Randi Foreman
International Marketing
Professor Gray
June 28, 2015
Case 2-1 The Not-So-Wonderful World of EuroDisney
With Walt Disney and the Disney parks being so popular, you would think that the one built in Europe would have been a hit. During its first year of operation, EuroDisney didn’t succeed at all. Disney didn’t do their research and lacked cultural awareness which was their major downfall and the reason for their performance. EuroDisney was built just like the American Disney parks and failed to accommodate to Europe and their culture. For example, the pricing was all wrong, they banned alcohol in a place that likes to drink wine, and they thought that Europeans didn’t ...view middle of the document...
I think Disney did a great job and was very successful with their openings in America and Japan but when building in Europe, they were not aware of the big cultural differences. Disney was not knowledgeable about what it would take to make the park a success in Europe. For example, Disney thought that Europeans weren’t fond of breakfast so the parks’ dining was built with those thoughts in mine. Turns out that everyone showed up for breakfast and the lines were outrageous. Disney marketers were just simply not aware of the culture and lifestyle of Europeans when introducing EuroDisney.
Disney marketers had no idea how Japan would react to the park but it ended up being a huge success. The Disney parks that are here in America is pretty much the exact one in Japan and to their surprise, Japan took to it great. With them doing that and it being a success in Japan, marketers thought it would be the same in Europe and it ended up being a fail for them. They failure was not quite as bad in Hong Kong as it was in Europe due to lessons being learned.
The Disney park in Hong Kong was just simply too similar to other parks nearby. That was their major downfall. Another part of it was that Hong Kong Disney visitors were just not familiar with the American characters. They didn’t mind them but they just weren’t familiar. Things started to get better when Disney began showing film footage familiarizing Hong Kong with the history of Disney. Although Disney tried avoiding the problems that led to failure in...