Disney in Tokyo and Paris

When opening a business in an international realm, one must examine many factors including cultural differences and geographical locations. When opening a business in a foreign nation, one must examine the need for the product being offered, the acceptance of the product into the culture, and the most effective means of advertising. Disney opened its doors in Japan with much success; much of the success can be attributed to the Japanese culture being very fond of Disney characters. Disney decided to take the same methodology to Paris to open its new park in 1992, EuroDisney (Cateora & Graham, 2007).

Disney failed to realize that while its strategy in Japan worked for Japan, its Japan strategy was not going to work in Paris. Disney decided to photo copy their operation and learned that was not acceptable. In 1992, several unforeseen issues arose that Disney was not prepared to handle. There were transatlantic airfare wars and currency movements that lead people to avoid traveling to Paris. Also, Disney was expecting a flocking of French people to visit the park; yet again basing their assumptions on the performance of the Japanese park (Cateora & Graham, 2007).

The French had resentment against the American fairy tale characters because they had their own to love. However, the Japanese had great admiration for the American icons. Disney advertised their park with an emphasis on the size and glamour of “the Disney experience” rather than showing the French their exciting rides and attractions. Disney wanted to out do any other French attraction and wanted it on their terms; the French do not react well to arrogant Americans (Cateora & Graham, 2007).

For example, French people dine with wine at every meal; Disney outlawed alcohol at their park, a blatant disrespect of French culture. Disney had to build kennels for park goers pets, and relax their restrictions on personal grooming, such as red finger nail polish for women. Disney continued to design and build EuroDisney to their liking and profit hopes. For instance, Disney was told that Europeans did not eat breakfast so they designed their restaurants to reflect this belief; when the people started showing up for a bacon and eggs breakfast Disney was unprepared (Cateora & Graham, 2007).

Also, Disney was accustomed to American visitors having a three day vacation to a park; where as the French experience was two days at most. The executives at Disney also failed to take into consideration that Europeans have different vacationing practices. Disney assumed that it would influence the French to frequent the park in short mini-vacation style trips. The French however were not accustomed to such practices and held true to their customs of a month long vacation in August (Cateora & Graham, 2007).

Disney was nearly at its breaking point in 1994 when a Saudi investor gave them $500 million. He suggested that $100 million be used to build a convention center at the park, which has proved to be successful. Prior to the Saudi investment, Disney was in a rough spot because they had created such hostilities with the banks, government, and ad agencies. Disney was running out of options. In 1993, Disney named Fenchmen Phillipe Bourguigon as CEO in hope of regaining profitability (Cateora & Graham, 2007).

Bourguigon, changed Disney’s marketing approach in Europe to target the specific nations and cultures. He was able to break marketing into six major nations and cut park process by twenty percent and run winter promotions. The name was even changed to Disneyland Paris in 1994. In 1996, Disney finally reached its goal of becoming the most visited attraction in France (Cateora & Graham, 2007).

Any business looking to operate in a foreign market should always take into consideration the local cultures and customs. Disney failed to consider how the French would react to their bombarding them with an overgrown theme park that was perceived as nothing more than an American attempt to push their culture off on the Europeans. Just as with the many of the wars of the world, who is to say that the nation that is trying to force a government on a people s right? Is fair to say that just because I like the thought of organized religion that everyone in the world has to like and accept my thoughts and beliefs? No, and that is exactly what Disney tried in Paris. Disney assumed that since they could branch out of American in Japan and be successful that the French would be just as receptive. They also let someone else own and operate their park in Japan and achieved success, but they