viewpoint is that wood is effective and structurally safe and therefore, it is more concievable that a wooden coaster can be structurally safe from an American viewpoint. They are far more familiar with its structural properties than we are in the UK. That certainly adds gravitas to the fact that Americans seem far fonder of wooden coasters.
However, I'm going to throw in a curve ball now.
So we know that according to the research Alton Towers have found that guests are put off the idea of a woodie as they percieve them as unsafe. I am not entirely discounting this but I find it hard to believe to be honest. I mean part of the pull of a coaster is that it is 'death defying' and 'scary'. You have to overcome your fears to ride and all that jazz.
Bear in mind that a very recent coaster, within the same company, was even marketed as being un-safe; The Swarm. It was a huge PR stunt that was on a national press level and implied that the ride was un-safe because you might lose limbs. Did the mass public go with that vibe? Judging by the comments made on their Facebook page at the time they certainly did! It was hilarious. Has it had an impact and stopped people riding it? Has it heck!
With that in mind, it doesn't really marry up to the arguement that Alton wouldn't go for wood because it is percieved as unsafe. If people will go on a ride that is intentionally given the image of being unsafe why wouldn't they also go on a woodie? If they are that concerned about whether people view a coaster as unsafe, that Swarm stunt would have never gone ahead.
So this makes me question whether or not the answers that were revealed were entirely truthful. I daresay that Wooden coasters cost a lot more to operate? Someone please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. It may be an assumption on my part. We all know that Merlin like to keep things as cheap as they can (just like any other business out there - I am not having a dig at them for this) and so there is the prospect of a costly wooden coaster that potentially has even more maintenance involved, such as frequent replacements of wood and so on. I would also note that there is a possibility that wooden coaster maintenance COULD be more expensive in the UK than it is elsewhere in the world such as the USA. In certain areas of America the weather is far more consistent than it is in the UK. We have a bit of everything which isn't great for the structural integrity of wood and therefore may require more maintenance. Would Merlin be so forthcoming in saying that they don't want a woodie because the maintenance and operating is costly? I'm not convinced they would.
If they were to publicly acknowledge that they are not prepared to pay large maintenance and operating costs it makes the company sound tight and could possibly give the impression that they have a similar ethic with other attractions. The last thing that Merlin want is for people to think of them as beancounters and would rather that people believe that no expense is spared in looking after and operating the rides. Saying that they wont get something because maintenance is too expensive doesn't really give that impression.
But why bother revealing a non-truthful answer to a survey you ask? Well, for starters, as has been mentioned, we don't know what the questions were and how they were asked. If you question someone by saying "Do you percieve a wooden coaster as being more dangerous or less dangerous" you immediate evoke that word dangerous and by requiste, imply the danger - even if the person answers less dangerous the word danger is involved. If you were to ask "Do you percieve a wooden coaster as being more safe or less safe" the word safe is implied and totally changes the tone of the question. In essence they can use the questioning to subtly influence or manipulate the outcomes depending on what it is they are looking at and what their desired outcome actually is. They use the public answers to justify or support an arguement. (A nod to the marketing officer we have at work that explained how companies construct their questionnaires exactly in this fashion).
It should also be noted that a company very rarely reveals their survey results unless it is intentionally trying to send out a clear message. Effectively, announcing survey results acts as another arm of the marketing department and can be used accordingly and so from the startpoint a marketing team can manipulate the questioning to get the 'right' answers ready to reveal them to the public. I always said this was the case when Alton Towers ran the poll about the nations favourite coaster. Alton are very aware that Nemesis is held up high by many enthusiasts to begin with. By making sure enthusiasts knew about the poll and allowing them to vote every day it was almost guaranteed to be Nemesis would win. They wanted Nemesis to win to then give them the launching platform for the expansion of the Nemesis story with SubTerra.
Im not accusing the company of lying but I don't think they are being totally transparent in what they are revealing and therefore I wouldn't put too much stock into it. Basically, they are never going to explain all the considerations involved when it comes to maintenance and their company image and therefore the decision they have made because it would, for the most part, be pointless. Most people really couldn't give a hoot, it is only us 'enthusiasts' that are interested. So for any company, or in this case, Merlin, it is just far easier to feed the line that actually it is the public percpetion preventing a wooden coaster from happening. Essentially, what I am saying is that the reasoning for not getting wood may possibly have very little to do with the public perception (in the UK) of wooden coasters.
