Disney Is Very Successful with Its Three Basic Value: Quality, Imagination and Guest Service
1. Introduction
Disney is very successful with its three basic value: quality, imagination and guest service. American Consciousness is the spirit of Disney core business. Within each Disney Park, themes were chosen to appeal to a wide variety of interests and tastes. Adventurous and roller coaster rides are symbols of American consciousness. Spectacular firms and shows of fantasy story stimulate the audience imagination. American's Past are culture heritage which is distinct competence of Disney in the Cartoon Movie and Theme Park design.
Japan Disney is a remarkable success of Walt Disney in international market. The marketing opportunity in Europe is no doubt a great chance for Disney market development since its population size, per capita spending and vacation period are favorable than United States. Research from Paris citizen further supported the set up of Theme Park in Paris as over 85% of the population agreed the plan.
The market plan of Disney, which is based on ADL Research in the area of operating assumption for revenue, per capita spending for pricing and distance penetration for individual target market, are financial feasible. French government support with tax incentive and new infrastructure built for easy access to the Complex made the Euro Disney a marvelous market plan .
It is the cultural factor European preference overvalued by Walt Disney's management in the park design and service delivery that made the brand identity of American consciousness almost disappeared in the park design. On the other hand, the impact of poor staff relationship with the staff was underestimated that the guest service, which is core competence of Disney in exceeding customer expectation, was criticized by visitors.
In fact, Disney's success is derived from it goes deep into the American consciousness by selling myth and fantasy. The success of Japan Disney is the real service extension of Disney home market with its quality, imagination and guest service. They are totally copying the America way with the successful service delivery system transferred to Japan.
For Hong Kong Disneyland, top management of Disney are required to consider the cultural impact in the service delivery system to avoid the Euro Disney failure happened again.
2. Evaluation of Disney entry decision in Europe
In examining the entry decision in Europe, we may use the Exhibit 1 as laid out in the Global Marketing Management Exhibit 9.1 to illustrate the steps how Disney decide his market plan and development in the global market.
Market opportunity
The market opportunity aboard for Disney land is no doubt a choice between the countries for its Complex extension. The Disney home market became mature since the Theme Park was first launched in 1955, it is a right decision to develop its market overseas. Disney movie is a symbol of American culture and it is accepted worldwide with its myths and fantasy idea. Peter Pan. Snow White and Cinderella are well known Cartoon characters to the children without country borderline.
The potential of Europe market in terms of population size, per capita spending and leisure are similar with United States. The Disney company's optimistic of European market was the access to the site by the European population and which exceeded that of the United States by 150 million in roughly one-half of the land mass. Home market. The preliminary screening of the potential target country market by ADL Research for the population segmentation initial the right target market for Disney positioning strategy. The mode of entry is crucial for Disney Land in the long-term investment in the host country. The joint venture with the local government and the political stability grantee the return and the recoverability of the revenue.
Preliminary screening - Target country market
The STEP analysis of Europe and Japan may be a good insight of Euro Disney and the positioning strategy of Europe market.
STEP analysis of Japan Disney strengthen Disney's Europe market decision:
l Appetite for American styled popular entertainment - Appeal for Disney's brand of entertainment even there is difference between the Disney approach and the Japanese way of life. The fact that popular of Disney approach in Japan persuade Disney management to launch Euro Disney where the cultural difference is apparent.
l Per capita spending is high in Japan as there was a trend in Japan towards leisure. In Europe, the leisure is a lifestyle and it is unique in the European vacation practice.
2. Evaluation of Disney entry decision in Europe
l Political stability of Japan and Europe is important for Disney as the Theme Park would be a long-term project with substantial investment. The risk of exchange impact would be higher in a unstable country when the mode of entry is joint venture with local investor and government. ECU a single Europe market in 1992 was a guarantee not only safeguarded the political risk but it also facilitated the free access within the Europe under the ECU agreement.
Decision criteria for mode of entry
In evaluating the decision to build the theme Park in Euro, the mode of entry is also important for Disney. The decision criteria will influence the choice of entry mode in terms of
l External criteria of market size and Growth, Risk, Government regulation, competitive environment and local infrastructure ;
l Internal criteria of company objective, need for control, internal resources, assets and capability and flexibility.
The population of Europe is huge and greater than in United States. The vacation practice is one the external criteria for building theme park where the visitors could easy access around the Complex. French Government built a new railway for Disney land in transporting the tourists to the Park.
Since the control of delivery service system is the key factor of Disney success in Europe, therefore the probability of the system successfully transferred is the primary concern. It is found that the failure of Euro Disney is the reason that the quality service could not be effectively delivered to the visitor by the cast members.
The joint venture with European investor and agreement with French government has proven a good investment decision for the long term project as the participation of government and European guarantee the recoverability of the revenue. However, it is inflexible for the exit of Disney when the visitors is fall short of the forecast number.
3. Segmentation, targeting market and positioning
The socioeconomic factors are the bases for Disney in determine the market segmentation. The vacation practice of European is five week for every year and Paris are the popular destination of the tourists as 50 million visitors came to Pairs and spent $21 billion per annum. Consumption patterns for many goods and service is largely driven by the consumer wealth or the country's level of economic development in general. The effective market segmentation has to be sizable and large enough to be worth going. Europe is an alternative market of United States as many products coming from United States are part of the international marketing strategy of US company.
Market segmentation
According to the ADL Research, European enjoyed their vacation and the period of vacation per annum in Europe was five weeks. It was greater than the three weeks vacation in United States. European selected Paris as vacation destination and spending an estimated $21 billion from the 50 million tourists therefore they were used as the basis of the market segmentation and the distance from the site in Paris were subdivided into different group in assessing the individual target market.
Target Market and Disney's Positioning strategy
As the Research Disney conducted on European travel to the United States showed that the three things tourists were most interested in seeing were New York, Disneyland, and the Western United States, the Complex that Disney built in France was the most "Western American" of all of Disney's Parks. However, the initial idea of Disney is not based on the "American Consciousness". Rather, the design was to accommodate the preferences of European guests and certain French cultural requirements.
The target market of Disney in Europe was past visitors of United States Disneyland from Europe and the design of theme park was focus into attracting these visitors to come back again and "experience" the Disney again. Market research was used to set the tone of the resort. The service adaptation of Disney Park design for cultural requirement, involving park design, grooming standards for employees, and eating habits, were expressed by vocal French intellectuals, French government officials and local press. Subsequent to concerns raised by the French government, Disney assured that French would be the first language of the park while most signs would be bilingual as would be the park's employees.
4. Development and organization of the park - American hardware design and European preference combination
The implication of this target market has reflected in the design of the park where Disney attempted to imbue the park with a European flavor. The combination of American design with European preference destroyed the American Spirit of the theme Park. In Fantasyland, it was stressed that Disney characters had their roots in European mythology. The Peter Pan attraction featured Edwardian-style architecture, snow White had her home in a Bavarian Village. Adventure land would invoke the imagination of famous European adventure tales such as Sinbad the Sailor, Arabian Nights and the Thief of Baghdad.
Disney concerned the toleration of French visitors of long waiting lines and planned films and other entertainment diversions for guests in line for a ride. The other issue was the eating habits between American and European. In anticipation of concerns about food, Euro Disney featured foods from around the world at its many theme restaurants and snack bars. This was in contrast to the strictly American flavor of Tokyo Disneyland.
The human size of the Park is the core competence of Disney and the organization of the Park is built with the guest service and quality of the service stemmed from the service system delivered to the customer by cast members. The biggest challenge for Disney was preparing operationally to provide Disney's standard of customer service - transferable of service system to Europe. The indoctrination of all employees in the Disney service philosophy is the critical factor for Disney to deliver the service system effectively to the visitor i.e. guest service and quality of service.
The comment from visitors that the park did not meet the U.S. Standard, suffering from poor service and operational glitches had proved the European preference and service adaptation is a wrong decision.
5. US and Japan Disney formula transferable to Europe
It is the three basic Disney value of quality, imagination and guest service which are the element of traditional Disney theme park success formula. An extensive orientation program was the first step for both individual cast members and the company's quality assurance efforts. The Disney University provided the training and modeled the attitudes required to re-create the desired level of service in the Park. At Disney theme parks, standard of service, park design and operating details, and human resource policies and practices were integrated to ensure that the Disney "play" would be flawlessly performed day in and day out at each location. To exceed its customer expectation every day is the Disney's stated goal and we could find it in U.S. and Japan Disney.
Visitors complained of the workers were simply not aiming to please and cast members were acting like real people instead of 'Disney' people. Consistent with Disney's entertainment concept, employees were called "cast members". They wore "costumes," not uniforms, and were "cast in a role". These entertainment concepts, however, was not appeared in Euro Disney. The Disney service, in fact, could be transferred to Europe as it did in Japan Disney even there is a cultural difference. Following the success elements of Japanese culture in obeying their bosses and being part of a team, Euro Disney could recruit staff from those European countries where the collectivism is high or carry out character test for new recruitment.. Therefore, the efficiency and politeness of staff members in Japan Disney could be transferred to Euro Disney.
The "American Consciousness" is the core success of Disney theme Park. It is proven that the American way was the primary reason of Japan Disney so success even there was a completely different between the Japan's lifestyle with the Disney culture. In Euro Disney, American visitor complaint the Park was a kind of strange feel whether it is going to be an American park, a French park or a European park. The difficulties in accommodating the cultural diversity of the complex were also noted by the press - the issue "Can an American theme park in Europe please all ages and nationalities?"
The fact that the cultural difference is the selling point of Disney service as it did successfully in Japan and United States where different countries people visited the Park again. The transfer of American entertainment culture is a key success factor for Euro Disney to consider its development path in the phase II of the theme park.
6. Disney's service delivery system