Eurodisney Case Study
Case Study
Monday, April 16, 2012
12:01 AM
Christopher John
International Marketing
April 15, 2012
Professor Pepe 1. What factors contributed to EuroDisney’s poor performance during its first year of operation? What factors contributed to Hong Kong Disney’s poor performance during its first year?
Some factors that hurt EuroDisney was their misconception of what the French enjoy in a theme park. They took the same ideas, plans and layouts that worked for the US market and imported it to a different culture. Needless to say, the French people did not fancy the “Americanized” implantation in their culture and rejected the park. Many of the French Bankers did not like the idea or questioned the financial structure of the park. The hotels and general prices of the parks were not priced in consideration of the French economy and the French culture; they had stated that some rooms in the EuroDisney Resort were priced as high as luxury hotels in the cities of France. The Disney management style was another factor that contributed to the initial failure of the park; they had a “Kick-down-the-door” attitude, which isn’t the way the French culture conducts business. They had also put major emphasis on the size of the park, while the French were much more interested in the experience.
While there wasn’t as much negative aspects of introducing Disney World in Hong Kong, they still haven’t perfected entering a foreign market. On the corrective path, Disney tailored the new Hong Kong location to the locals and the Chinese culture, but still missed some important key factors, such as making the park too small and not introducing characters the Chinese culture was familiar with. They also overstepped their borders by dressing up their characters in the red suits to symbolize the year of the rat.
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,
Monday, April 16, 2012
12:01 AM
Christopher John
International Marketing
April 15, 2012
Professor Pepe 1. What factors contributed to EuroDisney’s poor performance during its first year of operation? What factors contributed to Hong Kong Disney’s poor performance during its first year?
Some factors that hurt EuroDisney was their misconception of what the French enjoy in a theme park. They took the same ideas, plans and layouts that worked for the US market and imported it to a different culture. Needless to say, the French people did not fancy the “Americanized” implantation in their culture and rejected the park. Many of the French Bankers did not like the idea or questioned the financial structure of the park. The hotels and general prices of the parks were not priced in consideration of the French economy and the French culture; they had stated that some rooms in the EuroDisney Resort were priced as high as luxury hotels in the cities of France. The Disney management style was another factor that contributed to the initial failure of the park; they had a “Kick-down-the-door” attitude, which isn’t the way the French culture conducts business. They had also put major emphasis on the size of the park, while the French were much more interested in the experience.
While there wasn’t as much negative aspects of introducing Disney World in Hong Kong, they still haven’t perfected entering a foreign market. On the corrective path, Disney tailored the new Hong Kong location to the locals and the Chinese culture, but still missed some important key factors, such as making the park too small and not introducing characters the Chinese culture was familiar with. They also overstepped their borders by dressing up their characters in the red suits to symbolize the year of the rat.
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,