Euro Disney

Euro Disney, France

When the average person thinks of Paris, France, many things come to mind. On the top of the list would be the Eiffel Tower or the Musee du Louvre, or spending countless hours in exquisite boutiques and coffee shops; even sampling a few of the country's most expensive French wine would make the list. Many flock to Paris for these spectacular luxuries that are often found in dreams or mindless imaginations. This far fetched dream became a reality for the Disney Corporation when they decided to expand their boundaries to other countries. The Disney Corporation first introduced its fantasy island to Tokyo, Japan in 1983 and was a huge success (Retrieved August 10, 2006 from http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/complete_history.html). This successful idea transformed it reaches to Paris, France. The actual location is Marne-la-Vallee which is 20 miles east of Paris. This location was selected because it was considered the crossroads to Europe. It is only a few miles from London and other European countries. The population of Marne-la-Vallee is approximately 17 million and growing. (Retrieved on August 1, 2006 from www.business-in-europe.com). The land, environment, and weather were very similar to Japan, so Disney wanted to expand its corporation to a wonderful country just outside of Paris. Transportation changed greatly to benefit all surrounding countries to accommodate Disney's plan. France was happy to extend it subways to reach the theme park from as far is Brussels and London. Additionally, Disney's decision was made with ease because the French government wanted and hoped that Disney would relieve the country's high unemployment rate because of the park, which would employ over 12,000 people. At the time of Euro Disney's inception in 1992, Europe was undergoing a major recession and the franc was very weak. Disney used France's vulnerable situation to their advantage and greatly influence France's decision toward an American theme park.

There were many external environmental factors that contributed to Euro-Disney's failure. The first of these factors was the culture differences. Euro Disney decision to open its Theme Park near Paris caused a negative publicity in the sight of many French politicians. In fact, they objected to the existence of Theme Parks in the center of their French culture since the park has been viewed as a visible symbol of the U.S. culture. Although Euro Disney marketers probably chose this location, in particularly France, due to the fact that is the center of Europe and could most probably be the most convenient place for people to arrive and settle in their hotel to be entertained. For instance, people from all over Europe could travel quickly to Paris due to short distance and travel convenience like people from Germany or Spain could quickly and conveniently arrive in Paris. The negative publicity should have been important factor that Euro Disney marketer did not considered when placing the Theme Park and sustaining the U.S. spirit (Lainsbury, 2000).

Euro Disney marketers have recognized a trend. People are going to theme parks during the weekends for adults as well as children entertainment. Indeed, there is an existing need for entertainment of this kind. Therefore, an opportunity exists in the European market that Euro Disney could have taken advantage of. However, the opportunity should have not been taken for granted. Other cultural factors should have been analyzed to decide the positioning of Theme Park. Their prevalent mistake has been the failure to recognize the cultural differences between American and French people. Locating the Theme Park near Paris and acquiring agricultural land as well as imposing the U.S spirit undeniably negatively affects French citizens. The French lifestyle deeply depends on the gratitude to their traditional agriculture. Thus, the land takeover by an American Company mainly does not provide pleasure to them.

In addition to the negative publicity and the cultural leader's unfriendliness toward the Euro Disney theme park, this caused the company to close down one resort hotel and lay off 5000 employees. Taking this into account the Euro Disney marketers should have anticipated the resistance toward the Theme Park and should have changed their positioning in accordance to the cultural accommodations as well as lifestyle changes. Probably they could have changed their positioning toward more French like spirit such as French names for their labeled products or shows. Their decision not to have French names has been due to the targeting market, which is whole Europe containing many cultures and languages. They overlooked the market since it is too broad a target market to fit the different cultural needs.

Another external environment factor was the technological problem of the particular location where the Theme Park was built. The climate has brought to a standstill the operation of the business. Although the idea to build a Theme Park has been in correspondence with the existing need on the market the weather should have been considered. In practical terms, the transfer of the idea to fit the market needs could not been suitable since the weather conditions had not been considered. Probably, a closed type of Theme Park could have been suitable for the weather changes.

The internal factors that contributed to Euro-Disney's failure were Disney's management's failure to recognize the recession period in Europe. Recession usually means higher level of unemployment. The unemployment further changes the way people spend their money since they have less disposable income, particularly when