Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507240084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: ORLANDO, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
It is Barney, the Pied Piper of the training pants set, and he's carving a new niche in Florida's tourism business.
The 6-foot, 4-inch icon of toddler TV is the featured character in a new attraction thought to be the first ever to target the 12-month to 5-year-old audience.
``They are going after a market that has been largely untapped,'' said Dan Sarel, professor of marketing at the University of Miami. ``There is huge potential, the risk is minimal and the outcome is likely to be good.''
Barney is the Public Broadcasting Service star that grossed $1 billion in sales to kids last year, says Forbes magazine. His likeness is on everything from pencils to bedspreads.
Jessica Reif, entertainment analyst in Merrill Lynch's New York headquarters, calls Universal's move ``clearly an interesting thrust toward a different market. We don't know how much impact kids that age have'' on decisions about which theme park to visit.
Disney is the big draw of tourists to Orlando, and it falls to the likes of Universal, Sea World and other attractions to lure visitors out of the Magic Kingdom.
Universal is banking on a simple marketing principle: When Barney debuts in Universal's nationwide TV advertising mix, it may become tough for families with young children to vacation in Orlando without taking the littlest ones to see Barney - or at least without hearing about it.
Introduced just three years ago, Barney's 13.4 market share tops Power Rangers with 11.6, Sesame Street with 9.5, Anamaniacs with 8.2 and Mr. Rogers with 7.9. Barney's audience share of 13.4 means that 2.2 million of the 16 million 2- to 5-year-olds watching TV when the rating was done were tuned into Barney.
by CNB