Albane Leturgie

Marketing Communication:
Disney Case Study:

1. During the first year of operations, EuroDisney poor performance was due to the lack
of adaptation. Indeed, the all park was truly American, they tried to impose the
American culture to Europeans without thinking about their way of living. They
though Europeans were the same consumers as the American or Japanese ones. They
didn’t try to make the park more French or European.
During its first year of operations, Hong Kong Disney faced some poor performance
too. Instead of Paris, this park was “too Chinese” and at the end it resembled to any
other Chinese park. As the Disney’s culture was not well implemented in China, they
should have insisted on the American characters so that people get used to them.
They should have tried to keep more the American origins of the brand.
To Conclude, in both of the parks they should have thought less extreme.

2. I think it could have been foreseeable with a bigger market study. Indeed, as there
were many other themes park in Europe and China, the customers’ habits could have
been guessed more easily.
Whereas, I don’t think it could have been that controllable as changes can’t be done
rapidly so you have to be sure.

3. Ethnocentrism is the main issue with the EuroDisney launching park. French and
European people are really proud of their cultures and have some troubles adapting
to others’ culture. That is why we could say that this launch was not that good
because the theme park was judged too American by the local customers. Moreover,
they tried to impose American way of life to people who can’t adapt (2 days trip,
breakfast...)

4. I would say that nowadays their cross-cultural skills are pretty good in terms of parks.
Moreover, their movie industry tries to focus more and more on different cultures
(French: ratatouille, Chinese: Mulan…) and they are quiet good at it. Whereas, back
then, at the launching of EuroDisney, I would say that their skills were pretty bad
because it was lacking of “cross” in their cross-cultural skills.

5. The success of Tokyo’s theme park was an optimistic news for the news park because
it made Disney’s management believe that the American culture could adapt
anywhere, even in a very different culture. They thought it would be the same in
Paris, as the culture is closer to the American one.

6. It didn’t help avoid troubles with Hong Kong because every culture is different and it
is not because French people had some troubles adapting to American culture that
the Chinese would want a typical Chinese theme park.
7. As it is part of the same culture (Shanghai and Hong Kong), the Hong Kong mistakes
could be avoided in the Shanghai theme park. Indeed, cultures are different but we
can easily suppose that people from the same culture will adapt the same way. It
could be the same thing in Europe if Disney decided to open a theme park in
Germany or Spain.

8. 3 possibilities could be evaluated. The first one would be Disney South America, as
there is no park in this area of the world. The second one would be Disney Emirates
for the same reasons. And the third one could be Disney Canada because the
Canadian culture is very close to the American one.
First of all, I wouldn’t think that a Disney South America would work as the Disney
culture isn’t really implanted in this area of the world.
Then Disney Canada could be a great idea as it would easily work as the cultures are
really similar, however, there is already 2 Disney theme parks in the USA and the
other problem could be the weather as the winters are really cold in Canada and it is
snowing every winter which would cause some troubles every winter or even a
closing time from December to February for example.
Finally, I would say that a Disney in the Arabic emirates would be a great idea. Indeed,
customers there would have enough money to afford the price tickets. Moreover, if it
could be implanted next to Dubai it would be the best. Indeed, Dubai as become a
really touristic destination. It would be really easy for a family visiting Dubai to take a
2 days ticket to visit the new theme park. The only recommendation would be that
the park would need to be really big and impressive. Indeed, Dubai is the city of
excess, the towers are the tallest, the city is the cleanest… The park would need to be
an extreme perfection, which is, Disney’s specialty.

9. The two previous opening would allow Disney to think about putting some Arabic
culture in the mix. Moreover, as a big part of the population is Muslim there, they
would need to adapt to the criteria that this religion involves.