Euro Disney Case Study: Cultural Differences and Marketing

This case study analyzes the failure of Euro Disney, highlighting how cultural differences and a lack of understanding of the European market contributed to its downfall. The assignment examines the issues of ignoring local preferences, imposing American culture, and failing to adapt to European customs. The study points out the importance of considering cultural proximity in business operations. It also emphasizes the significance of understanding the local market, including factors like climate, major events, and cultural sensitivities to ensure success in international ventures. The study also delves into the specific marketing strategies that failed, such as promoting American food and imposing strict dress codes, demonstrating the impact of cultural insensitivity on a business's overall performance. The document includes references to support the analysis.

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Euro Disney which is owned jointly by a consortium of over 60 banks along with the
Walt Disney Company is a new theme park situated in the outskirts of Paris, France (Boga &
Efeoğlu, 2016). Disney chose France over 200 other locations for setting up this theme park
which ultimately seemed to be a big failure resulting in a great financial loss over $1 billion and
significantly impacting the brand’s image.
Until 1922, Walt Disney has experienced an unrivaled growth and success in the
entertainment business industry, however choosing Paris, France as their new operational
destination marked the initiation of bad luck for the company. A detailed analysis of this
situation highlighted significant problems like unsuitable climate of Paris and clash with major
events like Olympics that was held in 1922 (Hall, 2014), the very year in which Euro Disney
opened, thus significantly impacting the attendance of the visitors. However the most significant
factor attributing to this huge failure was Disney’s inability to recognize the existence of Cultural
difference in Europe.
Despite of the existence of significant cultural difference between America and Europe,
Euro Disney was completely build around American Culture. The Euro Disney advertisements
significantly upheld the glitz and glamour of the European culture significantly ignoring what
actually the European Entertainment market demanded. It was extremely foolish on part of
Disney to think that the Europeans would take a notice of leather wallpapers when the general
crowd often cannot get their regular usual breakfast or wine. Measures like imposition of strict
dress codes at Euro Disneyland which unabashedly depiction of American taste and culture such
as Short hair, banned bear and moustaches altogether seemed to be a direct insult to the French
family traditions and culture (Kaynak & Herbig, 2014). Serving American food instead of

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focusing on local cuisines, forcing Americana over the employees and staffs of the region
altogether impacted for this significant failure of Euro Disney and proved the significance of
cultural proximity in business operations.

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References:
Boga, S., & Efeoğlu, I. E. (2016). A Case Study on Cross-Cultural Differences: A Failure Story.
In International Business: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1103-
1142). IGI Global.
Hall, M. (2014). Extracting culture or injecting nature? Rewilding in transatlantic perspective.
In Old World and New World Perspectives in Environmental Philosophy (pp. 17-35).
Springer, Cham.
Kaynak, E., & Herbig, P. (2014). Handbook of cross-cultural marketing. Routledge.