Cirque Du Soleil
a) Background and Motivation
The Cirque du Soleil, the arguably most famous circus in the world, has been founded in 1984, in Quebec, Canada. The two initiators of this company, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier, have always seen circus with a modern eye. Effectively, their power of creativity and their visionary ideas have been the key ingredients to make this circus a global empire. The comparative advantage which makes the Cirque du Soleil so unassailable is its creative inspiration and the perfection of its shows.
The particularity of the business model of Cirque du Soleil is to create demand all around the world on the circus market. The strength of this circus is to develop shows which are different than the ordinary; for example by eliminating some elements that we find in other circuses such as animal shows or clowns. However, their secret of success is their ability of creating year after year shows convincing people to come many times, creating music and fun while always retaining a magical perceptioni. Thus, a direct competitor does not really exist. It is what we call a Blue Ocean Strategy: “Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant”ii. The point is to expend the service around the world, ignoring territorial boundaries in order to increase the share they can take in the global market and in the meantime to decrease the costs. The shows are exclusive. Therefore the price of an average ticket is more expensive than in a traditional circus. As every company, the main motivation is to create revenues for the firm. The first idea that the circus had, was to differentiate into two kinds of shows: Tours and the residencies. In 1992, The Cirque du Soleil signed the first partnership with the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas, for a resident show called Nouvelle Expérience. After a year of success, they created a subsequent show, known under the name of Mystère. This event would be the start of a long collaboration. Effectively, since 1992, Las
The Cirque du Soleil, the arguably most famous circus in the world, has been founded in 1984, in Quebec, Canada. The two initiators of this company, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier, have always seen circus with a modern eye. Effectively, their power of creativity and their visionary ideas have been the key ingredients to make this circus a global empire. The comparative advantage which makes the Cirque du Soleil so unassailable is its creative inspiration and the perfection of its shows.
The particularity of the business model of Cirque du Soleil is to create demand all around the world on the circus market. The strength of this circus is to develop shows which are different than the ordinary; for example by eliminating some elements that we find in other circuses such as animal shows or clowns. However, their secret of success is their ability of creating year after year shows convincing people to come many times, creating music and fun while always retaining a magical perceptioni. Thus, a direct competitor does not really exist. It is what we call a Blue Ocean Strategy: “Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant”ii. The point is to expend the service around the world, ignoring territorial boundaries in order to increase the share they can take in the global market and in the meantime to decrease the costs. The shows are exclusive. Therefore the price of an average ticket is more expensive than in a traditional circus. As every company, the main motivation is to create revenues for the firm. The first idea that the circus had, was to differentiate into two kinds of shows: Tours and the residencies. In 1992, The Cirque du Soleil signed the first partnership with the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas, for a resident show called Nouvelle Expérience. After a year of success, they created a subsequent show, known under the name of Mystère. This event would be the start of a long collaboration. Effectively, since 1992, Las