Disney Market Entry Strategy

The case “Euro Disney: First 100 days” talks about the issues faced by the Walt Disney Company when expanding to international borders. The case begins with the history of Disneyland and then describes the reasons behind its success and expansion to various states across the country. It then describes the success of Tokyo Disneyland, first Disney theme park outside America and the factors affecting it.

Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to evaluate Disney and their international expansion, in particular, Hong Kong Disneyland. Disney’s international expansion over the past decades has been a mixture of successes and failures. When expanding globally, a corporation has to take into account many factors and work around the cultural, economic, and social differences for every region. Unfortunately, sometimes it is very difficult to satisfy and/or recognize all these factors. In the case study provided, insight was given on the ups and downs Disney faced during their global expansion and the different approaches that were taken.

Walt-Disney is popular all over the world yet the social aspects of America’s standards are vastly different than those overseas. Disney struggled to understand what those differences were and for three years they were unable to turn a profit in France. (Cite Book) The citizens of France still saw Disney as an American icon and they were in opposition to it being a focal point in the French community. Disney changed this opinion by renaming the park Disneyland Paris, lowering its price of admission, opening new rides, and launching a massive marketing campaign. (cite book) This worked and the park began to turn around. When it switched its focus to Hong Kong it employed its newly learned tactics and began by focusing on honoring its cultures

Key Facts and critical issues in this case talks about Disney World's big presence in United States with their Anaheim California and Orlando Florida Parks, which allowed national and international tourists to come and experience the wonders of Disney Parks. These parks at the same time created a solid economic stimulus and job opportunities for the State of California and Florida. Due to Disney's great success nationally, it was initially assume that the same success could happen, If Disney expanded business internationally. The journey started when Disneyland first opened on the international front in Tokyo Japan in 1983 (Ferrell, Hirt, Ferrell, 2009). The next international park that followed was constructed in France in 1992 and

Power Distance is one of Hofstede’s dimensions which is used to measure how the difference in power between the people is seen in a country. A country that has a high power distance is one where people are considered superior according to their gender, status, education, race, or family background. A good example of this dimension is India, mainly because of their caste system and females being looked down upon. Indian population is split into 5 groups, and each group has a separate power status and one you are born in the lowest caste, you cannot marry or associate with the highest class other than being servants of the higher class. Cultures with low power distance include Canada, Austria and Israel. People in these countries see each other more as equals.

2. How do cultural variables influence the location choice of theme parks around the world?

Walt Disney is a well known brand that spans across international markets. Disney saw the potential in Asian markets and sought out the opportunity. The movie The Lion King came out in 1996 and assisted Disney in its ventures to the new Asian market. The success of the movie took well in the Asian market and still upholds the reputation today. In the 1990’s over 2,000 theme parks opened in China. Many of these theme parks resulted in failure due to the high competition, poor projections and high costs. Taking about 10 years, Disney opened in Hong Kong in September 2005. Ticket sales were exceeding expectation actually becoming a problem during Chinese holidays, causing Disney to turn away customers. The location was drawing customers from China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Disney’s solution to the capacity and cultural variety was to expand their theme park, but the government held limitations and did not support the expansion. In response to this, Disney planned another theme park just 3 hours north of Hong Kong in Shanghai. Disney believed the new location would bring in a new customer base and help Disney’s profits. One of the main contributors to the success of the Shanghai project was the time it entered the market. Disney Shanghai began construction during the economic crisis of 2009 which created 50,000 new jobs for the Chinese economy.

This report provides in depth information about the location of the next location for Disney Land. It analyses, evaluates, and provides recommendation for the expansion of Disney Land in the three chosen cities; Barcelona, Spain, Istanbul, Turkey and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The method of analysis included an in depth research of all three chosen cities in consideration

A company that would like to expand and continue the health of the company needs to formulate strategy. There should be goals that plans and actions of a company would attempt to reach. A company may utilize competitive strategies that in which goals are made with competition in mind and corporate strategy concerns goal-directed plans and actions that target business choices (Coulter, 2013).

The aforementioned article encompses Disney’s Internatinal expansion, and consequently the strategies and decisions took by Disney to ensure the success of their brand not just in America but globally. It sheds light on the changes that had to be undertaken to adapt to the vastly different markets Disney was trying to penetrate. It highlights specific strategies such as changing the architecture of theme parks, changing the main attractions, redesigning fundamental rides to better adapt to certain cultures, and crafting new stories to ensure being as adaptable to a new culture as possible.

Disney launched its most recent theme park in Hong Kong in 2005. But at this time they have done research very well from the failure of Paris Disneyland. To be succeeding in Hong Kong

Disney is world’s one of the recognisable brand for its theme parks. It has various parks in different parts of the world. It is well known for its strategic actions to attract its customer, their main concentration is children. As Disney is a brand for children cartoon characters, they are more focussed on children as well as parents. Its consumer focussed initiative in the initial was to attract more number of customers by taking measures to implant all the Disney characters and take its little customers to the fantasy land of Disney. After the initial success of the theme parks in America Disney has launched in Japan which was a huge success. They have outperformed what they have expected. Then in 2005 they have entered into the Asian marked and established its magical land in Hong Kong. After initial failure of never estimating the cultural differences between Asia and America they have taken measures to correct the mistakes. Here below I will discuss the initiatives to sort out the issues of the cultural differences.

2.3.1Power distance
This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal Power distance At 80 China sits in the higher rankings of power distance .Chinese people are influenced by formal authority and sanctions and are in general optimistic about people’s capacity for leadership and initiative. People should

First, we believe that it is necessary to provide some background information about the project from Disney’s and Hong Kong’s perspective. Walt Disney has been considering a proposal to build a new theme park in Asia for some years. In the last few years (late 1990s), the company has seen investors flock to mainland China and is therefore keen to gain a foothold in the Chinese market by opening a new theme park. To Disney, Hong Kong

Hofstede’s Power distance Index measures the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society’s level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders.