Part A:
Question 1: Which strategic action Disney took in terms of consumer focused initiative? Give examples.
The first Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955 in Los Angeles; today this Disneyland hosts more than 14 million visitors a years, who spend nearly $3 billion. Then second Disneyland opened in Tokyo in 1983 with great success. (History, 1955)
The issues rose when Euro Disney launched in Paris in 1992. Due to cultural issue this Disneyland known as Paris Disneyland from the first day. In Paris Disney accused of ignoring French culture issues regarding language, alcohol consumption and pricing tickets and merchandised damage.
So that Stephen Burke made number of changes in strategies to retain Disney’s image and to attract more customers. Such strategies are as below:
• Focusing on hiring an outgoing and friendly staff members;
• Give more training to new employees so they get chance to understand French culture;
• Introducing new Disney characters which represents more French culture;
• No restriction on consumption of alcohol in the theme park;
• Reducing prices of tickets, food and hotel stay;
• Relaxing Disney’s hierarchical management structure;
• Reduced managerial staff by almost 1000 in order to flatten the management and empower the employees with more duties and authorities.
Disney launched its most recent theme park in Hong Kong in 2005. But at this time they have done research very well from the failure of Paris Disneyland. To be succeeding in Hong Kong
Disney continued to grow, throughout the years with multiple films being created throughout the 1940’s through the 1950’s ("Disney History," n.d.). However, with all the successes that Walt saw he felt the need to branch out and in 1955 Disneyland opened ("Disney History," n.d.). The amusement or theme park, was such a success that Disney opened a second park on October 1, 1971 that we all know as Walt Disney World ("Disney History," n.d.). Disney continued to grow, evolve, and spread to other countries ("Disney History," n.d.). Purchasing Discover magazine in 1991, opening Disneyland Paris in 1992, and in 1994 held the stage production of Beauty and the Beast ("Disney History," n.d.). In short, “Disney is one of the most famous names in the animation industry” ("The Walt Disney Company," 2014, para. 3); from cartoons, movies, theme parks, Broadway productions, merchandise, and books Disney is where it has been since it’s beginning almost 100 years
The success of movies and television programs were due to diversity and distribution. It does its own distribution and targets several markets from children to adults. Finally, the Disney character consumer product sector, which includes clothing, home goods, and toys, has been an extremely important asset to the company. For example, by establishing deals such as an agreement with Mattel, Disney was able to manufacture more than 14,000 Disney licensed products. Furthermore, Disney expanded it’s retailing by opening up Disney stores.
Disney world and Disneyland have masses of similarities, but they are also very different. Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California. The opening day was intended to be fun and organized. Although it was fun, it was the furthest thing from organized. “Six thousand invitations to the Grand Opening had been mailed. By mid-afternoon over 28,000 ticket holders were storming the Magic Kingdom. Most of the tickets were counterfeit” (Disneylandshistory). Disneyland was the first and only Disney amusement park to be opened personally by Walt Disney. The park opened with a
What do you view to be a key source of consumer value for Disney’s offerings?
The Walt Disney Company has seen their share of success in taking their parks and resorts into global markets. “60 years ago, the first Disney theme park opened, in California and was the brainchild of Walt Disney himself, who was motivated by the lack of entertainment options available to him and his two young daughters.” (Forbes, 2016). Disneyland California penetrated the market rapidly, and its popularity led to the opening of Disney World in Florida, followed by global expansion in Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong. Their latest expansion came in June 2016, on a 963 acres’ site in Shanghai, China (Xu, 2012). After one year in operation, Shanghai Disneyland is outpacing their most optimistic projections, and the park’s
The first Disneyland outside the US was opened in April 1983 in Tokyo. Disney took a
Walt-Disney is popular all over the world yet the social aspects of America’s standards are vastly different than those overseas. Disney struggled to understand what those differences were and for three years they were unable to turn a profit in France. (Cite Book) The citizens of France still saw Disney as an American icon and they were in opposition to it being a focal point in the French community. Disney changed this opinion by renaming the park Disneyland Paris, lowering its price of admission, opening new rides, and launching a massive marketing campaign. (cite book) This worked and the park began to turn around. When it switched its focus to Hong Kong it employed its newly learned tactics and began by focusing on honoring its cultures
1) What is the Disney Difference and how will it affect the company’s corporate, competitive and functional strategies?
This paper will analyse a recent period of strategic change at The Walt Disney Company which began in 2005 with the appointment of current CEO Robert Iger. The company began to experience halted growth during the late 1990s. The former CEO Michael Eisner had been successful himself in the late 1980s in changing the company during what is known as the Disney
According to Robert Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Disney’s corporate strategy for diversification is a combination of three objectives that are to be achieved through the fundamental alignment of the Company’s core business units. The three objectives to be achieved by The Walt Disney Company are (1) creating high-quality family content, (2) exploiting technological innovations to make entertainment experiences more memorable, and (3) expanding internationally. The Walt Disney Company’s three objectives that make up the Company’s corporate strategy are to be achieved through each of the Company’s core business units that are split up in to five divisions (1) media networks, (2) parks and resorts, (3) studio entertainment, (4) consumer product, and (5) interactive media.
However, in order to stand out among the competitors, Disney Company especially concentrate on their marketing strategy, their target consumers focus more on parents, the ones who always have the power of purchase an item in a family. Hence, Disney’s marketing strategy not only applies for children but also parents. The Walt Disney Company current situation on marketing takes into consideration the following characteristics as in sell more to existing customers, expand their market place, continuous promotion, tracking business, and always improve or add to existing products. Through these four main marketing plans (4Ps) by Walt Disney Company, it enable them to rank first largest media conglomerate among competitors. First of all, product strategy, Disney well known as producing high quality of products and of cause their famous brand that company has for years. Disney customized all their products with specific cartoon characters accordingly to consumers’ demand and request. Next, pricing strategy, From a consumers’ perspective, they always think of is the benefits they receive and the price they paying worth it. So in this cases, Disney’s product price are not low but compare to their competitors but the quality they used to produce a goods, it take into consideration that pricing is fair. Besides that, place strategy, a right place able to raise up the sales and maintain good sales for a long period, in turn, this means profit gained will increase too. Disney had distributed their products to worldwide for expansion market as purpose. Disney position their main attraction in a place with high flow of people, so more people familiar with the brand name. You can now found Disney’s theme park in California, Florida, Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Last but not least, promotion strategy, advertising is one of the strategies to reach larger mass media
Hong Kong Disneyland was opened in September 2005 through a joint venture between the Walt Disney International and Hong Kong government. Disney has been on an international expansion since it first opened its park in 1980 in Japan and China being the most lucrative market, Disney decided to open the park in Hong Kong after selecting the city in the bidding process. The park was the first American park in Chinese territory.
The Walt Disney Company was founded on October 16, 1923 by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney which began as a cartoon studio. Over time, the company has grown to become the world’s second largest broadcasting and cable-company in terms of revenue (Wikipedia, 2015). Disneyland was created as part of the company’s mission of bringing children and adults together, where both can have fun simultaneously. Disneyland enjoyed tremendous success in the U.S., which prompted Disney to expand its brand internationally. First, it introduced its unique brand and captured the hearts and imagination of adults and children
Hong Kong Disneyland, opened to visitors in 2005, is one of the two largest theme parks in Hong Kong. It successfully brings magical experience of Walt Disney to all the visitors just like other Disneyland around the world.
Walt Disney Company had always been successfully operating theme park until 1992. Starting in 1955 where the first Disneyland set its foot at Anaheim, California and in 1983 in Florida (Hill, 2000). While in 1983, Disney faced a true challenge as they opened the first international Disneyland in Tokyo. In a fear of wide cultural differences between American and Japanese, it turned out an unexpected massive successful Tokyo Disneyland. As a result, Disney did not hesitate to invest a big sum of money for Euro Disney in Paris.