case study: THE NOT-SO-WONDERFUL WORLD OF EURODISNEY

case study: THE NOT-SO-WONDERFUL WORLD OF EURODISNEY

1. What factors contributed to EuroDisneys poor performance during its first year of operation? What factors contributed to Hong Kong Disneys poor performance during its first year?

The major factors that contributed to EuroDisneys poor performance was the lack of market research cultural awarenessThe further is EuroDisney was built just like American Disney parks, without giving though to cultural differences. American characters were used, instead of French cartoon characters Disney banned alcohol in a culture that enjoys drinking wine . Everyone showed up for breakfast in the mornings, when Disney had cut down their serving because they were erroneously informed that Europeans do not eat breakfastThe third major factor was pricing strategy . Pricing strategy was not accomplished correctly Many Europeans would not pay the prices that EuroDisney was chargingIn addition, Europeans do not vacation as long as Americans do.Other factors were the transatlantic airfare war and currency movement. This made it cheaper to go to Disneyland Orlando than EuroDisney the park opened during the Olympics in Barcelona, and the Worlds Fair in SevilleHong Kong Disney had the exact opposite problems. Disney did its research and tried to make the park fit in with its surroundings, and guests were disappointed. The park was very small, and visitors thought it was just like all the other amusement parks in China. The park was undifferentiated. People did not know the traditional Disney characters, and did not appeal to them.

2. To what degree do you consider that these factors were (a) foreseeable and (b) controllable by EuroDisney, Hong Kong Disney, or the parent company, Disney?

Many factors could have been foreseen and controlled by the mere study of history and culture of Europe. This study would have found that Europe has their own famous cartoon characters how long they usually tend to vacation that wine and breakfast are important to the Europeans With the World Fair and The Olympic Games going on at the same time EuroDisney should have delayed its opening so more people would have wanted to attend The only unforeseeable event would have been the Airfare war, which could not have been controlled at the time3. What role does ethnocentrism play in the story of EuroDisneys launch?

When EuroDisney launched, it was introduced with an American theme to an extreme extent. What wasnt expected was how most people in Europe would react to this. Many Europeans believed their culture and cartoon characters, such as Asterix and the Gallic Warrior, were better than Americas characters, so this had a very negative effect on business. EuroDisney opened in hopes that the Europeans would react to the park in the same way that the people in Tokyo did, but that was not the case at all. In addition, Europeans believed in taking shorter vacations and did not need to spend more than two days at the park, which was not anticipated. Europeans werent afraid to cut their spending money and often didnt stay at the night at the park because they thought the prices were outrageous. Overall, the culture of Europeans was/is much different from that of America and Japans culture, so there wasnt much to base their marketing decisions on when building the park in Paris.

4. How do you assess the cross-cultural marketing skills of Disney?

Disney pretty well nailed the marketing aspect of both Americas, and Japans Disney theme parks, and they went in with almost the exact same mind set when building/marketing the EuroDisney park in Paris. They did not take into consideration the little and big cultural differences and were not sensitive to what the park would need to succeed. When EuroDisney opened, it was advertised as being big and glamorous, but that isnt what the Europeans necessarily cared about; they care about quality over quantity. Disney had quality as well as quantity but didnt advertise in such a fashion. Executives were informed that Europeans generally didnt eat breakfast, so the parks dining areas were built with that in mind. It turns out they over compensated when downsizing the restaurant areas because everyone showed up for breakfast and the lines were disastrous, trying to feed breakfast to thousands of people when the restaurants only held 350 people. Disney marketers simply didnt understand the lifestyle and culture of Europeans at the time of introducing EuroDisney.

5. Why did success in Tokyo predispose Disney management to be too optimistic in their expectations of success in France? In China? Discuss.

In Japan, Disney did not change anything they simply took the US theme park and put it in Tokoyo To their surprise, it was a huge success The Japanese loved having a piece of America brought to their country this huge success led to a downfall when EuroDisney was built They tried the same concept and it was an epic failThe lack of marketing research, led to a disaster in Europe, but with lessons learned, not quite as bad in Hong Kong.

6. Why do you think the experience in France didnt help Disney avoid some of the problems in Hong Kong?

In comparison to EuroDisney and its European visitors, Hong Kongs visitors also have a a completely different culture Disney executives over compensated when building and marketing the theme park and made it too much like the other local theme park it seemed that visitors actually wanted to feel like they were in a fairytale and instead Hong Kong Disney was laid out too similar to other parks nearby. it also didnt meet the projected number of visitors for the first few years it was open and lost money they were simply just very unfamiliar with American Disney characters like Mickey MouseEventually, Hong Kong Disney made it right by launching numerous marketing initiatives like film footage of the history of Disney and its characters before entering the park; this helped familiarize visitors.