Factors of Poor Performance
Opening a theme park in Europe was one of the first attempts of Disney Company to expand to the European market not simply by gaining audiences to its television, cinema, and cartoon products but by being able to communicate with European customers directly. But unfortunately, Disney management did not pay enough attention to all the European lifestyle and market development (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2009, p. 13). Accordingly, there proved to be seven significant factors that conditioned the poor performance of the French EuroDisney in 1992, during the first year of its operation.
These factors include ignored climatic conditions, expensiveness of services offered as measured by European standards, the economic recession observed in Europe at the time, financial constraints conditioned by the 1991 Gulf War, lack of attention to the cross-cultural peculiarities of the European market, excessive focus on European character of the park, and finally the self-confident approach of Disney towards the park and possible attending rates (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2009, p. 15).
Thus, Disney management failed to consider the climatic conditions, which are pretty harsher in France in winter than in Florida, where another Disney park is situated. But this failure was not a major one as cultural hostility, and economic recession conditioned EuroDisney’s poor performance firsthand because quite similar climatic conditions could not decrease attendance rates of, for instance, Japanese Disney Park.
Failure Factors: Foreseeable and Controllable or Not
Probability of Foreseeing
Naturally, the question arises at once about the probability of foreseeing and controlling the factors that conditioned the poor performance of the European Disney Park in France in 1992. The answer to the first part of this question is affirmative, as most of the factors could be foreseen (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2009, p. 18). For instance, the climatic conditions observed in France in winter are not a secret, and the cultural peculiarities of this country’s people. Moreover, the economic developments in the world after the 1991 Gulf War could also be foreseen based on scholarly data from various sources and even from TV reports. Finally, the desire of Disney Park visitors to experience purely American entertainment patterns was also evident from Japanese Park data and should have served as a reason to avoid mentioning the European character of the park, at least in its title.
Controllability
The factors that could not be foreseen could then be controlled after their appearance (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2009, p. 21). Both the sudden expensiveness of Disney attendance for Europeans and their hostility to the self-confident approach adopted by Disney, according to which the customers were sure to attend the park, by all means, caused a form of public protest against EuroDisney. This protest was manifested by $900 million losses contrasted to the park’s intended $100 million revenue. Furthermore, being reluctant to spend over $600 for one or two day stays in EuroDisney, Europeans did not want to leave their traditional August vacations. This led to the park’s attendance being almost twice as small as intended (9.5 million people compared to the intended 14 million). To avoid this, EuroDisney and Disney Company could manipulate prices to adjust them to the European market and modify their approach toward European customers. However, understanding this took Disney over two years, during which the company’s losses exceeded $1 billion.
Ethnocentrism in EuroDisney Story
Another important factor that “facilitated” the poor performance and actual failure of the EuroDisney in its first operating year was the potentially predictable and even often observed phenomenon of the French ethnocentrism (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2009, p. 33). According to a former Disney executive, one of the main reasons for the park’s failure was the protest of the French people against another manifestation of American imperialism, which Disney was representing as they thought. Being reluctant to perceive the American culture and values promoted by Disney heroes, numerous French people ignored EuroDisney.
Moreover, the ethnocentric and patriotic moods were rather powerful in France of the time as mass media and even the then-president Chirac expressed their concerns about the “ecological disaster” of spreading American culture all over the world. In the early 1990s, France was on the way to eliminating English words from everyday use, and the launch of EuroDisney thus turned out to take place in the wrong place at the wrong time, given all these conditions. Another issue was that Disney management failed to foresee the problem or control it on identification.
Disney’s Cross-Cultural Marketing Skills
To continue the EuroDisney’s initial failure consideration, it is evident that the cross-cultural marketing practices adopted by Disney Company proved to be inefficient in this example (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2009, p. 76). The instances of misperceived and misinterpreted European values and tastes are numerous. The first one is the fact that before the park launching Disney considered European customers to be ready to pay $600 and more for Disney entertainment, but the reality turned out to be the opposite as the European tourists often preferred to spend those $600 during their traditional August family vacations rather than for 2 or 3 days of staying in EuroDisney.
Further on, the above discussed anti-American ideas in the French society were not considered by the Disney marketing department either. The same was the situation with understanding the Europeans’ reasons for attending Disney. Stressing the title of EuroDisney, the executives of the project ignored the fact that the bulk of foreigners followed Disney to become part of American entertainment. Only after the initial park failure and the change of the CEO for the Frenchman, Philippe Bourguignon, did the cross-cultural marketing skills of Disney start displaying recovery and flexibility in the issue they lacked before.
Possible Pros and Cons of Park’s Location in Spain
Based on the above-presented considerations, the change of the park location to Spain, which was initially intended as the first European location for the Disney Parks, would not change the situation considerably. To ground this, let us consider the failure conditioning factors once again. Firstly, the climatic conditions prevented the French EuroDisney from being successful. Of course, this point is the advantage of Spain, which offers a year-long warm Mediterranean climate. But this, and probably the ethnocentric problem reportedly absent in Spain, is at the same time the only point that would be different given that all Disney marketing and planning practices were the same as while launching the French Disney Park.
As for the economic factors of failure and the drawbacks of the Disney cross-cultural management, excessive European focus and the self-confident approach to potential visitors would not change if the park was launched in Spain. Therefore, the geographical location of the park would not be a decisive factor in determining its success among European customers.
References
Czinkota, M. & Ronkainen,I. (2009). International Marketing. South-Western College Pub; 9 edition.