Disney Paris

Every year new markets are available for thousands of companies around the world. With
todays technology and globalization movement its getting easier to enter other markets, but in
order to succeed there are a few steps every company must take into consideration before
investing money on expansion. The company I will be analyzing is Disney Paris that is located in
the city of Paris, France. Like I mentioned before there is a research and analysis every company
must take study before moving internationally, most of them start by analyzing the marketing
mix, product, price, promotion and distribution. Disney American had a some trouble with this
part since they had been already successful in the penetration and settlement back in the Asian
market (Disney Tokio) they thought they could use the same model and formula to penetrate
France/ European market.
But for the Disney American management it was an ideal place to open their next park.
Due to the location it was a strategic move, about 20 million Europeans lived in a two hour drive
range, and approximately 300 million could fly there in less than two hour flight. Not only that
but the French government helped them out offering almost one billion dollars as incentives, due
to the tourism and the creation of almost 25,000 French jobs. (Zhang)
But not everyone was happy or welcoming of the American new project. There was a
type of boycott or rejection towards this American enterprise opening a new venue in Paris. But
Disney enterprise kept their promise of opening on summer of 1992 (final cost was of $5
billion), since the moment they opened they started to get red flags all around their services due
to the lack of market research. These problems could have been avoided with a simple market
research and they could have started with the right foot, for instance the policy of no alcohol in

the park knowing that Europeans culture have beer or wine in almost every meal. Another error
was how they projected having more visitors on Fridays than on Mondays so they had their staff
organized to that situations when it was actually the opposite.

.
Disney based some of their strategies on theories or what they thought it was going to be
without actually doing the study, at the hotels they downsized the number of breakfast personnel
and food distribution because they thought Europeans dont eat that much of breakfast, when
actually the day after they opened everyone went for breakfast.

They not only encounter

problems with their food services or visitors but with their own employees. Disney used the same
teamwork model used in America and Asia in France and after 3 months (they started with 1,000
employees) around thirteen percent left due to miscommunication and cultural differences in
treatment and work ideologies differences. All of these took Disney to accomplish 9 million
visitors by the first year. But also a $2 billion cumulative loss by 1994. (Gumble)

They did realized they had many issues with their business plan and strategic planning
flaws. They started by changing the name from Euro Disney to Disney Paris to strength the parks
identity to French and others visiting. They food and hotel services were changed, a French
managers mentioned we opened with restaurants providing French style food service, but we
found that customers wanted self-service like in the US parks. Similarly, products in the
boutiques were initially toned down for the French market, but since then the range has changed
to give it more definite Disney image. The prices of the hotel rooms and tickets to enter the park
were lower by one third of the original price. By the end of 1996 they were able to attract 11.7

million visitors which was a great improvement looking back at 1994 with only 8.8 million.
(Birmingham)
Sales and marketing are very important and key to success when penetrating a new
market. Many Europeans rely on travel agents and sometimes tour operators, some suggest that
Disney should be part of the group packages but the management declines this strategy. A recent
marketing research point out that eight percent were Germans, forty French, eighteen from
Belgium and Netherlands, and fifteen Britain. Disney should aim to invite and enhance the visits
of neighbor countries to travel to their park. Most of the profits parks like this come from the
customers spending money at the hotels, restaurants, and boutiques, so enhancing them to stay
longer is a strategy they are working on .

Nastulik, Nastya. "Educator Insights: Euro DisneyWhat Happened? What Next?" Scribd. Pace

University. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/54311524/4457717>.

P. Gumble and R. Turner, "Mouse Trap: Fans Like Euro Disney But Its Parent's Goofs Weigh

the Park Down," The Wall Street Journal, March 10, 1994,

Zhang, Liang, and Xiao Cao. TheWalt Disney Companys Yen Financing. Case Study in

Derivatives. Clark University, Jan. 2009. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.

(http://www.scribd.com/doc/54311524/4457717,
http://lelu.zxq.net/lelutk/walt_disney_yen_financing.pdf,
http://web.efzg.hr/dok/UMK/Case%20DISNEY%20Hill.pdf)