Jacob Skinner
Case 2-1: Disney
MARK4050
1. Factors that contributed to EuroDisney's poor performance during its first year of operation: * French visitor's stayed away. They were expected to make up 50% of attendance figures. "The French see EuroDisney as American imperialism-plastics at its worst." The case mentions that French culture has "its own loveable cartoon characters" one of which (Asterix) has a theme park located near EuroDisney. Initial advertising of the park also aggravated the local populous, many of them felt that Disney was emphasizing glitz and size rather than the amenities they offered. * Initial construction of the park also facilitated the financial burden of Disney. Expensive trams were built to take guests from the hotels to the park, but visitors preferred walking, these additional add-ons cost Disney an additional $340 million. * Economic impact, external factors, and competition: High interest rates and the devaluation of several currencies against the franc. The 1991 Gulf War crisis limited vacation travel for the rest of that year. In 1992, the opening of EuroDisney also had to contend with European's desire to travel to the World's Fair in Seville and the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Factors that contributed to Hong Kong Disney's (HKD) poor performance during its first year: * Perhaps being overly cautious of making the same mistakes as EuroDisney, HKD was developed to be a much smaller amusement park. Chinese consumers felt the park was too small and had little to excite those unfamiliar with Disney's cast of characters. Liang Ning who visited the park with his family said he wanted to feel like he was in a fairytale. Instead he says "it's just not big enough" and "not very different from the amusement parks we have". The park initially had just 16 attractions and only one classic Disney thrill ride. * Many guests of HKD had little to no knowledge of Disney characters. Disney characters were banned for nearly 40 years, so knowledge of Disney lore is limited. * Early advertising of HKD featured a family consisting of two kids and two parents, this posed a problem because China's government limits most couples to just one child. 2. To what degree were these factors (A) foreseeable and (B) controllable (I based these on a scale of 1-5; 1 being the lowest 5 being the highest): * Being viewed as an Imperialist (A)=4 and (B)=3. It is common knowledge that many Europeans feel this way about Americans in general. Therefore I think it should have been fairly foreseeable that an American based company would be exposed to these views initially. I also think that it could have possibly been controlled better by observing the other amusement parks in Europe and seeing what was successful. However, overcoming that initial vibe would be difficult regardless. * As far as initial construction I feel that (A)=5 and (B)=5. This aspect of the park was most definitely foreseeable and controllable. Conducting focus groups, or observing the local people in their natural environment would have allowed Disney to see that many Europeans prefer to walk. * While the Olympics are scheduled years in advance, the economic impact, and external factors would be hard to predict. In my opinion, in that instance I would say (A)=2 and (B)=1 * In regards to the size of HKD, (A)=4 and (B)=5. With more market research it would have been very possible to see that the Chinese people were open to a different style Amusement park then normal (more rides and space). It is also highly controllable because the created the park from scratch, it was not a preexisting site. * The knowledge of Disney characters, (A)=5 and (B)=1 . I'm sure Disney knew that the Chinese people had no idea about Disney characters for 40 years, they also had no control over that. * Early advertising with 2 children, (A)=5 and (B)=5. It is common knowledge that many Chinese families are limited to one child. Producing an advertisement depicting 2 children is certainly foreseeable as a problem and highly controllable. 3. Ethnocentrism played a huge role in the story of EuroDisney along with self-reference criterion (SRC). While it may be true that bigger is always better here in America, other cultures may not feel the same. The case states that many local people were aggravated by the emphasis on glitz and the size of EuroDisney rather than the attractions. Also, the vacation customs are vastly different in Europe when compared to the U.S. Americans tend to take shorter more frequent vacations, while many Europeans opt for a longer one time vacation generally planned for August. 4. I view Disney's cross-cultural marketing skills as average (current with this case). It seem as though they focused more on what to do (brick & mortar) rather than to focus on what the consumers perceived as valuable. One of the larger mistakes they made was the HKD advertisement toward families with two children. A multibillion dollar company should not make simple mistakes of that nature. 5. Disney is surely not the first company to ever become predisposed with initial successes. The Japanese public was so receptive to Disney that they probably thought EuroDisney and HKD locations were a no brainer. They failed to realize that EVERY country has a different culture, with that culture comes different values, beliefs, wants, and needs. If they plan to continue expanding it is important to remember that Disneyland is not just a cookie cutter type product.