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Euro Disney: The First 100 Days

Amit Gupta, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, OB
Management Development Institute
Mehrauli Road, Sukhrali, Gurgaon - 122 007
Tel: +91-98105-87130
e-mail: amit.gupta@mdi.ac.in
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Basic Values of Disney
Quality
Imagination
Guest Service
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What does Disney Offer?
Fantasy
Escape
Total Experience
Individual and Group experience
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How does Disney set Expectations of its Customers?
Cartoon Characters
Unique nature of visitors experience
Updating of the parks
High quality of service delivery system
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Service Design Issues
Core of rides and attractions organized into identical set
of themes
Each theme is all encompassing for guests
Offerings appeal to both adults and children
Offerings appeal to different psychological targets
(historic motifs, future themes, todays subjects)
Stable of characters entrenched place in the lives of
children preconditioning through related activities
Commitment to having something new and different in the
park
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Service Delivery Issues
Disney university focal point for executing service
strategy to ensure that standards are continuously met
across the company qualifying potential hires
transmitting Disney values training employees to be
effective in their jobs
Grooming standards
Concept of guest experience
Management system which stresses attention to details
Guest service vocabulary
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Core and Peripheral
Core elements of service design
Theme lands
Basic Menu of rides and attractions
Characters
Peripheral elements
Food
Architectural style
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Euro Disney: Service Design and Delivery
Emphasized traditional European and Western American
motifs
Upgrade quality of food items
Thematic hotel properties integrated with the rest of the
complex
Bi-lingual employees
Designed for children (no wine)
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Unique Issues in Euro Disney
Multi lingual and multi national audience language
requirements, interaction of different nationalities, threatens
comfort zone
Designed to appeal as a local, metropolitan entertainment
option, vacation destination, conference facility, with future
plans for business park and residential community
different segments with different requirements needing
different mix of service design and delivery, marketing and
staffing
Labor climate local unions rushed hiring of 11000
employees multi lingual requirements tension between
local and expatriates costly turnover customer service
levels adversely affected
Different food habits, styles of eating, attitudes towards
waiting lines, weather
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Is Euro Disney a Success?
Financial Customer Service design and delivery
Achieved 2/3 of the projected revenues ($489m of a
projected $752m)
Attendance figures behind (3.6m so far) but summer
months should be prime for peak attendance
Winter drawing power not clear
Given early attendance acceptability issues are redundant
Substantial cost problems
Waiting line problem less ride capacity
Significantly more expensive than other parks admission,
hotels, souvenirs
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Questions that Need to be Evaluated?
Was basic research to support the decision or to help make
the decision?
Location multi national and multi lingual customer base
Location proximity to Paris (+++ and ---)
Given air fares would it make sense to fly to Florida than
go to Euro Disney
Wine issue understanding of the local culture
Cold weather attendance issues labor and labor laws,
fixed vs. variable costs, marketing / discounts
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Euro Disney vs. Tokyo Disney
Differences in affinity for America
Difference in labor laws and employment standards
Differences in duration of vacation
Florida Disney more accessible to Europeans
Exchange rates of European and Japanese currencies
Local management and ownership in Japan vs. Disney
management and ownership in Euro Disney
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Management Issues
Marketing of the park during winters
Marketing issues (prices, cross promotion, Disney movies
and characters)
Service design (ride capacity, attracting and retaining
employees, compensation and training issues)
Service delivery (waiting lines, consistent cast member
courtesy)
Expansion issues
Public Relation issues
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Dimensions of the Case
What is a service industry?
Are service concepts universal or culturally bound?
Are these cultural limitation universal to all service
industries or more salient in some service industries over
other service industries.
How can cross border service concepts be analyzed to
minimize the risk of failure?
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Relevance to Indian Service Industry
What problems will India have to confront as we expand
globally? Who can we benchmark against?
What factors work in our favor and what factors work
against us?
What should be the possible organizational arrangements
such that we can leverage our strengths and mitigate our
weaknesses?
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Some Characteristics of India and Indians
Highly differentiated and structured society
Hierarchical, caste based
Indian ego
Propensity for Indians not to want to be law abiding
In general misbehaved and unruly behavior