Disneyland and Its Marketing in France

Tastes and preferences of French consumers

Disneyland Paris is one of the popular theme parks in Europe and a small part of the USA in France. The park opened its doors in 1992 and became a complete failure for many people, including Disney’s top management (Goldsby and Mathews, 2018). One of the major reasons behind undesired outcomes was the reliance on false assumptions regarding French consumers’ preferences and tastes.

One of these misconceptions was related to the flow of customers during a week. It was planned that the major load would be on Friday while fewer people would come on Mondays, which proved to be quite the opposite (Maheshkar and Sharma, 2018). Another mistake was associated with food and drinks. Disney managers expected that only light breakfasts would be needed, but customers wanted bacon and eggs. No alcohol policy was negatively accepted in Paris as the French were accustomed to drinking a glass of wine with their meal. The duration of customers’ stay was another misconception as only a low rate of consumers visited the park for four to five days as was expected (Maheshkar and Sharma, 2018). The vast majority of people had a day trip to Disney land Paris.

On balance, it is possible to note that the company had rather a weak expansion plan. The basis of the plan was full of errors and misconceptions regarding potential consumers’ preferences. The company failed to implement proper research and identify the potential customer profile, which led to certain negative outcomes.

When starting a business in a new market, it is critical to conduct thorough research and explore people’s cultural peculiarities. Misconceptions concerning the cultural peculiarities of customers may lead to considerable financial and reputational losses. It is also important to pay attention to all aspects of the business as such details as the time of dinner can affect people’s attitudes towards a hotel.

Failures

Disneyland Paris is now a successful theme park in Europe, but it had diverse issues in the first years of its work (Skyrius et al., 2016). One of the primary reasons for its failure during the first years of its operations in France was poor marketing research. It was essential to identify the key features of the people and the country to avoid significant issues.

The company had to undertake sound marketing research that would focus on the preferences of local people and the overall environment in the country. The company’s executives seemed to be unprepared for the hostile attitude of locals who started an anti-American campaign on the opening day of the theme park. The focus was on the position of the French government rather than the French who saw Disneyland park as a cultural shock and expansion of the American culture (Başarangil, 2018). In order to mitigate the negative factors, the company had to launch a marketing campaign promoting the theme park. It was also necessary to use all possible types of media to reach as many people as possible.

In conclusion, Disneyland faced several serious issues that were mainly caused by the lack of research. In addition, the company had an ineffective marketing plan. The company’s inability to address these aspects of operations in a new market led to considerable losses.

The case study of Disneyland Paris shows the relevance of the development of an effective marketing strategy. It is important to make sure that local people have a positive attitude towards the company. In order to achieve this goal, it is required to launch a sound promotional campaign.

Location

Disney theme parks were successful business ideas and became success stories in the USA and Japan (Maheshkar and Sharma, 2018). The establishment of a theme park in Europe was quite an obvious measure, and the decision to open a park in this part of the world was quite correct. However, the choice of the country was not well-thought, which led to significant losses for years.

One of the primary factors to launch a theme park in France was the city’s geographic position and its status as an important transportation and cultural hub (Lin and Huang, 2020). Although this was important for attracting the necessary number of customers, it was unwise to ignore other factors. The country was culturally different from the USA, so the idea of the creation of a small manifestation of the American Dream was doomed to fail. It could be more appropriate to choose the United Kingdom or Germany that had some cultural similarities, or rather were not as different as France was. These two countries are also important transportation and tourist hubs, so the company would attract the expected number of visitors.

The decision to open the first European Disney theme park in France was a serious mistake. The country was characterized by cultural peculiarities that had a substantial effect on the park’s operations. Germany or the United Kingdom could be better choices for a European theme park.

One of the most important lessons is associated with the need to consider all major factors when choosing a location for a business. Managers should take into account the cultural peculiarities of the host country, and make sure that all potential challenges can be addressed comparatively easy. If serious obstacles exist, it is better to consider another location.

References

1. Lin, S. and Huang, D. (2020) Project management under internet era: how to respond to challenging changes in the digital era. Singapore, Singapore: Springer Nature.
2. Maheshkar, C. and Sharma, V. (2018) ‘Cross-cultural business education: leading businesses across the cultures’, in Maheshkar, C. and Sharma, V. (eds.) Handbook of research on cross-cultural business education. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, pp. 1–35.
3. Goldsby, M.G. and Mathews, R. (2018) Entrepreneurship the Disney way. New York, NY: Routledge.
4. Maheshkar, C. and Sharma, V. (2018) ‘Cross-cultural business education: leading businesses across the cultures’, in Maheshkar, C. and Sharma, V. (eds.) Handbook of research on cross-cultural business education. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, pp. 1–35.
5. Başarangil, İ. (2018) ‘Investigation of tourism general environment of Disneyland Paris theme park: a qualitative research’, Journal of Tourism and Gastronomy Studies, 6(3), pp. 316-333.
6. Skyrius, R., et al. (2016) ‘Factors driving business intelligence culture’, Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, 13, pp. 171-186.

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