PART A
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CASE STUDY 3
Hong Kong Disneyland: when big business meets feng shui,
superstition and numerology
124
John Kweh, School of Marketing, University of South Australia and Justin Cohen, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing
Science, University of South Australia
E N V I R O N M E N TA L A N A LY S I S O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L M A R K E T S
BACKGROUND
Disney, one of the world’s most recognised
brands, launched its most recent theme park in
Hong Kong in 2005. Hong Kong Disneyland, the
fifth theme park globally, was created to service
the Hong Kong market, but more strategically to
reach the rapidly growing Chinese market. Hong
Kong Disneyland is located on Lantau Island, 10
minutes from the Hong Kong International
airport and 30 minutes from the city via the
subway (Holson 2005).
The theme park is a joint venture between the
Walt Disney Co. and the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region (HKSAR) government
(Landreth 2005). The theme park is Disney’s
smallest at 745 hectares, but still consists of four
distinct entertainment arenas: Main Street USA,
Fantasyland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland.
Hong Kong Disneyland is based on the Anaheim,
California original (Landreth 2005).
Hong Kong has been chosen as the steppingstone into the vast Chinese market as most
Chinese have not grown up with Disney (Miller
2007). Another theme park in Shanghai is tentatively planned for 2010. Hong Kong, a capitalist
economy where English is prevalent, maintains a
sound legal and judiciary system and good corporate governance (Fong 1995). Thus Hong Kong
has been an ideal choice for many corporations to
launch into China. PricewaterhouseCoopers
predicts a 25.2% rise in Chinese entertainment
and media spending through to 2009, making
China the fastest growing market for entertainment in Asia (Landreth 2005). This can be attributed to the rapid growth of the middle class in
China, compounded with the reinvestment of
money by overseas Chinese in their now-flourishing country.
MICKEY MOUSE GOES GLOBAL
In 1983, Tokyo Disneyland was launched in Japan
with a huge success. This seemed to bode well for
Disney because it cloned its American theme park
and reproduced it in Tokyo. Unfortunately, this
proved to be a false sense of security for its
overseas expansion. Disney next set its sights on a
market and culture much closer to home.
Its next project was Euro Disney, launched in
Paris in 1992. Cultural sensitivity issues marred
EuroDisneyland (now known as Disneyland Paris)
from the first day. Disney was accused of ignoring
French culture and criticised for exporting
American imperialism in its European venture
(Brennan 2004) The issues regarding language,
alcohol consumption and pricing of tickets and
merchandise damaged the Disney brand
(Brennan 2004). Euro Disney received negative
publicity and headlines such as ‘Disney is cultural
Chernobyl’ (‘The horns of a dilemma’, Economist,
In order to reach a balance between Disney tradition and French culture, Stephen Burke, the then
vice president in charge of park operations and
marketing at EuroDisney made a number of
changes to retain Disney’s image while still
adapting to the French culture. First, the name
EuroDisney was changed to a more nationalistic
Paris Disneyland, so that the French would be
more receptive to it (Anonymous 1998).
Burke’s strategies to retain Disney’s image
included:
• focusing on hiring an outgoing and friendly
Disney cast;
• increased training;
• the placement of additional Disney characters
throughout the park.
Burke’s strategies to adapt Disney to the
French culture included:
• removing the ban on alcohol in the theme
park;
• lowering the corporate Disney premium on
admission, merchandise, hotels and food;
• relaxing Disney’s hierarchical management
structure;
DISNEY FOLLOWS MULAN HOME
Disney had one great success and one great
failure in its international expansion. Its next
launch had to succeed at all costs. This time
Disney was prepared for a long planning period.
Disney now knew that it must consider the
various cultural nuances and sensitivities of its
host nation. The design of Hong Kong Disneyland took into account Chinese cultural aspects
and planners went to great lengths to ensure that
it was well received by the local Hong Kong population and their projected mainland Chinese
visitors (Fowler and Marr 2005). Hong Kong
Disneyland focused on three core markets: Hong
Kong residents, visitors from the southern part of
China and visitors from South-East Asian markets
(Emmons 2001). Table 1 clearly shows the value of
these three markets, but most importantly the
rapid rise in visitors to Hong Kong from
mainland China. Although people from Hong
Kong live with cutting edge technology, superstition still plays a vital part in their culture.
Numbers and feng shui are taken seriously in all
aspects of everyday life and business.
FENG SHUI, SUPERSTITION AND NUMEROLOGY
Hobson (1994) discussed the influence of feng shui
on the Asian hospitality industry. It has been noted
that the location, interior and exterior of the
building are important factors to be considered.
Rossbach (1984) stated that the Chinese see a link
between humanity and the earth whereby everything is interconnected and needs to be in balance.
Buildings and other structures need to blend into
the landscape to ensure that there is a good flow of
energy or ‘qi’. The five elements of feng shui (water,
wood, fire, earth and metal) have been incorporated into the Hong Kong Disneyland design (see
Figure 1). Tom Morris, chief designer, said,
‘Regarding feng shui, the thing that is most visible
is the heavy usage of water in the park’ (‘Disney
uses feng shui to build Mickey’s new kingdom in
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C AT E R I N G F O R T H E C U LT U R A L A N D S O C I A L E N V I R O N M E N T O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L B U S I N E S S
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: LEARNING TO BREAK
BREAD OR BAGUETTES
• cutting managerial staff by almost 1000 in
order to flatten management and empower
the employees (Anonymous 1998).
CHAPTER 3
November 1992). There were continuous protests
from French farmers because of the French
government’s acquisition of farmland for the
Disney theme park (Anonymous 1998). Workers
resisted the Disney management style and dress
code (Anonymous 1998).
These incidents made Disney aware that
venturing into non-American markets could be
extremely complex due to cultural differences.
This outcome startled Disney. How could a copycat launch of their product in an Eastern country
with vast cultural differences succeed, but yet fail
immensely in a Western European market?
Disney had global recognition and an association with fun and family, but senior managers and
strategists now understood that they needed to
truly understand the cultures of their host
nations.
PART A
TABLE 1
Visitor arrivals to Hong Kong by country/territory of residence
2001
2005
Visitors (’000)
2006
The mainland of China
4 449
12 541
13 591
Taiwan
2 419
2 131
2 177
South & Southeast Asia
1 747
2 413
2 660
North Asia
1 762
1 853
2 030
The Americas
1 259
1 565
1 631
Europe, Africa & the Middle East
1 171
1 726
1 917
Macao
532
510
578
Australia, New Zealand & South Pacific
387
620
668
13 725
23 359
25 251
(+5.1)
(+7.1)
(+8.1)
Country/territory of residence
Total
SOURCE: Census and Statistics Department (2007) Hong Kong in Figures, Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region.
FIGURE 1 The five elements of feng shui and how they interact
s
De
st
Destroys
ult
h
cy
cle
(
Insults
De
s
Ins
De
s
ult
st r
oys
ults
Ins
Des
troy
s
Ins
(C
u)
W
+GB
WOOD
Crushing
(Beng)
–LV
Insu
ltin
g
act
ing
cy
cle
g)
c
ion
Ove
r
s
troy
ct
ru
e)
e (K
ycl
Insu
lt
a
nc
tio
+SI +TH
FIRE
Exploding
(Pao)
–HT –PC
)
eng
(Sh
le
yc
en
Cr
e
CYCLES OF GENERATION AND CONTROL
Des
E N V I R O N M E N TA L A N A LY S I S O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L M A R K E T S
126
str
oys
+UB
WATER
Drilling
(Zuan)
–KD
+LI
METAL
Splitting
(Pi)
–LU
CYCLES OF IMBALANCE
SOURCE: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FiveElementsCycleBalanceImbalance.jpg>.
+ST
EARTH
Crossing
(Heng)
–SP
Bibliography
Brennan, Y.M. (2004) ‘When Mickey loses face:
recontextualization, semantic fit, and the semiotics of
foreignness’, Academy of Management Review, Vol.
29, No. 4, pp. 583–616.
Anonymous (1998) ‘Balancing tensions: Stephen Burke’,
MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 40, No. 1, p. 27.
127
C AT E R I N G F O R T H E C U LT U R A L A N D S O C I A L E N V I R O N M E N T O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L B U S I N E S S
on 12 September 2005, at exactly 1 p.m., a date
and time believed to be most auspicious according to the Chinese Almanac (Miller 2007).
Apart from lucky numbers, the Chinese love
the colour red due to its symbolic representation
of prosperity; that is why it is seen throughout the
theme park. Chinese taboo and superstition have
been taken into consideration as well. Certain
merchandise is not sold in the park. Clocks are
nowhere to be seen because giving a clock as a gift
is strictly forbidden in Chinese culture—it is a bad
omen and insinuates that one will go to a funeral.
Green hats are also not on sale. This is because a
man wearing a green hat symbolises that his
partner has committed adultery (‘Disney uses
feng shui to build Mickey’s new kingdom in Hong
Kong’ 2005).
Besides feng shui, many adaptations have been
made to better suit Chinese visitors. Its employees
are culturally diverse and many speak a number of
languages. Hong Kong Disneyland is officially
trilingual with English and two dialects of Chinese
(Mandarin and Cantonese), which are used in all
signage and audio-recorded messages (Einhorn
2005). Euro Disneyland on the other hand had an
English-only policy for staff when it first opened
(Brennan 2004).
Chinese food is also abundant in the theme
park. Although Western food such as hotdogs,
hamburgers and candyfloss is served, lots of local
delicacies can be enjoyed as well. Don’t be
surprised to come across soy sauce chicken wings
or black sesame ice cream!
Disney has now launched its theme parks in
three international markets. Each experience has
been unique. Tokyo Disneyland was clearly
beginner’s luck. Paris Disneyland proved to be one
of the company’s biggest blunders. Changes have
been made, but the Paris operation has never
yielded their projected returns. Hong Kong Disneyland is truly a marriage of East and West. Thus far,
the venture has been successful, but time will tell.
Disney has looked to the past to secure its future.
CHAPTER 3
Hong Kong’ 2005). The Chinese, in many cases,
would attribute business failure to bad feng shui—
hence few dare to ignore it.
The fundamental feng shui principle is to
create harmony between humanity and the earth.
Feng shui principles have been adopted in the
placement, orientation and design of the park. A
geomancer, a feng shui specialist, was consulted
before the construction of the theme park began
(Miller 2007). Feng shui practices at Hong Kong
Disneyland are prevalent. The main entrance gate
of the theme park was shifted 12 degrees to
maximise good energy flow (Holson 2005). Ritual
incense burning was customary upon the completion of each building (Holson 2005).
Boulders have been placed throughout the
theme park to represent stability. A bend was also
created in the walkway from the train station; this
was believed to ensure that good fortune does not
flow out the back of the park (Holson 2005). To
ensure a balance of the five elements of feng shui,
some areas have been designated as ‘no fire
zones’ (Lee 2005). This meant that Disney had to
ensure that there were no kitchens in these areas
(Lee 2005).
The theme park has no fourth floor as the
number ‘four’ sounds the same as the word
‘death’ in Cantonese and Mandarin and is considered unlucky (Yardley 2006). On the other hand,
the number eight, considered lucky, is used extensively (Yardley 2006). It signifies prosperity and
wealth. For example, the main ballroom of one of
the hotels is 888 square feet (Ho 2006). There are
2238 crystal lotuses that decorate one of the
restaurants. When one pronounces the number
‘2238’ in Cantonese, the sound strongly mimics
the Chinese phrase for ‘becoming wealthy with
ease’ (‘Disney uses feng shui to build Mickey’s new
kingdom in Hong Kong’ 2005). Numbers play an
important role in Chinese culture and it is no
coincidence that the Summer Olympics in Beijing
are scheduled to open on 8/8/8 at 8 p.m.
(Yardley 2006). Hong Kong Disneyland opened
PART A
E N V I R O N M E N TA L A N A LY S I S O F I N T E R N AT I O N A L M A R K E T S
128
Census and Statistics Department (2007) Hong Kong in
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Business Week Online.
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Questions
1 Discuss the elements of culture that have been
addressed in this case study.
2 What did Disney learn from its mistakes in Paris?
3 How did Disney embrace Chinese culture with its Hong
Kong venture?
4 What cultural issues would arise if Disney chose Dubai
for its next theme park?
Photo credit
Hong Kong Disneyland © Kim Morgan.