THE NOT-SO-WONDERFUL
WORLD OF EURODISNEY
Things Are Better Now at Disneyland Resort Paris
JULIA BIDDENSTADT & TAYLOR SMITH
FEBRUARY 16, 2014
MKTG 417
WIU
1. The major factors that contributed to EuroDisney’s poor performance was the
lack of market research and cultural awareness. EuroDisney was built just like
American Disney parks, without giving though to cultural differences. American
characters were used, instead of French cartoon characters. Disney banned
alcohol in a culture that enjoys drinking wine. Everyone showed up for breakfast
in the mornings, when Disney had cut down their serving because they were
erroneously informed that Europeans do not eat breakfast. Pricing strategy was
not accomplished correctly. Many Europeans would not pay the prices that
EuroDisney was charging. In addition, Europeans do not vacation as long as
Americans do. Other factors were the transatlantic airfare war and currency
movement. This made it cheaper to go to Disneyland Orlando than EuroDisney.
In addition, the park opened during the Olympics in Barcelona, and the World’s
Fair in Seville.
Hong Kong Disney had the exact opposite problems. Disney did its research and
tried to make the park fit in with its surroundings, and guests were disappointed.
The park was very small, and visitors thought it was just like all the other
amusement parks in China. The park was undifferentiated. People did not know
the traditional Disney characters, and did not appeal to them.
2. Many factors could have been foreseen and controlled by the mere study of
history and culture of Europe. This study would have found that Europe has their
own famous cartoon characters, and how long they usually tend to vacation. The
research would have shown that wine and breakfast are important to the
Europeans. With the World Fair and The Olympic Games going on at the same
time, EuroDisney should have delayed its opening so more people would have
wanted to attend. The only unforeseeable event would have been the Airfare
war, which could not have been controlled at the time.
3. When EuroDisney launched, it was introduced with an American theme to an
extreme extent. What wasn’t expected was how most people in Europe would
react to this. Many European’s believed their culture and cartoon characters,
such as Asterix and the Gallic Warrior, were better than Americas’ characters, so
this had a very negative effect on business. EuroDisney opened in hopes that
the Europeans would react to the park in the same way that the people in Tokyo
did, but that was not the case at all. In addition, Europeans believed in taking
shorter vacations and did not need to spend more than two days at the park,
which was not anticipated. Europeans weren’t afraid to cut their spending money
and often didn’t stay at the night at the park because they thought the prices
were outrageous. Overall, the culture of Europeans was/is much different from
that of America and Japan’s culture, so there wasn’t much to base their
marketing decisions on when building the park in Paris.
4. Disney pretty well nailed the marketing aspect of both America’s, and Japan’s
Disney theme parks, and they went in with almost the exact same mind set when
building/marketing the EuroDisney park in Paris. They did not take into
consideration the little and big cultural differences and were not sensitive to what
the park would need to succeed. When EuroDisney opened, it was advertised as
being big and glamorous, but that isn’t what the Europeans necessarily cared
about; they care about quality over quantity. Disney had quality as well as
quantity but didn’t advertise in such a fashion. Executives were informed that
Europeans generally didn’t eat breakfast, so the parks dining areas were built
with that in mind. It turns out they over compensated when downsizing the
restaurant areas because “everyone” showed up for breakfast and the lines were
disastrous, trying to feed breakfast to thousands of people when the restaurants
only held 350 people. Disney marketers simply didn’t understand the lifestyle
and culture of Europeans at the time of introducing EuroDisney.
5. In Japan, Disney did not change anything, they simply took the US theme park
and put it in Tokoyo. To their surprise, it was a huge success. The Japanese
loved having a piece of America brought to their country. However, this huge
success led to a downfall when EuroDisney was built. They tried the same
concept and it was an epic fail. The lack of marketing research, led to a disaster
in Europe, but with lessons learned, not quite as bad in Hong Kong.
6. In comparison to EuroDisney and it’s European visitors, Hong Kong’s visitors
also have a completely different culture, and Disney executives over
compensated when building and marketing the theme park and made it too much
like the other local theme parks. In Hong Kong, it seemed that visitors actually
wanted to feel like they were in a fairytale and instead, Hong Kong Disney was
laid out too similar to other parks nearby. Hong Kong Disney wasn’t as much of
a failure as EuroDisney when starting out, but it also didn’t meet the projected
number of visitors for the first few years it was open and lost money. Unlike
EuroDisney, Hong Kong Disney visitors didn’t necessarily think their cultures
famous TV characters were better; they were simply just very unfamiliar with
American Disney characters like Mickey Mouse. Eventually, Hong Kong Disney
made it right by launching numerous marketing initiatives like film footage of the
history of Disney and it’s characters before entering the park; this helped
familiarize visitors. While Disney tried to avoid the same problems they
encountered when opening EuroDisney, they were misled and found a
completely new culture and a different set of problems they faced in the opening
of Hong Kong Disney.
7. Now that Hong Kong Disney is up and running, the Shanghai development will
benefit from the Hong Kong experience. Learning from past mistakes, Disney
will take into consideration what the Chinese culture wants. They want a
fairytale. They don’t want just another Chinese amusement park. By continuing
to do research and find out what the target audience wants to see, there is no
doubt that Disney theme parks is China will continue to be successful.
8. The three locations we would consider would be Sydney, Australia, Mumbai,
India, and London, England. All locations have large a large population and a
respectable economy in present day. We would recommend starting to build at
one of these locations within five years and have it complete by 2025. We don’t
think after building a Disney is Shanghai that there needs to be another Disney
any sooner than 2025. Sydney, Australia is a good choice because of the large
population, decent economy, and the Disney stories and fairytales wouldn’t really
have to be translated into another language since most of Australia speaks
English and would be somewhat familiar with Disney characters and such.
London, England also a good potential choice for a Disney theme park while their
language is English, have a decent economy, large population, and familiar with
Disney characters. Mumbai, India would be my choice to build a new Disney
because of the very large population not just in Mumbai, but also in surrounding
areas. Mumbai also has a decent economy, and we have heard that a good
portion of India takes a keen interest in the American culture; with that said, we
think India would be a perfect fit for a Disney theme park.
9. Given the history of EuroDisney and Hong Kong Disney, the Disney
organization has learned a great deal of what and what not to expect from a
given culture. Their lessons learned and bad experiences from the past can only
benefit them when moving forward. Disney will now (hopefully) do extensive
research of any given culture and the history of the environment before building
and marketing their theme parks in a particular area. For example, when
advertising EuroDisney when it first opened, they stressed the size and glamour
of the park but that is not what Europeans cared about. Another example is the
early advertisement of Hong Kong Disney; they created an image of two parents
and two children enjoying the park, but it was quickly brought to their attention
that most couples that visited the theme park were limited to only have one child
by the China government. Little mistakes like this when designing, building, and
marketing new Disney theme parks will be avoided by learning more about the
history and culture of that particular country or area. Hiring people who know
and understand the culture to build and market Disney’s theme parks would be
the best idea for Disney.
10. The best location for a Disney theme park would be in Dubai. It is the
business and cultural hub for the Middle East. It is the largest city in the United
Arab Emirates. It is also a way to capture the Muslim culture. Since the United
States is already a huge influence on this location, many of its citizens are aware
of Walt Disney and its characters. With the proper research into the culture,
Disney’s Arabia would be the next biggest hit.