...Introduction The Walt Disney Company was originally founded in 1923; a company committed to providing quality and wholesome entertainment experiences to people of all ages. The company is known for the following four segments, which consist of Studio Entertainment, Parks and Resorts, Consumer Products and Media Networks. The Walt Disney Company consists of five (5) Disneyland and Disney Park Resorts, in total. Two are located in the United States, one in Europe and two in Asia Pacific. The original Disneyland Resort was built in 1955, in Anaheim, California; followed by Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista, Florida in 1971. After the success of these two large theme parks in the United States, Disney decided to expand internationally. First Tokyo Disney Resort built in 1983, secondly, Disneyland Resort Paris (EuroDisney) which opened its doors in 1992, and thirdly, Hong Kong Disneyland, opening its doors in 2005. Case Study Questions 1. The factors that contributed to EuroDisney, now called Disneyland Resort Paris, poor performance during its first year of operation was the lack of knowledge of their target market, cultural differences between the USA and Europe, and the failure to take into account that “Paris is Europe’s most-popular city destination among tourist of all nationalities”. Disney did a bad job at understanding Europeans and their lifestyles. Unfortunately, for Disney the French were neither happy nor receptive to having what they called “America Cultural...
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...JÖNKÖPING INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL JÖ NKÖ PING UNIVERSITY Market ing Str ategic C hange in Expansion of D isneyland : Cases Study of Disneyland’s Overseas Expansion in Shanghai Master Thesis in Business Administration Author: Li Zhu & Dan Xu Tutor: Tomas Mü llern Jö ping nkö August 2010 Master Thesis Acknowledgements First of all, we would like to take the opportunity to thank our tutor Mr. Tomas Mü llern. Thanks to his guidance and valuable suggestions, we correct our mistake on time and finish our thesis in the end. From the first meeting to the last one, you are always concern us and the process of our writing. Every time, we handed in chapters, you always provided useful opinion to let us revise the thesis better and better. We thank you for patient guiding and providing us a good opportunity in our study to learn more and more. Secondly, we would like to thank Mr. Zhang and Edward. Thank you for taking time to find interviewees of our interview. You are busy with your own job, but you still use your private time to help us. You also share your experience about contacting skills with us. Last but not the lease, we are thankful to our families and friends who were helping and supporting us during this writing period. Li Zhu & Dan Xu Jö ping University nkö 2010 i|Page Master Thesis Master’s Thesis in Business Administration Title: Marketing Strategic Change in Expansion of Disneyland Authors: Li Zhu & Dan...
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...Euro Disney * Location – While the demographics presented by the European government about the number of tourists that comes to Paris is true, Euro Disney failed to make further research on the reasons for this large number. Most tourists go to Paris to visit and wander in the streets of the city and not to visit theme parks. Moreover, the climate in Paris is unsuitable for a theme park thus the off-season attendance was way below target. The French government offered Euro Disney generous incentives that they chose to overlook cultural and weather barriers. * Pricing – Unlike the Japanese, Europeans are not willing to spend much to enjoy the attractions in the park. Euro Disney was confident that Europeans would come flocking to the park despite the premium price. * Euro Disney Marketing Strategy – Euro Disney’s advertising focused on the size of the park rather than the Disney experience. They were trying to sell an alluring bit of American which the European do not particularly like. Europeans do not care that the theme park had cost over $4 billion or that it is 4,800 acres wide. They should have emphasized the benefit one could get from visiting the park. * Over-confidence – Overwhelmed by the success of Tokyo Disney Land, Euro Disney overlooked many factors like culture and the weather. They thought that their marketing strategy in other countries would still work in Europe. * European’s view of America – According to survey done to 16 countries in...
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...Shenyang Jianzhu University Shenyang 110168, China E-mail: bobo1012@sina.com Euro Disneyland a theme park comprised of an updated, state of the art Disney's Magic Kingdom, is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company located outside Paris, France, and has experienced numerous complications from its inception. This article introduces the fretful of Euro Disney, analyzes the reasons why it goes to wrong and give the recommendation to overcome the rattrap. Keywords: Euro Disneyland, Cultural differences, Management hubris 1. Introduction Many companies throughout the United States and beyond are resorting to developing their business abroad. The Walt Disney Company was one of the American organizations to expand on foreign soil. Its first foreign venture Tokyo Disneyland proved to be so successful that the decision was made to further expand abroad. This next foreign expansion experience, named Euro Disneyland all hopes were high, with Michael Eisner, the chairperson of Walt Disney promising to make Euro Disney the “most lavish project that Disney had ever built”. He had an obsession with maintaining Disney’s high reputation, as Disney had already seen the success of California and Florida Disneyland. While Euro Disney did not prove to be the successful venture that had been anticipated by its creators. Euro Disneyland a theme park comprised of an updated, state of the art Disney's Magic Kingdom, is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company located...
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...SHANGHAI DISNEY: MILESTONE JOINT VENTURE Rita Lemoine Southern New Hampshire University Abstract This paper examines the significant collaborative efforts of both a U.S. multi-national corporation, The Walt Disney Company and its foreign socialistic counterpart, the Shanghai Shendi Group, Ltd. negotiation of an Equity International Joint Venture agreement. The paper will disclose the joint venture agreement, the financial structure, and funding arrangements for the construction of the Shanghai Disney Resort. Then a SWOT analysis will demonstrate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that could affect The Disney Company’s operations in China according to current economic, political, and legal policies regarding foreign joint ventures. Finally, an assessment of the cultural differences between the two companies in the form of managerial and leadership styles that could hinder the success of this joint venture. Keywords: Equity International Joint Venture, SWOT analysis, Cultural Dimensions SUMMARY OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY The Walt Disney Company, the leading producer of family entertainment for the past nine decades, beginning in October 16, 1923 when Walter Elias Disney “signed a contract with M.J. Winkler to produce” a series of cartoons, the early stages of The Disney Brothers Studios, founded by Walter Elias and Roy O. Disney. (Retrieved from “http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/disney-history/1920-01-01--1929-12-31”). The...
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...entertainment business for more than 80 years and is well recognized around the world as one that delivers an exceptional entertainment experience. Walt Disney Company strengths can be grouped in three main categories: 1) diversified distribution channels, 2) strong brand portfolio, and 3) financial strength. Despite Walt Disney’s success, the company has some declining segments in their domestic business. In addition, Disney’s biggest challenge in creating theme parks and resorts abroad is their inability to tailor the attractions to the local market while maintaining Disney’s brand image. In the past, international theme park implementations, Disney had failed to adapt their strategies to the local market. Therefore, Disney’s weaknesses can also be also grouped in three categories: 1) declining segments, 2) difficulty adapting to other cultures, and 3) weak managerial skills in terms of international operations. Diversified Distribution Channels Disney has a strong diversified distribution channel. The company operates by four strategic business units (SBU): 1) Media Networks and Broadcasting, 2) Parks and Resorts, 3) Studio Entertainment, and 4) Disney Consumer Products (Banton, 2007, p.31). The Media Network segment comprises of all broadcast television network, television production and distribution operations, television stations, cable networks, broadcast radio, publishing and digital operations (“Fiscal Year 2010,” 2011, p.1). Some of Disney’s main media brands are: The Disney...
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...Journal of Vacation Marketing http://jvm.sagepub.com Strategic theming in theme park marketing Kevin K. F. Wong and Phoebe W. Y. Cheung Journal of Vacation Marketing 1999; 5; 319 DOI: 10.1177/135676679900500402 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jvm.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/5/4/319 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Journal of Vacation Marketing can be found at: Email Alerts: http://jvm.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://jvm.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Downloaded from http://jvm.sagepub.com at SAGE Publications on December 2, 2009 Journal of Vacation Marketing Volume 5 Number 4 Academic Papers Strategic theming in theme park marketing Kevin K. F. Wong and Phoebe W. Y. Cheung Received (in revised form): 20th May, 1999 Department of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel: (00 852) 2766 6341; Fax: (00 852) 2362 9362; E-mail: hmkevinw@polyu.edu.hk Kevin K. F. Wong, PhD is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Manager of the HTM Resource Centre in the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. His major research interests focus on tourism management, tourist behaviour, tourism forecasting models and impact studies. Phoebe W. Y. Cheung is a research...
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...Zealand passing Jurassic Park on the New Zealand Box Office. New Zealanders praised the film with most reviews receiving a high rating. When opened internationally it grossed over $2 million with reviews also achieving a high rating. Although most international reviews fail to see the message from the violence compared to local reviews, they seem to view the violence as nauseating and unnecessary while New Zealand sees it as strong message to the public. Strong examples of this are Mark Tierney, Lizzie Francke and David Stratton from New Zealand, and Kenneth Turan from America who had a strong opinion on the movie’s brutal violence leading him to give it a bad review therefore missing the didactic message of the film. Once Were Warriors is a film based from the novel of the same name, about a Maori family living in Auckland after moving away from tribal elders over a disagreement over their marriage. The main settings are the Heke’s house and the local bar both housing drunken violence. Beth Heke (Rena Owen) is the victim of domestic abuse from her husband Jake Heke (Temurea Morrison) leading her to question the relationship and stand up to Jake while also trying to sort family relations. There are many sub-plots in the film which affect the children, such as Boggy’s journey to adulthood, Nig’s gang initiation, and Grace’s struggle with depression. The main theme that appears through the main plot and sub-plots is violence, an example is the domestic violence of Beth and Jake...
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...The Walt Disney Co. FINA 4200.002 Nick Camp Nick Meyer Muddasir Sultan Theme: The Walt Disney Co. is an enigma in these rough economic times for the sole purpose that they show minimal signs of slowing down. Mickey Mouse has his hands dipped into everything and from an investor’s standpoint that’s a good thing because that equals diversification, and in turn, diversification lowers risk. The Disney Company operates in several areas of the media and entertainment industry. They have recently acquired Pixar, which consistently provides box office record sales with their animated films. Along media entertainment lines, Disney also operates dominant media channels ABC and ESPN. These are two channels that carry with them a strong loyal following. Sports have always been America’s past time and it’s unlikely to see them ever declining or the viewership that goes along with it. People have always poured capital into sports and will continue to for many centuries to come. Aside from Disney’s ventures, investors focus and confidence should be in the trademark of Disney. Characters such as Mickey Mouse and Buzz Light-year are icons that will never be lost in the pages of time. Kids and adults alike will always want to participate in the next big thing the company has to offer and these kinds of expectations will always lead to Disney having a stable stock price and even unstable in the positive manner because the growth potential is limitless for...
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...will be an innovation for the Caribbean country Trinidad and Tobago. Walt and Roy Disney established the Disney Company in 1923 which was back then known as the Disney brothers cartoon studios (Barrier 2007). Stationed in Burbank, California the Disney Company has produced a global presence and positive image in the hearts of its targeted audience (Galber, 2006). The Disney brand’s global presence helps make it easy to establish itself conveniently in any part of the world. This gives it huge potential in thriving countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Brazil, India and etc. (Grover, 2004). With the Walt Disney Business, there are so many theme parks that have been produced under that company but the one that will be the most valuable to Trinidad and Tobago is Disney’s animal Kingdom theme park. I decided to go with this specific theme park to keep Trinidad and Tobago’s natural resources and this way I can bring a new experiences to the island. Economy Trinidad and Tobago is one of the wealthiest and one of the most developing countries in Latin America. It is listed in the top 66 high income countries in the world and had one of the highest GDP per capita of USD $20,300 in 2011(Coleman, 2011). Trinidad and Tobago has earned a reputation as an...
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...Theme: The Walt Disney Co. is an enigma in these rough economic times for the sole purpose that they show minimal signs of slowing down. Mickey Mouse has his hands dipped into everything and from an investor’s standpoint that’s a good thing because that equals diversification, and in turn, diversification lowers risk. The Disney Company operates in several areas of the media and entertainment industry. They have recently acquired Pixar, which consistently provides box office record sales with their animated films. Along media entertainment lines, Disney also operates dominant media channels ABC and ESPN. These are two channels that carry with them a strong loyal following. Sports have always been America’s past time and it’s unlikely to see them ever declining or the viewership that goes along with it. People have always poured capital into sports and will continue to for many centuries to come. Aside from Disney’s ventures, investors focus and confidence should be in the trademark of Disney. Characters such as Mickey Mouse and Buzz Light-year are icons that will never be lost in the pages of time. Kids and adults alike will always want to participate in the next big thing the company has to offer and these kinds of expectations will always lead to Disney having a stable stock price and even unstable in the positive manner because the growth potential is limitless for this company. You can see that limitless with the many franchises Disney has under its wing. For...
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...the most viable option to remain competitive in today’s global economy. The key to success or failure when entering a foreign market consist of careful examination, and identification of all potential problems regarding an organization’s culture, economic environment, political risks and social climate. Additionally, a comprehensive strategy has to be in place to overcome objections and make adjustments. Understanding the differences from a political, economical, social and cultural aspect as well as the ability to respond to different national standards and regulations are key factors. The Chinese Culture Culture is defined as the sum total of beliefs, rules, techniques, institutions, and artifices that characterize human populations. Actually, there are multiple ways in which culture is defined because culture has so many different and inter-related meanings. The most common definition of culture is the shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize an institution, organization, or group. “For the purposes of the study of international management, culture is defined as the acquired...
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...The Influence of Cultural Adaptation on Disney Theme Parks By 駱巧瑜Chaio-Yu, Lou 陳奎因Kuei Yin, Chen 楊凱智Kai-Chih, Yang 徐仁軒Ren-Xuan, Shiu Department of Applied English Ming Chuan University Kweishan, Taoyuan, Taiwan June, 2010 The Influence of Cultural Adaptation on Disney Theme Parks By 駱巧瑜Chaio-Yu, Lou 陳奎因Kuei Yin, Chen 楊凱智Kai-Chih, Yang 徐仁軒Ren-Xuan, Shiu A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Applied English Approved by ________________ Chia-Chin Susan Sung, M.S. Chairperson of the Committee _______________ Chao-Chang Wang, Ph.D. Chairperson of the Department of Applied English Department of Applied English Ming Chuan University Kweishan, Taoyuan, Taiwan June, 2010 Abstract Disneyland is a fascinating worldwide industry, and also the most successfully run theme park in the world. When it comes to theme parks, Disney will be the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind. Because of the great success of Disney, researchers want to look into the reasons why it is so important and so attractive to the entertainment industry. For example, Disney’s Asian theme parks usually would apply local customs and festivals into their programs. And by doing so, it draws more local tourists to attend the events. Disney always pays attention to these cultural factors and uses them to its advantages. Plus,...
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...Tourism & Hospitality Research Article Research Article Ndivo et al., J Tourism Hospit 2012, 1:5 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2167-0269.1000103 Open Access Open Access Examining Kenya’s Tourist Destinations’ Appeal: the Perspectives of Domestic Tourism Market Rayviscic M. Ndivo1*, Judith N. Waudo1 and Fuchaka Waswa2 1 2 School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Kenyatta University, Kenya School of Environmental Studies, Kenyatta University, Kenya Abstract Kenya’s tourism activity has always been centered on the coastal beaches and a few game parks despite of being endowed with a unique combination of tourist attractions spread throughout the country. Noting this skewed nature of tourism development, this study aimed at investigating the status of appeal of the different Kenya’s tourist regions from the perspective of the domestic market with the goal of examining the efficacy of the destination appeal enhancers. Data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires and analysed using mainly descriptive statistics. The study found out that while majority of Kenyans considered taking a holiday as being important to them, a significant majority of them were not be aware of most of the country’s touristic attractions and hence, frequented only a few of the country’s attractions, mainly the coastal beaches. Further, the study found out that the most important sources of travel information available to Kenyans were personal experience and information from significant others; travel...
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...since the concept of globalization has come into existence, the studies of cultural differences, dimensions and attitudes have began to take place and different scientists and observers started coming out with their own set of discoveries and observations (McGregor, 2004). The main reason behind cultural difference and dimensions started when workers of different countries started working together on unified projects and conflicts started arising between the people of different races and culture (Kotler, 2008). Keeping in view of such situations, Dutch Sociologist Gerard Hofstede came up with a study named as Geert Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions in which he laid stress upon five aspects naming Power Distance Index, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty avoidance index and Long term Orientation. The case study in this paper focuses more towards the cultural difference between employees of Disneyland that are located in different countries. Using Hofstede’s 4 culture dimension, highlighting main cultural differences between United States and France: Disneyland is an American Idea of a theme park which serves as a recreational place for children and families. This theme park originally started from Anaheim, California (United States) and later on after receiving massive response from visitors all around the globe, the directors of the company started off with opening similar type of theme parks with the same name of Disneyland in Orlando (US), Tokyo (Japan) and at Marne-la-Vallee...
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