The Walt Disney Company were faced with cultural problems in opening theme parks outside the U.S. They wanted Mickey Mouse to grow international bounds in their foreign theme parks. The other countries did not want the American icon Mickey Mouse as a representation of their culture. They had to develop new attractions, lower admission prices and a massive marketing campaign to increase attendance. Disney had to learn and understand culture in the countries so it can appear universal, events, trends, and cuisine was their expressing their message. They had to understand the culture such as the fourth floor was passed over at all hotels because of a culture belief that the number four was bad luck in Hong Kong. One of the Disneyland ballroom…
First, Euro Disney’s poor performance due to the management lacked on understanding of the cultural difference between two nations. Disney goes (very deep) into the American consciousness, its themes were chosen to appeal to a wide variety of American interests and tastes, its parks were filled with images of American culture, and its cartoon characters had become staples of the American youth experience. In conclusion, Disney is too "Americanized." Although Euro Disney did some work to adapt, it is not good enough to convince consumers. After all, since Paris is the culture capital of Europe, French think their culture being deserved more respect.…
Euro Disney S.C.A is a French public company that owns the well-known Euro Disneyland Paris. I have chosen to study this company because it was the subject of many controversies .The French society considers that by encouraging the American brand ``Walt Disney`` will unfortunately lead to `cultural imperialism`. French media and labor unions mounted protests against ``Walt Disney`` because the American managers tried to enforce specific rules without taking into consideration cultural differences. A journalist in the French newspaper ``Le Figaro`` wrote, “I wish with all my heart that the rebels would set fire to Euro Disneyland."[i] It is not easy at all to import a brand especially when USA and France have different cultural and economical backgrounds, codes, regulations and laws. I find it challenging to understand how Euro Disney S.C.A succeeded to pursue its goal and what assurances they gave to its stakeholders as the environment becomes more and more volatile.…
With its large population, and low number of theme parks, Asia is an attractive location for Disney. Already, the company has been successful in Tokyo. While its park in Hong Kong has been less profitable, the company believes that further expansion into the region is worthwhile. However, the company faces a number of cultural challenges that must be overcome. Certainly language poses a problem for the company. At Hong Kong Disneyland, the company has chosen to be trilingual for example. In addition to dealing with language differences, Disney must also tailor other components to meet the local needs. The Hong Kong location includes more covered space to allow people to enjoy the park without dealing with the region’s rainy weather, special gardens for picture taking that appeal to the preferences of tourists visiting the park have been created, and the menu has been adapted to local preferences. Plans for the Shanghai location will incorporate Chinese cultural features as well as more traditional Disney themes.…
Tokyo's overwhelming success encouraged Disney to conquer the European market. They felt that they were able to evoke international appeal of the Disney concept and it would not be a hard task to wet their feet in Europe.…
Building and investing in a multi-billion dollar theme park would represent another major, long-term commitment for The Walt Disney Company. Therefore, much research and planning were involved in this decision. In addition to the attractiveness of each of the remaining cities, Shanghai and Hong Kong, the market characteristics of the demand for theme park experiences by the Chinese people would have to be carefully evaluated.…
As we all know Walt Disney is an American icon, and has been since the 1930s (Ferrell, Hirt, & Ferrell). With the popularity of the company in American, that made the company want to expand to other countries. The two Walt Disney parks were started first in California and second in Florida (Ferrell, Hirt, & Ferrell). Walt Disney seen how well they were doing, and decided to spread the business to Paris and France 10 years later. There was also a Disney that opened in Hong Kong in 2005 (Ferrell, Hirt, & Ferrell).The Disney parks that were opened in the other countries were not performing well.…
One way that the ability to adapt to local cultures and tastes is the key factor in determining the success of a business in china is because it makes sure that the business has a product that the market wants to buy. Disneyland is one company who did not manage to initially adapt their product to the chinese market. Disney did not research the chinese market enough before entering the chinese market assuming that they would like the typical American image that they had. This proved wrong as consumers were unfamiliar with the product and did not connect with the typical Disney characters. This meant that Disney had entered the market with a product that the chinese did not feel comfortable with because it was not the type of product that they were used to. Therefore the Hong Kong based park did not attract many customers resulting in low sales for Disneyland costing them money. In the long run this meant that they had to spend more money on adapting the park to the consumers needs in order to attract the chinese customers. They did this in ways such as reducing the price to meet chinese low income levels and having to adapt the labour practices, décor and settings and to the local visitors customs. Because of these mistakes made by Disney that cost them more than was expected they could have potentially failed as a business in china if it was not for them…
The Walt Disney Company determined not only stopped the construction of production facilities in the domestic market, the company also expanded into countries such as: England, France, China, Japan, Taiwan, ...…
The Disney Company was becoming largely successful in the US, therefore during the 80’s they began to globally expand. They opened their first international Disney theme park, Tokyo Disneyland, in 1983. Later that decade, they agreed…
company that brought Disneyland to Japan [see Exhibit 1] were enjoying the success of their…
5. Why did success in Tokyo predispose Disney management to be too optimistic in their expectations of success in France? In China? Discuss.…
Disney failed to realize that while its strategy in Japan worked for Japan, its Japan strategy was not going to work in Paris. Disney decided to photo copy their operation and learned that was not acceptable. In 1992, several unforeseen issues arose that Disney was not prepared to handle. There were transatlantic airfare wars and currency movements that lead people to avoid traveling to Paris. Also, Disney was expecting a flocking of French people to visit the park; yet again basing their assumptions on the performance of the Japanese park (Cateora & Graham, 2007).…
The venture into Hong Kong by Walt Disney was a simple example of a large successful western company not doing its homework. The case presents a clear picture of the importance of understanding a foreign market thoroughly before doing business there. Several factors led to an unsuccessful first year of operations and a majority of these factors could have been avoided with a better cultural understanding in the planning stages. One of the culture differences that was obvious to Disney was the fact that the children are not familiar with the Disney characters. Disney has established its brand and is a marketing poster child in the United States, however this advantage goes out the window in a country such as china that has sheltered itself from the outside world until recently. Disney thought that making a meager attempt at introducing the characters before the launch of the park would help, however familiarity isn’t synonymous with brand attachment. As listed in Global Marketing Management by Kotable & Helson, “Cultural Distance” is one of the six external criteria for choosing a mode of entry into a foreign territory, which was not accounted for by Disney. Cultural distance also recognizes the fact that different cultures have different expectations. This was also the case with China. As stated in the case, “for the tourists of Mainland China, going to Hong Kong means a shopping experience, and so they choose the cheaper alternative to Hong Kong Disneyland…” The case goes on to allude to the fact that the culture in China is one about dollars and cents – when a Chinese person spends his/her money, they are more interested in what they are physically getting. This is very…
15 years ago this month, Focus Features released Deliver Us from Eva, a film about 3 guys who try to wrangle their overbearing sister-in-law (Gabrielle Union). It was funny, entertaining, and had a bomb R&B soundtrack. Union was spectacularly brilliant in the title role. Her quirky facial expressions, bodily twitches and pronounced delivery of the rapid-fire script brought the eccentric and hyper-intelligent Evangeline Dandridge to life. Eva is a no-nonsense natural born leader. She cut her teeth at this raising her younger sisters: Kareenah (Essence Atkins), Bethany (Robinne Lee) and Jacqui (Meagan Good). They all became orphans years prior. To stay afloat and start "The…