International Business: Disney's Market Entry Challenges in China

This essay examines the challenges Disney faced when expanding its business into China, focusing on the cultural and market entry barriers encountered. It discusses how Disney's initial offerings, rooted in Western culture, were not readily accepted by Chinese consumers, leading to resistance and criticism. The essay details the difficulties Disney faced with government censorship, intellectual property rights, and competition from local companies. It then analyzes how Disney adapted its strategy by identifying opportunities in the rising middle class and producing localized educational materials and movies. The company's shift towards English language centers and the integration of Chinese cultural elements are highlighted as key components of its successful adaptation. The essay concludes that Disney's ability to rethink its consumer needs and adjust its business model was crucial for its survival and growth in the Chinese market, emphasizing the importance of understanding local preferences in international business.

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Introduction
Disney is a world-famous multinational company headquartered in USA. It offers theme
parks, toys, books, video games and other entertainment productions. Upon expanding its
business to China, the company had faced various challenges as it was not accepted by the
Chinese masses (Fish 2016). The purpose of this essay is analyzing one or more challenges faced
by international business; it discusses the nature of issues faced and the actions taken by the
business to support the discussion.
Discussion
When Disney first entered to Chinese market, it was resisted as the films and
entertainment programs offered by Disney had western culture passed through it. It led to believe
among the Chinese masses that Disney has attempted to control the thoughts of Chinese from the
West. Various western elements used in the offering of Disney had affected the Chinese families.
The world famous company had to face various barriers and challenges for setting its business in
China (Rondinelli 2013). The western influences brought in by Disney had caused tensions
among the Chinese politicians as well as the Chinese masses and common families. The country
elites had campaigns to restrict the western influence in the deep routed traditional culture of
China. It faced various accusations about infiltrating western values in the Chinese society. The
subscription app was blocked for many months in China. These reflect the challenges that were
faced by Disney in operating the Chinese marketplace. The DVD privacy was undermining the
company’s efforts. The local competitors of China were remaking the same movies at a lower
cost; the government censors board had it removed various sections from the movies before

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releasing. It faced major challenges and difficulties in operating in the Chinese market (Pecora
and Lustyik 2011).
The difficulties and challenges made the company’s management rethink its business
strategy for China. The company tactfully identified that its opportunities laid in the rise of the
country’s middle class, as the annual disposal income had risen (Luo and Tung 2017). The
company started producing educational materials and movies for its market. It has taken a bolder
approach for marketing in China. It realized that parents of the children would be more inclined
towards spending their saving to secure the best education for their children. Therefore, Disney
started making English learning more entertaining. It required localizing its materials and
contents in language centers. It was seen that Disney characters were already being used in
English teaching schools reflecting its rise in demand (Lai-Ling Lam 2011). Further, increase in
the annual income and rise in the population of middle class people had created an opportunity
for the company. These were some of the points while considering the price for Disney.
It order to expand its market globally, business organizations need to create a consistent
and strong brand culture. The major challenges that can be faced by global marketing are
language and cultural barriers. Therefore, companies need to overcome this barrier by instilling
local materials and ensuring that the product or service is appealing to the local consumers. The
local preferences of the consumers must be taken into consideration. Understanding the needs
and preference of the local consumer, will help the company to identify the product portfolio and
build a detailed marketing for penetrating the local market and ensure future diversification
(Hoecklin 2015). Gradually, Disney implemented the plans for opening various English
Language centers in Shanghai; it had English schools in different cities of China (Koehler 2017).
However, it had to follow certain standards given by the educational authorities. The movies and

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materials must be based on Chinese traditional fables and songs. Although Mickey Mouse was
the theme, and the entrance and the chairs had Mickey’s face craved on them. The language was
taught by native English speakers.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that Disney has reinvented its strategy and its china
business model along with a new product strategy to overcome the different business challenges
faced. If the company had carried out with its old marketing approaches like extensive customer
surveys, client focus group and present distributors, it would not have been able to survive and
resulted in little insight. Thriving in the international market requires rethinking the consumer
needs and involves a radical adjustment as per the activities, attitudes in a particular market.

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References
Fish, A., 2016 Cultural diversity: challenges facing the management of cross-border business
careers. Career Development International, 4(4), pp.196-205.
Hoecklin, L., 2015. Managing cultural differences. Addison Wesley Longman.
Koehler, M., 2017. The unique FCPA compliance challenges of doing business in China. Wis.
Int'l LJ, 25, p.397.
Lai-Ling Lam, M., 2011. Challenges of sustainable environmental programs of foreign
multinational enterprises in China. Management Research Review, 34(11), pp.1153-1168.
Luo, Y. and Tung, R.L., 2017. International expansion of emerging market enterprises: A
springboard perspective.
Pecora, N. and Lustyik, K., 2011. Media regulation and the international expansion of
Nickelodeon. Journal of Children and Media, 5(01), pp.4-19.
Rondinelli, D.A., 2013. Resolving US-China trade conflicts: Conditions for trade and investment
expansion in the 1990s. Columbia Journal of World Business, 28(2), pp.66-82.