Case 2-1 Eurodisney

Mickey Mouse is pretty much a household name in the American society, so it was not surprising that theme parks, Disneyland and Disney World, were soon created inspired by the little mouse. Disney’s theme parks are on both the east and west coast in America and the company wanted to spread the joy across the globe. When the company decided to spread their wings across the ocean they faced challenges because “global expansion is difficult for any business” (Ferrell, O., Hirt, G., & Ferrell, L., 2009), but more so when dealing with an American icon. When expanding globally there are many things that need to be taken into consideration such as cultural, legal, and economic differences. When Disney first attempted to establish a theme park in Europe, they did not research cultural differences and faced hardships in the beginning. There were protesting and low attendance were their main concerns for the first few year, but then with restructuring, the park including a name change to something more culturally accepted the park was able to turn around. When they expanded to China, they hired a specialist to assist with the cultural differences and that seemed to help somewhat. When building Disney in China they took into consideration the cultural superstitions associated with numbers, but that did not stop protesters from voicing their opinions about things such as the park being too small and not offering enough. Although there are protesters against Disney, they are helping

Given your choice of locale X for the newest Disneyland, what are the operational implications of the history of EuroDisney and Disney Hong Kong for the new park? Basically, I would learn what not to do in terms of marketing due to EuroDisney. I would not just assume that the Canadians are anything like Americans and try to see if there are different cultures that I could target. I wouldn’t base my judgments on stereotypes and conduct thorough research. From the Hong Kong experience, I would learn that sometimes a target market needs to be more focused on a particular generation rather than a

Disney is trying to extend their business and planning to open a new Disneyland in Istanbul, Turkey. To develop a business one of the principle criteria is to get the best possible fund for it, without money it is impractical to obtain a business. In this report I am going to talk about how Disney will finance their new development.

The Walt Disney Company has seen their share of success in taking their parks and resorts into global markets. “60 years ago, the first Disney theme park opened, in California and was the brainchild of Walt Disney himself, who was motivated by the lack of entertainment options available to him and his two young daughters.” (Forbes, 2016). Disneyland California penetrated the market rapidly, and its popularity led to the opening of Disney World in Florida, followed by global expansion in Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong. Their latest expansion came in June 2016, on a 963 acres’ site in Shanghai, China (Xu, 2012). After one year in operation, Shanghai Disneyland is outpacing their most optimistic projections, and the park’s

When a company enters a foreign market, the company’s management team should work hand in hand with managers from the home country to have a better understanding of what the culture is like. In this case, I feel that Disney did not do that. One telling point is that Disney changed its leadership from American to French some fifteen times. The second point about the leadership of Disney was that the American and French leadership styles were often confronted. Another point is that the company did not have the support of Francois Mitterrand, the French president.

Disney has survived many competitors coming into the space by leveraging its powerful brand and experience. This does not indicate they can stop trying to be relevant. Video games and the rise of virtual reality are becoming huge threats to the theme parks. Why pay a premium for a one time admission when you can buy a virtual reality headset and play basketball with Lebron James. Disney has slowly adapted but must act quicker in the future on new technologies to stay relevant.

They've gotten so honky tonk with a lot of questionable characters running around, and they're not to safe. They're not well kept. I want to have a place that's as clean as anything could ever be, and all the people in it [his park] are first-class citizens, and treated like guests.”(Disneyland History) He put a lot of thought into Disneyland and focused on the people’s best interest. He studied people’s reactions and even asked his daughters on what they thought it needed. He chose the location carefully. Originally he was going to make it on an eight acre lot next to the studio for the employees and their families to relax, but that idea soon changed(Disneyland History). His vision was a magical place where children and parents could have fun together. So instead, in 1953, Disney had researchers from Stanford survey a 100-acre lot, because he knew that he wanted enough space for flying elephants, spinning teacups, mountains, and a railway(Disneyland History) The funding aspect was the most difficult part for him, he had to take many financial risks but as he once said, “fear too often spells failure” so he did things such as selling his vacation home and took loans off of his life insurance(Merlock Jackson 47). It was a small struggle for Walt to convince people that this project would be a success, “I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral”(Disneyland History). Because of this he made up two television series one called, Walt Disney’s Disneyland, to display the future project in hopes to gain financial support and the other called, The Mickey Mouse Club(Orr 38). It obviously worked because the construction of Disneyland started in July of 1954, which was only one year from the

Price was also an issue leading Disney to lower admission prices. When Disney began working on the Hong Kong park, they had learned a few things from the France experience. In Hong Kong culture feng shui is an important aspect. Things must be placed in specific places to promote good flow. Disney took this into account and hired an expert on feng shui to help with the design.

The key facts presented in the ?Walt Disney Around the Globe? case study presented by Ferrell, Hurt, & Ferrell, 2009, discussed expansion and more specifically globalization expansion into international markets. The key facts presented were the history of The Walt Disney Company. Disneyland first opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California with a second location opening in Orlando, Florida in 1971, and the barriers and issues faced when opening international Disneyland theme parks. After enjoying the American successful ventures the company looked to global expansion to build on their brand image. Brand image is the image of the product of the company and

“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” – Walt Disney (Goodreads). The success of Walt Disney films, theme parks and company has built a legacy and attracted the attention of millions of people. Through the animated stories they enable to fill children’s imaginations with entertainment. Disney has embodied American culture with its catchy tunes and mass marketing. It has portrayed different repertories through movies and TV shows that shine light into different cultures, which is centered to be a controversial aspect. Not only has Disney become controversial, it has also become popular with its accomplishment in being able to create a wide spectrum of animated characters.

It is always an enormous challenge when a business wants to expand internationally because of the need to be sensitive to a whole new market. I am sure that Disney Imagineer was used to dealing with Americans and cultures related to ours; expanding in Hong Kong was a whole new thing to them. If I oversaw the Disney Imagineer Corps I would have not done anything different relating to the integrating the Hong Kong traditions and culture within their parks. I honestly believe that the Imagineer Corps did a phenomenal job being aware of the tradition and wanting to integrate local traditions. Integrating the Feng Shui practice was a big plus because Feng Shui is philosophical system that the Chinese culture follows. It is the practice of locating

Hong Kong Disneyland, opened to visitors in 2005, is one of the two largest theme parks in Hong Kong. It successfully brings magical experience of Walt Disney to all the visitors just like other Disneyland around the world.

Euro Disney could not modify the main theme of other Disney parks to create something unique for Europeans. Restaurants were not prepared according to the European eating habits and one of the biggest mistakes was not selling alcoholic beverages in the park which has very close connection with French culture. Customers had to leave the park to buy those from outside.

"Cultures are dynamic and change occurs when resistance slowly yields to acceptance so the basis for resistance becomes unimportant or forgotten"[2]. Which means that on the part of the European community we are certain to see compromise, but over a period of time. Disney too has to reconcile with the environment it has settled in. We read in the case that Disney does ultimately mend its ways. Making room for continuous change is the best way to go about ones business.

Disneyland in Hong Kong- Good or Bad? The aim of this essay is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages in having Disneyland coming into Hong Kong. Disneyland is a famous theme part, with outlets all around the world, including Japan, America and France. And now, Disney decided that the next theme part it is going to locate itself is Hong Kong- is how beneficial will it be to Hong Kong? The diagram on the left shows the proposed location of Disney land in Hong Kong. It will be situated at the west of Hong Kong island, in Penny?s Bay. Land reclamation will be used if extra land is needed for Disney to expand in the future.