Journey Map of my cousin Vinny!!

Journey Map

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it” – John Steinbeck

The protagonist – My cousin Vinny!!!

I have always been the participant of vacations all through my life. But on the other hand, Vinny my cousin enjoys planning the vacation. I am really excited about this project! In a way it’s a chance for me to get into Vinny’s head and see why and how he plans things. Vinny and Liz have been married for close to two years now and they have been on a total of five vacations all planned by Vinny. I am going to write about their most favourite vacation. This is the vacation where they flew to Miami and took a cruise from there to the Bahamas. The whole trip was planned by Vinny.

So who is Vinny? Let me give you a brief description of our protagonist. Often times, Liz describes Vinny (jokingly) as a “A child trapped in a man’s body”. He is sweet, funny and good-hearted. He spends time on weekends volunteering at the nearby animal shelter. He works as a manager in a large firm. He is hard working and treats his team members with respect and with affection. He is a guy with whom both people and animals like to be around. And in my opinion, that’s pretty rare.

December 24^th 2011 :

Vinny and Liz are on the Norwegian cruise somewhere few miles off the island of Bahamas. They are sipping Pina coladas on the balcony deck. Whoa! How did this happen?

 Let’s trace back to look at the myriad of emotions, the people and businesses involved in creating this destiny for them.  

 

September 2011, 3 months before booking the Cruise.

Three months from now is the first Christmas holidays Vinny and Liz were to spend together. Why did Vinny choose to cruise to the Bahamas? He heard from his very close couple friends Jey and Radha talk about the cruise to the Bahamas and that they had the time of their life. Now here I have to talk about Radha. Radha can sell ice to the eskimos! She has an uncanny ability to narrate like a storywriter and you would want to live her experience. For example, she was the first who talked to about the store Marshalls. She would explain all the great things and the experience she had shopping there. She talked about the cheap designer shoes, the home décor etc. All the things that I spend a ton of time on. I enjoyed listening to her experience so much  that I dragged my husband the next day to the store. So this came as no surprise to know that Radha was the influencer. Now what did she exactly sell? What did Vinny think he would experience in a cruise to the Bahamas. Here is what he remembers. The Blue waters, romantic fine dining, Casino in a Titanic size cruise. Vinny’s brain registers something like this…

 

 

Immediate Influencer – In his mind he thinks a trip to Bahamas on the cruise is amazing. But what are the immediate influencers? What made him decide to go on a cruise in the month of December? He stumbles into this while he is doing some research to learn more about the cruise deals.

 

He learns that they give huge discounts during the Christmas time. This is the business reason that he comes up with for this (Yes. Vinny is an MBA who loves a bit of logic behind every action. He is one person who likes to see order in the chaotic world). The reason is that people prefer to spend time with their family on/or during Christmas and would not want to be out on a cruise. And this works perfectly for him for the following reasons (in the same order)

1.       The cheap discounted price (Influencer: Price)

2.       Office workload is usually less during Christmas (Influencer: Work schedule)

3.       After listening to his friend Ms.Radha, he is itching to go on a cruise to the Bahamas. (Influencer: Social Network)

4.       It’s been 6 months since he got married and would love to take his wife on a nice vacation because he knows that the first vacation bombed. (Influencer: Family)

5.       They live in Austin. Neither he nor his wife Liz likes cold weather in Austin during winter. So this was a perfect chance to escape into a balmy weather of the Bahamas.(Influencer: Weather)

 

Scrutiny begins!!

Now it’s time to get the best possible prices not only for the cruise but also for the whole vacation. He used sites like Kayak and Priceline to choose the best price for flight. He also checked out other things that Vinny and his wife could do. They figured it will be fun to go snorkelling. So they book  a snorkelling expedition  as well. They also decide to do some shopping to buy clothes and beachwear. Here are some stores/businesses that gained from their trip.

1.       Online websites like Kayak

2.       Kohl’s where his wife shopped for $300

3.       Southwest Airlines won ($1000)

4.       Norwegian cruise ($1000)

5.       Local snorkelling business

6.       Casino in Cruise ($400)

7.       Some local shopping at Bahamas island

They had the vacation of their lifetime. I have a reason why I asked them the amount of dollars they spent on the trip. It took them a while to recollect the money they spent. Infact they had associated memories with events rather than a price tag. For eg, they forgot to mention about the amount they spent at the casino. They talked about spending hours on the slot machine.

Lessons Learnt from Vinny’s Journey Map

1.       Sell experiences rather than a product

2.       It is not only the sales people who sell your business but customers too

3.       Have a  competitive and a great website

4.       Price matters only after a point

5.       Last but not least, memories do not carry a price tag!!!