Euro Disneyland Case Analyses. Management Case Study

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Euro Disneyland Case Analyses
Disney’s rationale for investing in France versus other countries
Disney considered France as the best choice since the country presented the most ideal geographic location and had several incentives given by the government. Other reasons that motivated Disney were the availability of easy bank loans, cheap land, skilled labor, and incentives worth over $1billion (Karadjova-Stoev and Mujtaba n.d.). The available alternative for Disney to open and run its Euro theme park would have been England since it is similar to the U.S in terms of weather, culture, language, and acceptance. However, Disney faced cultural resistance from French customers who considered the company’s approach an insult and offensive to their culture, sparking protests and hence the park witnessed a very low attendance.
Evaluation of the Walt Disney Company’s performance in France
Euro Disney experienced a very hard start to operations in France due to various factors. The company lacked adequate and accurate information on the European and French culture and preference, had challenges in forecasting external problems, and lacked the capacity to control all controllable and uncontrollable forces (Bйraud 25). This resulted in the company accumulating a huge debt. Rather than conducting analysis and learn from the potential customers, the company chose to draw assumptions, and most of these ended up being wrong. The company made several wrong assumptions in different areas. Regarding culture, it assumed that the customers would not ask for wine.
Disney also made the assumed that French customers would be interested in French breakfast but they turned out to be interested in American one (Newell 193). Further, the company committed various operational errors; for instance, it assumed Monday to be a light day and Friday would be a heavy one, and so staff was arranged accordingly (Wasko n.d.). However, the opposite happened and this was a huge problem for the company. However, if the company had conducted in-depth primary research and gained information on their customers, it would have been easier to forecast demand and avoid the errors that the company made.
Elements of the business environment in France and the U.S. that could affect Euro Disneyland’s performance
Political-legal environment; the company decided to open its first Theme Park near Paris, sparking a negative publicity from most French politicians. The politicians were objected to the idea of the establishment of the park at that particular location since it was considered the center of French culture (Yue 87). It was a symbol of French culture, and the Park would interfere with this. Therefore, the location of the Park influenced publicity and...