Summary
The success of
Disney Tokyo had encouraged Disney to build a theme park in the Europe country.
The Disney management decided to choose Paris as the new location because of
the French’s government generous incentives and also the impressive date of the
regional demographics. In April 1992, EuroDisney opened its door to the public
and they are expecting 11 million visitors and generate over $100 million
profit during the first year of operation.
Unfortunately,
by summer 1994, Euro Disney had lost more than $900 million since opening and
the visitors only reach 9.2 million in 1992. Visitors of EuroDisney were
reluctant to spend during their visits and they spent 12 percent less than the
estimated $33 per head. Besides, the French parents only bring their children
out to the theme park on a public holiday occurred over a weekend. The French
also see EuroDisney as American imperialism where Disney alienated many of
their counterparts in the government, banks, ad agencies and other concerned
organizations. Disney also failed to acknowledge the environmental factors such
as the recession, Gulf War, devaluation of currencies against Franc and other
competition that lead to the failure of EuroDisney. They are also insensitive
to the local culture where they banned alcohol in the park where French is the
world biggest wine consumer. Due to lack of research, they also mistakenly
assume the Europeans don’t consume breakfast but many were turned up at the
restaurant ordering for bacon and egg. As for advertising, Disney did not
stress the entertainment value of a visit to the new theme park but only the
size of it which had ruined the magic.
In June 1994, a
Saudi royal family decided to invest $500 million for a 24percent stake.
Frenchman Philippe Bourguignon took over as CEO of EuroDisney in 1993 and he
successfully drove EuroDisney back to profitability. He changed the marketing
strategies, decreased the price for park admission and hotel rates and changed
the name to Disneyland Paris. In the twenty century, Disneyland Paris continue
to expand the theme park by adding in new exciting parks such as the Walt
Disney Studios that blends Disney entertainment with the history and culture of
European films.
1.
What factors contributed to EuroDisney’s poor performance during its first year
of operation?
After a tremendous success in Japan’s Disneyland,
Walt Disney step into Europe and it was designed to be the biggest and most
lavish theme park in Paris on April of 1992. But the fiscal year 1992 to 1993
brought EuroDisney a loss of more than $900 million.
The major factor contributing to the poor
performance was poor understanding of the marketplace and failing cultural
adaptation. Disney builds, promoted and communicated EuroDisney as a piece of
marvelous America in Europe. Everything about the park was American and
cultural differences between America and Europe were completely neglected. In
the case, we can see that French culture also has its own lovable cartoon
characters such as Asterix, the helmeted, pint-sized Gallic warrior who has a
theme park located near EuroDisney. Besides that, Disney banned alcohol in a
wine loving culture. These resulted not only in negative experiences by
customers itself, but also in a heavy load of criticism from the intellectual
segment of France, which traditionally did not have good relations with
‘Americanism’.
Another factor was the vacations behaviours of
Europeans. Europeans prefer spent only 1 or 2 days to visit the park compared
to their American counterpart who spent at least 3 days, resulting EuroDisney
occur less revenues from hotels, restaurants and souvenirs. Besides that, they
also failed to consider the vacation customs of the Europeans. Europeans enjoys
month long vacations while American preferred short but several vacations in a
year. On the other hand, in the European mindset, the price to enter the park
and especially staying at the hotels was too high. A nightly stay at a hotel at
EuroDisney was priced $110 to $380, in comparison to a very good hotel in the
center of Paris cost $340 to $380. Europe customers were not willing to spend
this amount of money and the general amount of money spent a day by them was
also lower than expected. Europeans were reluctant to spend the $280 a day
needed to enjoy the attractions of the park. In short, Disney should be doing a
proper research about the vacations behaviours of Europeans to avoid these
incidents occur.
Besides the cultural and vacations behaviours
problem, the opening of the park in 1992 with big events such as the World’s
Fair in Seville and the Olympic Games in Barcelona during the summertime was
detrimental to EuroDisney. Besides these interesting events, the transatlantic
airfare war and currency movement made going abroad for vacation a cheap option
for Europeans. This resulted in just a small difference between going to
Disneyland Orlando and EuroDisney for the holidays. Last
but not least, EuroDisney can delay the time of opening the park after the
interest event to avoid customers’ shortage.
2.
To what degree do you consider that these factors were (a) foreseeable and (b)
controllable by either EuroDisney or the parent company, Disney?
Disney as a parent company was probably blind
sighted by the successful of the Japanese Disneyland; the mistakes made in the
nineties with EuroDisney were at least partly foreseeable and can be accounted
on the management team that made the decision for the European park. The hotel
pricing is probably the most controllable and foreseeable factor of all. The
fact that a very good hotel in the center of Paris costs as much as a stay at a
good, but not exceptionally well Disney hotel, so this should have been taken
into account by the EuroDisney team.
The European vacation behaviour is not directly
controllable, but could have been foreseen. So is the wave of criticism from
the French intellectuals: even now, almost twenty years after the opening of
EuroDisney, the English language is still unpopular in France and the American
consumerism style is not appreciated.
The uncontrollable factors are the environmental
issues, such as the economic outlook like the transatlantic airfare war and
currency movement and also the major European events: the World’s Fair in
Seville and the Olympic Games in Barcelona. So, Disney could have postponed the
opening of EuroDisney, but given the fact that the park was done and ready for
use, this did not seem as a financial viable option.
3.
What roles does ethnocentrism play in the story of EuroDisney’s launch?
Ethnocentrism defined as the notion that one’s own
culture or company knows best how to do things, it is directly related to the
start of Disneyland in Europe. The Disney belief was that what it sells in the
U.S and Japan would sell just as well in Europe. So when Disney opened
EuroDisney in Paris the park was a symbol of American culture.
As a former Disney executive cited “Disney Chairman
Michael Eisner and President Franck Wells had never made a single misstep,
never a mistake, never a failure. There was a tendency to believe that
everything they touched would be perfect.” I think though, that the powerful
personality of Eisner, coming off of several victories where he forced his
vision through the objections of the American business community to win big and
be therefore validated set the entire EuroDisney enterprise up for failure.
The culture was so different from America or Japan
that there was little frame of reference in common. Believing all Europeans
enjoyed the same sausage or Europeans vacationed in the same way that Americans
did was easily corrected by cultural awareness that would not have cost much
but they were too ethnocentric to even know the questions to ask. Japan unlike,
France, succumbed to Disney’s promotional firepower. Japan welcomed the taste
of American culture; France on the other hand went nationalistic. Attempting to
impose American values, such as nondrinking on the French or appearance rules
would have been easily understood as a mistake if they had even asked. The
reason behind this could be the success of the Japanese Disneyland, which
succeeded without any changes to the local culture. It may have been that
managers at EuroDisney fell back on their “self reference criterion” to have
misinterpreted European society.
Disney followed a domestic market extension concept,
believing one universal product would be accepts in Europe with as much vigor
as was seen in Japan. These lead EuroDisney facing a lost more than $900
million since opening.
4.
How do you access the cross-cultural skills of Disney?
In the early stage, Disney had poor cross-cultural
skills. Disney management team failed to recognize the importance of cultural
adaptation in EuroDisney as they misinterpreted the culture and behaviour of
European customers. Besides that, Disney management team made several erroneous
assumptions which affected construction design, marketing strategy, marketing
mix, and initial financing. Disney was felt short of being sensitive to the
cultural differences between Europeans and Americans.
One of the cultural difference is Europeans have a
different eating habits and food preferences. Disney was downsized restaurant
breakfast service because their executives had been erroneously informed that
Europeans do not eat breakfast. In fact, Europeans have a habit of eating
breakfast resulting in long queues at the restaurants due to inadequate
staffing and seating. Moreover, Europeans did not just want croissants and
coffee, they want more variety of food such as bacon and eggs. Disney ban
alcohol in the park which proved they are insensitive on local culture because
French are the world’s biggest consumers of wine.
Next, vacation customs of Europeans were not taken
into consideration. Disney expected that American-style short but more frequent
family trips would displace the European tradition of a one-month family
vacation. However, Europeans did not change their vacation customs for visiting
EuroDisney.
Another cultural difference is travel habit. Disney
was built a expensive trams along a lake in the theme park to bring hotel
guests to their destination but Europeans customers prefer walking.
Furthermore, personal grooming of employees was taken in consideration. French
women like to wear redder nail polish so female employees in EuroDisney were
allowed to do so but Disney maintained for the taboo on male employees’ facial
hair.
After EuroDisney suffering for the huge losses, they
realized the problems and made appropriate changes in their marketing strategy
to cater the needs of Europeans customers.
Disney had reacted with the complaints of lack of
food variety from visitors in EuroDisney. They revamped its menu to cater to
the multiple indigenous tastes of various European cultures such as increase
the selection of sausages. Furthermore, Disney blends European influence in
Disney entertainment and attractions. For instance, Walt Disney Studio blends
Disney entertainment and attractions with the history and culture of European
film. In addition, Disney characters speak six different languages and design a
track modelled on French town. From the instances as mentioned above, we know
that Disney was striving to adapt local culture.
Disney has shown its ability to learn from their
mistakes as they made the right decisions on marketing strategy and became
France’s most visited tourist attraction. As a conclusion, Disney has poor
cross-cultural skills in the beginning stage. However, they practiced fairly
well cross-cultural skills after they recognized the problems and revised their
marketing strategy.
5.
Why did success in Tokyo predispose Disney management to be too optimistic in
their expectations of success on France? Discuss.
Tokyo Disneyland in Japan is the first Disney theme
park that built outside the United States of America. Between 1990 and 1992,
about 14 million people had visited Tokyo Disneyland, with three-quarters being
repeat visitors.
Disney management team were not certain of the
success of the first international venture because they just took the entire
U.S. theme park and transplanted it in Japan. They did not make any changes to
the construction of theme park as well as adapting local culture, so they think
Tokyo Disneyland will not be successful. However, Japanese attachment to Disney
characters and they want Americanism Disney theme park instead of Japanese
Disney theme park. Moreover, they perceived Disney theme park as the ultimate
U.S. entertainment, thus constitute a very rare case that the number of
visitors has not decreased since the opening. The success without much
cooperation, deeper understanding or adaptation led to the false belief of
Disney that they can be successful in Europe by transplanting their theme park.
Tokyo Disneyland was not owned and operated by
Disney Company, yet they only collected small fraction of the massive revenues.
As a result, Disney intended to rectify the business opportunities by owning
and operating the theme park in France. Furthermore, Paris is Europe’s most
popular city destination among tourists and it has convenient transportation
system. The great business opportunities in Paris make Disney Company expected
to be success in Europe.
As a conclusion, the success without much effort in
Japan and potential opportunities in Europe predispose Disney management to be
too optimistic in their expectations of success on France.
6.
Do you think the new theme park would have encountered the same problem if a
location in Spain has been selected? Discuss.
Yes. The theme park would have encountered the same
problems if a location in Spain had been selected. Spain and France have
similarities in many respects, in terms of origins and culture, climate,
experiences in economy and history due to Spain is seated next to France. The
major problem with EuroDisney was that they neglected their host country’s
culture and did not do sufficient research on the country. For example, if the
policy of the ban of alcohol consumption in the theme park was implemented in
Disney Spain too, they are going to face the same problem occurred in Paris as
Spain is the sixteenth in the world for wine consumption (Wine Institute
2012).
Besides, the business culture in Spain tends to
emphasize on doing business with people that they know. In order to starting a
business in Spain, it is rather important to build a network of contacts in
different sectors of society (Expatica 2004). However, Euro Disney alienated
many of their counterparts in the government, the banks, the ad agencies and
other concerned organization. Without a healthy relationship with the Spanish,
Disney will encounter a lot of problems. In Spain, they will need a large
network to get things done.
Other than that, when Euro Disney was entering the
European market, they did not prepare a contingency plan. So when the European
countries were hit by the recession in 1980s, they had a hard time coping with
it. During the recession period, Spain’s per capita gross domestic product was
ranked low among the industrial countries (Mongabay.com 2012). So without a
well-planned contingency plan to face with such issue, EuroDisney will hardly
survive even if the location was in Spain.
Lastly, Spain and the United States had been in war
during the year of 1898. The war was caused by the America when they made
demands of Spain that it find a way to peacefully resolve Cuba’s demands for
independence and at the mean time, a lot of anti-Spanish news stories was also
published in an American newspaper(Country Facts 2010). Ever since, the
relationship of America and Spain has not been good. Carlos Alberto Montaner once wrote in his article called
"España y el
antiamericanismo"
that “Spain is the most anti-American country in Europe” (Orsi, P 2005). If
Disney were to build Euro Disney in Spain, there is a big possibility that some
Spanish will boycott the theme park.
7.
In light of the near-bankruptcy in 2005, evaluate the proposed plans to
strengthen Disney’s appeal to the French market.
A)
Make travelling cost to EuroDisney more affordable
The
early 2000s recession was a decline in economic activity which occurred mainly
in developed countries. Most of the European Union (EU) members including
France affected and suffered high unemployment rates in 2005 and onwards. Therefore, disposable income per household
may be constricted. So, the Europeans would think twice before spending for
leisure and entertainment. Other than that, an unforeseen combination of
transatlantic airfare wars and currency movements resulted in a trip to
Disneyworld in Orlando being cheaper than a trip to Paris. So, The CEO is
lobbying the government to open up the Charles de Gaulle airport for low cost
airlines to attracting the visitors and would bring the park close to a larger
number of Europeans. Reducing the airfare can attract more travellers to visit
Europe Disney. For the example, even if a holiday is not occurring over a
weekend parents might consider to bring their children to Europe Disney because
travel by air is more cheaper, more efficient and also save time.
B)
Introduce a new Disney character tailored for the European audience
The
debut of the Pumpkin Man in Disneyland Paris is a very effective way of
attracting French enthusiasm to visit the park. He is a “European character
citizen” and the Europeans might feel attached to the character and therefore
they will like the Pumpkin Man which can entertain and be a focus for domestic
visitors. The Disney theme park are known for celebrating Halloween festival
which in themed “L’Homme Citrouille”, there will painted in orange and
everywhere is decorate with pumpkins including the very large jack-o'- lantern
at top of the building (Lani Teshima, 2008). Furthermore, Halloween is not a
traditional French holiday, yet it becomes more popular every year and Europeans
still celebrating Halloween because the combination of cultural influence and
corporate marketing (Laura K. Lawless, 2012). If the Pumpkin Man created in
Euro Disney, that will fascinate more Europeans to visit Euro Disney.
C)
Introduce the one day pass giving visitors to access both parks
The one day pass would increase the park’s visitors.
Besides that, it is cheaper to go on a day tour, the French prefers to stay at
home during their vacation and leisure time. Furthermore, visitors that just
pass by Paris and may not opt for this one day travel pass. Thus, selling the
park like the issuance of the one day pass could better attract the Europeans
rather than packing a 3 day pass more expensive tour. The visitors can purchase
the one day pass access to both parks in place of two separate tickets which
made it is value to visit the EuropeDisney. In addition, EuroDisney is at most
a two day visit. But some energetic visitors need even less time. One analyst
claimed to have “done” every EuroDisney ride in just five hours. Therefore, the
visitors can spend in Euro Disney in one day time and can also don’t need to
book hotel and save their hotel spending.
D)
Construction of new rides
As stated in the case,
the problem is the lack of attraction to justify the entrance fee. The new Euro
Disney’s CEO planning new rides such as Tower of Terror rides and other new
attraction to appealing the visitors. The Tower of Terror rides is a thrill ride
which can attract big kids, teen and adults (©Disney, 2012). This would
definitely be a hit to Europe’s children and the roller coaster chase could be
made heart pounding for adults as well. Also, the Pumpkin Man could be the
perfect and interesting host for this city.
8. Now that Disney has begun work on the new Hong Kong
and Shanghai location, where and when should it go next? Assume you are a
consultant hired to give Disney advice on the issue of where and when to go
next. Pick three locations and select the one you think will be the best new
location for “Disneyland X”. Discuss.
The three places
I will propose to Disney are Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But first, I will evaluate these three
countries from the political, economic, social, and competition aspects.
Dubai, United
Arab Emirates
Political
The UAE's
political system is based on its 1971 Constitution that provides a legal and
political framework for the operation of the UAE as a federation of seven
emirates (Amecson.org 2012). The current Prime Minister and Vice President of
UAE is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Under his leadership, he has made
significant changes in terms of economic and social development in a short time
and he is also known as the symbol of the development of Dubai. In 2007, Sheikh
Mohammed introduced a plan called the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 which aims to
improve the country’s growth, technology advancement and focus on making Dubai
a more desirable place to live in by improving the infrastructure and many
other factors that will attract more business people to invest in the country
(Dubai.ae 2011). Dubai is an ideal place for Disney to set up another Disney
Theme Park. It is not only one of the safest countries in the world, they also
has the lowest crime rates in the world (Sotuhtravels.com 2012). Besides, its current
stable political status has created a great opportunity for Disney to make its
recognition in the Middle East countries.
Economic
In 2011, UAE is
ranked as the 14th best nation in the world for doing business based on its
economy and regulatory environment, ranked by the Doing Business 2011 Report
published by the World Bank Group. Dubai is known as the busiest business
center in the Middle East. The UAE has one of the highest per capita incomes in
the world. In 2011, its GDP, as measured by purchasing power parity is US$260.8
billion. The GDP per capita, US$48,500 is currently stood at the eleventh in
the world as measured by the CIA World Factbook. The export of oil and gas is
the key sector that contributes to UAE economic growth. However, tourism is
also a significant way to maintain the flow of foreign cash into the country. According
to ArifObaid Al Muhairi, executive director of Dubai Statistics Centre who said
the number of visitors to Dubai is expected to rise by 10 percent in the year
of 2012 ( John 2012). This is very good news for Disney because when they build
a Disneyland in Dubai, they only have to figure out a marketing mix to lure
people to visit Disneyland as the residents of Dubai have high purchasing
power.
Social
Although the
official language of United Arab Emirates is Arabic and 96 percent of the
residents are Muslims, but they are slowly adapting itself to the western
culture. The youngsters in Dubai are wearing jeans, buying American and
European products and listening to Western music. It is true that
westernization is going on in Dubai but only in a way that is compatible with
their Islamic culture (Damyanova& Singer 2012). From here, unlike other
countries in the Middle East, we can tell the citizens will welcome Disney to
Dubai and they are unlikely to boycott Disney just because Disney is an
American corporation. On 15 May, 2008, Mickey Mouse and friends made its first
appearance at the Dubai Airport Expo to raise money for the special needs
children (UAE Interact 2008). On 25 March, 2011, the characters from the Disney
cartoon were back again to perform a free magical family show at the Mall of
the Emirates and they received a great response from the crowd. Parents were
bringing their kids to the mall to meet up with their favourite Disney
character (Albawaba 2011). Almost everyone from Dubai is familiar with the
characters from Disney and they all adore Mickey Mouse and his friends. If
Disney were to set up a Disney Land in Dubai, no doubt it is going to be packed
with people not only from the country itself, but also the tourist from all
around the world. But still it is extremely important for Disney to respect the
culture in Dubai by following the rules.
Competition
There is only
one theme park in Dubai which is the Dubailand. The project of building the
theme park was first introduced on October 23, 2003.Dubailand will have an area
of 278km2 which is twice the size of Walt Disney World Resort and
will be the largest collection of theme parks in the world. Dubailand is divided
into six zones. They are Attractions and Experience World, Sports and Outdoor
World, Eco-Tourism World, Themed Leisure and Vacation World, Retail and
Entertainment World, and Downtown. However, the construction of Dubailand was
put on hold on the year of 2008 and has not resumed until now. Claude Attala,
the managing director of NorthCourse, Middle East said the problem with
Dubailand was that the sub developers had underestimated the works required to
build theme parks. He also mentioned the developers had no idea what they were
getting themselves into as building a theme park is not as simple as
constructing a hotel (Florian 2008). Disney previously had built Disneyland in
Tokyo, Hong Kong and Paris and I believed they have gained better experience in
constructing theme park.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Political
Brazil is a
peaceful country that enjoys a stable democratic political system. The
president is the head of state and head of government. The current president of
Brazil is a woman. Her name is Dilma Rouseff and she was known as one of the
100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine (Kirchner 2012). The
democratic system, political stability and consolidated institutions also
position Brazil as one of the safest destinations for investments. Brazil also
managed to maintain good relationship with neighboring countries (Brasscom
2012). Although in 2012, Brazil and
United States was having a conflict over monetary policy, the two parties is
still able to have appositive relationship where the two countries made an
agreement to strengthen the trade of cachaça, Brazil’s signature sugarcane
tipple and Tennessee whiskey during Dilma Rousseff’s visit to America in April
2012 (Calmes 2012). The good relations
between these two countries will be an advantage for Disney to enter the Brazil
market.
Economic
The Brazilian
economy is the biggest in Latin America. A recent study by the World Bank now
ranks Brazil as the 10th largest economy in the world and reported that the
Brazilian economy has remained stable as a result of prudent macroeconomic
management, firm fiscal and monetary policies and good debt management (Ball
2009). In 2011, its GDP, as measured by purchasing power parity is US $2.172
trillion (Index Mundi 2012). Tourism in Brazil is one of the important sectors
that contribute to the country economy growth. Rio de Janeiro is Brazil’s
primary tourist destination where it receives 2.82 million international
tourists a year (Rio2016 2010). Not only the tourist coming from outside
Brazil, citizens from Brazil will also become the potential visitors to
Disneyland because according to a report released by the Minister of Tourism of
Brazil, their local people made more ten times more trips than the foreign
tourists and they spent five times more money during their visits
(FundaçãoInstituto de PesquisasEconômicas 2007).
Social
The population
in Brazil is about 205,716,890 and Portuguese is their official and most widely
spoken language (CIA 2012). It also has a mixed background of Portuguese,
Italian, German, Japanese, East European and African immigrants. The citizen in
Brazil enjoys outdoor leisure and recreation activities. So we can conclude
that the Brazilian will enjoy the Disney Theme Park such as the thrill rides
and other exciting adventure parks. Besides, the Brazilian was familiar with
the Disney character as one of the Disney cartoon characters, José Carioca was
from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. José is a green colored parrot and was created in
1943 for the movie Saludos Amigos as a friend of Donald Duck. The parrot was
seen dancing to Brazilian music and speaking English with a strong Portuguese
accent. He is very popular in Brazil as he has his own comic books (Comicvine
2012).
Competition
In Brazil, there
are four amusement parks. BetoCarrero World is the largest theme park in Latin
America. It was located in the Santa Catarina state (Facebook 2012). The second
largest theme park in Brazil is Hopi Hariin São Paulo which attracts more than
5 million Brazilian tourists all year (Transparent Language 2008). The
management team also had signed a licensing agreement with Warner Bros where
the characters of the Justice League, Looney Tunes and Penelope Pitstop will be
added to the attractions of the park. Then, there was Terra Encantada in Rio de
Janeiro which designed to be one of the most modern amusement parks in Latin
America but the park was closed until now when a man was thrown from the roller
coaster and the safety of the rides was put in question (Coaster Force 2011).
The last theme park that Disney will have to compete is the Wet'n'Wild located
at São Paulo. It is the largest water theme park in Brazil (Wet n Wild 2012).
Malaysia
Political
Malaysia is a
constitutional monarchy headed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. Malaysia practices
parliamentary democracy and has a three-tier government structure: federal,
state and local. Federal executive power is vested in the Cabinet led by the
Prime Minister. The Federal Constitution of Malaysia requires the Prime
Minister to command the confidence of the majority in the lower house of
Parliament (MIFC.com 2008). The politics in Malaysia is stable except it has an
internal conflict where non-governmental organizations (NGOs) seeks to reform
the current electoral system in Malaysia to ensure free, clean and fair
elections (Bersih 2012). However, it does not affect the political stability in
the country. Malaysia still remains as a safe country for foreign investment.
Economic
In 2011, its
GDP, as measured by purchasing power parity is US $447 billion which rank at
number thirty in the world as measured by the CIA World Factbook. On 10 June
2010, the economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister’s Department and the
Finance Ministry of Malaysia has introduced the Tenth Malaysian Plan to
allocate the national budget from the year of 2011 to 2015 to all economic
sectors in Malaysia including the tourism sector (EPU 2011). The tourism in
Malaysia is a major contribution to the nation’s economy. The government of
Malaysia is putting attention on tourism as it is an important foreign exchange
earner.
Social
The total
population in Malaysia is 29,179,952 (CIA 2012). Malaysia citizens are very
familiar with the Disney characters as the cartoon is aired on national
television. Although Bahasa Malaysia is their official language, Malaysians are
able to speak in English. So translation is not necessary. The Disney
merchandise is also widely available for sale in the shopping complex. It is
common to see the kids and adult wearing Disney clothing around the street and
this has showed Malaysian’s affection towards Disney. Disney had also make appearance on Malaysia
by organizing Disney On Ice and the audience rate the show as four stars out of
five (Event Malaysia 2011).
Competition
Malaysia has a
lot of theme parks and comparing with other country, the admission fees are a
lot cheaper. The most popular theme park in Malaysia is the Genting Theme Park
at Genting Highlands while Cosmo’s World is the only indoor theme park in
Malaysia. For those who enjoy swimming or playing with water, they can visit to
Sunway Lagoon or Desa Waterpark. All these parks are located in the Selangor
district. There are two theme parks available in Malacca which is the A’Famosa
Resort and Melaka Wonderland. Soon there will be another theme park opening in
Johor, known as Legoland which will open on September 15. Disney will not only
need to face with the competition in Malaysia, they will have to compete with
the other theme parks in the neighbor country, such as Resort World in
Singapore or even Hong Kong Disneyland which only require a three hours flight
to travel from Malaysia to Hong Kong.
After reviewing
all these three countries, I think Dubai, United Arab Emirates is the best
location. Although Brazil and Malaysia are stable in terms of economic and
political aspect but Disney might be having a tough time competing with the
theme parks on the host country. After all, Dubai has a better economy
comparing with the other two. Besides, while the construction of Dubailand was
still putting on hold, Disney should take this advantage to build Disneyland
Dubai right away so they will become the first theme park in Dubai.
9. Given your choice of locale X for the newest
Disneyland, what are the operational implicational of the history of EuroDisney
and Disney Hong Kong for the new park?
I believe the
experiences gained from building EuroDisney and Disney Hong Kong have mold
Disney to become a better international business corporation. When they decide
to build Disneyland in Dubai they will conduct a proper research and have a
proper plan where they will look deeper into the cultural differences, the
country’s background and the potential difficulties they might be facing when
entering into the Dubai market.
In terms of
food, other than Arabic food or Middle Eastern cuisine, Disney may serve
western food but it is extremely important for Disney to make sure the foods
are halal as UAE is an Islamic country. Alcohol should be strictly prohibited
in the theme park area as it is illegal to drink in public area. However,
hotels are allowed to serve alcohol to its guest only after it obtained license
to serve liquor (Grape Shisha 2011). The dressing of the female employees must
not be revealing or tight. Although Dubai is currently experiencing
westernization but some of the people are still conservative.
As for
advertisement, Disney should emphasize more on the variety of rides and other
attractions in the theme park to attract the locals to visit it. They must
stress on the entertainment value of the theme park and prove to the customers
their rides are worth the money paid. Disney must also blend Disney and Dubai
together so Disney Dubai will not be perceived by the local people as American
imperialism. They may recruit local people to become part of their management
team. While building the Disney Magical Castle, the architecture can cooperate
with the local architecture to build a Persian style castle.
And lastly,
Disney must prepare a contingency plan in case Dubai was hit by economic
crisis. They must always be sensitive to any environmental changes that might
affect their corporation. They need to identify all the risks they might be
facing and so when things turn ugly, they will have adequate preparation to
response quickly and effectively to the crisis.
Recommendation and Conclusion
Disneyland Paris
is one of the Europe’s most visited tourist attraction. It is also important to
the French Economy because it created many job vacancies to French. To maintain
its attractiveness and excitements, Disney need to unceasingly make
improvements in term of constructions, services, incentives packages, etc. In
addition, they also need to keep pace with environmental changes such as
technological and social-cultural forces. As mentioned in the above answers, we
recommend Disney to revise its pricing and promotion strategies and increase
the variety of theme park as well as characters. Disney must remember to
conduct research about local culture and keep up-to-date for the local culture
and trends. Otherwise, without proper cultural adaptation plans, the customers
will choose not to visit Paris Disneyland as they encountered before and suffer
a huge loss.
In a nutshell,
culture plays a crucial role in doing business especially when entering a
foreign market. A company which intends to expand their business into foreign
country must conduct a thorough research about local culture to determine the
types of strategy used to enter the market, marketing plan, strategy, as well
as marketing mix. So that they are able to survive in the market and also to
make profits. However, other uncontrollable elements of all business
environments also cannot be neglected when doing marketing decision.
