1. To what extent, and in what ways, is the Disney product American? Is there so
ID: 396514 • Letter: 1
Question
1. To what extent, and in what ways, is the Disney product American? Is there something universal about Disney? If so, what is it?
2. Why didn’t Disney managers anticipate better the cultural blunders they experienced when Disneyland Paris first opened?
3. How did Disney approach the multicultural issues once they identified them? How would you assess their effectiveness?
4. Should Disneyland Paris managers adapt the resort more to local cultures, or make it more American? How would they implement your suggestion?
Explanation / Answer
1. To what extent, and in what ways, is the Disney product American? Is there something universal aboutDisney? If so, what is it?
The Disney products are fairly typical American style. The foundation of Disney based on the stories andfairytales, like Cinderella and Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, they created. These classic stories arevery popular all over the world. The main characters in Disneyland are Mickey and Donald Duck, representing the American culture. Because Walt Disney created cartoon in early 20th century, thecharacters and stories have been handed from generation to generation in America. When Disneylandhas been built, it represents Americanism, such as freedom, heroism, and optimism.
Disney Company utilizes cartoons, movies, even theme parks to emphasize the American culture theypresent. Regardless of kids and adults, everyone in Disneyland seems to enter the real magic kingdomand fairytale world, in which way that they always believed in “magic” (Lane, 2009). In addition, DisneyCompany also advocates that every individual needs to work hard to achieve their dreams. Theycombine their spirit and idea with realistic life; therefore, people who enter the park and play with the realMickey Mouse may forget the sadness and only feel happiness.
Although Disneyland has been built all over the world, the main target is never changed. The core anduniversal value for every theme park is to create “magic” in real life and make happiness for people(Lane, 2009). The entire Disneyland has the universal shows and performance. As well as everyemployee and performer trained that treat customers friendly and positively.
2. Why did Disney managers not anticipate better the cultural blunders they experienced whenDisneyland Paris first opened?
As mentioned in background, Disney Company has never failed before. The most risk investment theythought was to invest Tokyo Disneyland, but they obtained unexpected success. In the different, evenopposite culture, Disneyland can be such successful; the managers believed that they could besuccessful in the similar culture background, like Europe. Therefore, they completed copied theAmerican model to utilize in Euro Disneyland.
The most and biggest mistake Disney manager made is that not realize the culture differentiation. InJapan, on one hand, although the culture there is extremely different from American’s, Japanese highlypraise the American culture because of cultural infiltrations. For example, Japanese would like imitatethe American dressing style. On the other hand, different culture has highly attractive that Japanese mayfeel fresh and would like experience. Unlike Japan, France has a similar culture with American, butFrench has their own proud of their culture, such as language, history, and country. Disney's commitments to the construction of Euro Disney, while ignoring the French people have a tendency toreject American culture. Historically, the French have a strong sense of national pride; character is moreself-noble, self-esteem even heavy, for acceptance of U.S. products is not high. They believe that Disneyis a kind of cultural imperialism in Europe, fear of American culture from the culture of their excessiveimpact or even replaced. At the beginning of Disney Paris open, the restaurants in the park did not serveany alcohols, following the American model. However, European are accustomed to have some winewhen they eating. In spite of fixing this issue very quickly, it has already been affect the reputation ofEuro Disneyland. According to other successful cases, Disney managers over optimize the outcomes sothat they ignored those cultural differences. Thus, because of the over optimism, Disney managers didnot anticipate better the cultural blunders.
3. How did Disney approach the multicultural issues once they identified them? How would you assesstheir effectiveness?
For Euro Disney, the biggest mistake they did was not to take cultural differences into account. Experiences of success in the U.S. can not be directly moved to France to apply because the Frenchculture has its own unique factors. The first change Disney did is that take the name of Euro Disneylandinstead of Disneyland Paris in order to strengthen the company's local image. At the same time, the WaltDisney World changed their first explanation of the language to French rather than English. In addition, an American manager was replaced by a French manager, who may adapt and manage the park muchmore localization.
Another approach is that supply of food and fashion changes. Disney began offering consumerpreferences for France, like the buffet in American style but French likes it either. Meanwhile, smallaccessories are also identified in the Disney image. As well as the image in Disneyland Paris is theItalian and the UK-based, like Pinocchio and Peter Pan
Furthermore, the prices of tickets and hotel have declined so that attracts more consumers than before. Disneyland in France finally has taken cultural differences into account and measures, which leads thatthe number of visitors has greatly improved, and profits began to improve.
According to the report of the outcomes, it can be assessed that these changes are effective. When themanagers realized the key issue they ignored, they have been changing it. Based on the changes, Disneyland Paris has made profits. According to the exhibit 2 in test book, it shows that Disneyland Parisobtained over thousand million Euros revenue by 2003 to 2005. In addition, it can be measured by thenumber of attendance, the rate of hotel occupation, and the stock information
4:- should Disneyland Paris managers adapt the resortmore to local cultures, or make it more American? How would they implement your recommendation?
Disneyland Paris managers should adapt the resort to combine local cultures with American culturetogether for the 15th anniversary in 2007. Based on past experience of failure, Disneyland Paris shouldnot ignore the cultural differences as an important factor. Simply and blindly copy from the Americanmodel that will not help Disney's development in Europe. Therefore, the American culture and Europeanculture combined together may not only reflect Disney's multicultural atmosphere, but also reflect theirrespect for different cultures.
In the 15th anniversary, the classic cartoon image can be retained to perform in Disneyland Paris, suchas Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. On this basis, it may add some features for Europeans, especiallyFrench, featuring performances, like the French favorite cartoon characters. In the dining area, Disneyland Paris would inject some classic French food in order to celebrate 15th years of Disney's development in Europe. Furthermore, Disneyland Paris should appreciate the French government andpeople’s support and understanding.
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