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When opening a business in an international realm, one must examine many factors including cultural differences and geographical locations. When opening a business in a foreign nation, one must examine the need for the product being offered, the acceptance of the product into the culture, and the most effective means of advertising. Disney opened its doors in Japan with much success; much of the success can be attributed to the Japanese culture being very fond of Disney characters. Disney decided to take the same methodology to Paris to open its new park in 1992, EuroDisney (Cateora & Graham, 2007).
Disney failed to realize that while its strategy in Japan worked for Japan, its Japan strategy was not going to work in Paris. Disney decided to photo copy their operation and learned that was not acceptable. In 1992, several unforeseen issues arose that Disney was not prepared to handle. There were transatlantic airfare wars and currency movements that lead people to avoid traveling to Paris. Also, Disney was expecting a flocking of French people to visit the park; yet again basing their assumptions on the performance of the Japanese park (Cateora & Graham, 2007).
The French had resentment against the American fairy tale characters because they had their own to love. However, the Japanese had great admiration for the American icons. Disney advertised their park with an emphasis on the size and glamour of "the Disney experience" rather than showing the French their exciting rides and attractions. Disney wanted to out do any other French attraction and wanted it on their terms; the French do not react well to arrogant Americans (Cateora & Graham, 2007).
For example, French people dine with wine at every meal; Disney outlawed alcohol at their park, a blatant disrespect of French culture. Disney had to build kennels for park goers pets, and relax their restrictions on personal grooming, such as red finger nail polish for women. Disney continued to design and build EuroDisney to their liking and profit hopes. For instance, Disney was told that Europeans did not eat breakfast so they designed their restaurants to reflect this belief; when the people started showing up for a bacon and eggs breakfast Disney was unprepared (Cateora & Graham, 2007).
Also, Disney was accustomed to American visitors having a three day vacation to a park; where as the French experience was two days at most.
Given the character that treatment of Native populations by European Imperialist and their descendants (the United States, in particular) has historically taken, is the Walt Disney Company a tool of racial and/or cultural hegemony? Certainly, the Walt Disney Company is no stranger to accusations of racism stemming from repeated negative portrayals of non-white characters in movies spanning across the many decades of the company’s history: African-Americans in Song of the South (1946), and American Indians in Peter Pan (1953). It seems as though the Walt Disney Company is unconcerned with these accusations, as evidenced by its recent portrayal of Carib Indians in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006). The name “Carib” was not used in the movie (the fictional name “Pelegostos” was used instead); however, whether the “Pelegostos” (Pelegostos is placed in quotation marks to indicate the name as euphemistic for Carib) were intended to represent Carib Indians or not, the Caribs, themselves, believed they were (Williams). As demonstrated by its persistently dehumanizing portrayal of non-white characters, the Walt Disney Company perpetuates the Euro (white)-centric lie discussed in Kathryn Anne Hudepohl’s article, “Consuming Culture: Extralocal Exchanges and Kalinago Identity on Dominica”: “500 years of
...rtatious, and mainly associated with food. Even the character names such as "Cherie and Lumiere" of "Beauty and the Beast" promotes the romantic nature that the French are stereotyped for. Through the representation of this culture, children would only learn to associate the mentioned stereotypes toward the French and only that. They would not consider other characteristics that the French are also known for, not necessarily the romance and the great French cuisine that we already know of. Having said this, what Disney produced as a harmless depiction of the French, could furthermore fuel of what could be viewed as a limiting representation of the French culture.
In communication, Disney is most vulnerable in public and government relationships. Eisner developed in proposal of a new theme land near the national capital; however the ideal property was on historical and important property within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Destroying history in order to make potential profit did not stick with citizen and land effect of the idea.
Disney is a company that almost everybody has either seen, heard about, or been to. Throughout the years that Disney has been making movies, some people have been saying that Disney shows stereotyping through their movies. Even though some people do not notice these stereotyping images, some people do notice them and do get very offended. Disney has been around since the early 1920`s when “Walt signed a contract with M. J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies — this date is considered the start of the Disney company first known as The Disney Brothers Studio”(Wikipedia 3). In the past, Disney has had many different claims about stereotyping, but nothing was really done about the issues. Despite claims that Disney invents perfect role models for children, Disney actually creates their characters based upon stereotypes.
Walt Disney stated “it all started with a mouse.” Little did Mr. Disney know what an empire his name and his mouse would create all while having such a large impact on American culture and society. Disney has proven a brand with iconic characters and images that he was able to create a connection with not only the average American family, but also allowed other cultures to have the same connection and experience. Disney’s characters had the ability to be recognize by a large number of people, allowing Disney to have a broad market to serve making the park a safe and comfortable place for large audience of American families, while other parks limited their target audience to young adults and
...ion, Disneyland came to be through three events; the childhood of Walt Disney, the idea for an amusement park, and the building of this “better than real” (Hass 162) place.
Smith, Caroline. “The Not So Wonderful Word of Disney.” University of Alabama Arts & Sciences Department. Retrieved 13 Dec. 2013 from < http://www.english.uga.ed u/fyc/barnett/smith2006-07.pdf>.
A basic of Disney theme parks is the Main Street USA zone. This section features highly in all of the parks, usually coming right after the entrance. Key services like Guest Relations are located in this section, inside the "City Hall" (HK Disney Source, 2014). There are a number of elements to the Main Street, USA exhibit, and these will be discussed along with the history of Main Street USA in this paper. In particular, how the different elements of Main Street USA work together are covered. The concept has proven to be long-lasting, even across cultures, because of its magical portrayal of idealized American life, which draws heavily on Walt Disney's own childhood experiences.
Presently, Disney known for its mass media entertainment and amusement parks technically bring warm feelings to many children and some adults. Personally, Disney elicits magical fantasies that children enjoy and further encourages imagination and creativity. For decades Disney has exist as an unavoidable entity with its famous global sensation and reach. Furthermore, Disney is a multibillion dollar empire with an unlimited grasp on individuals and territories. An empire per se, since they own many media outlets, markets, shops, etc., you name it they got it. However, the film Mickey Mouse Monopoly presents an entirely new perspective on the presumed innocence projected in Disney films. This film exposes certain traits Disney employs and exclusively portrays through its media productions, specifically cartoons for directing and nurturing influence beginning with children. Mickey Mouse Monopoly points out camouflaged messages of class, race, and gender issues in Disney films that occur behind the scenes intended to sway viewers towards adopting Disney values.
Sorkin’s begins his article by arguing the widespread of the new urbanism, which had accomplished over the course of the 20th century. He says that by visiting the themed park, the Disneyland as a destination illustrates the preference of the themed environment above the authentic one. Where as Davis’s article brought exciting social thoughts to the topic of SeaWorld and the other nature themed parks.
Disneyland marked the onset of theme parks in the nation, which was carved out of a fantasy tale and it has been the leader for 60 years. And, there was virtually no competition to the attraction quotient that attracted people and tourists to visit the theme park.
People have always had empathy and Disneyland movies and the theme park changed the way that they ran those things. The opening of Disneyland impacted America in the 1950s since it allowed adults to experience a child’s imagination and its continued importance today can be seen through everything in life. How does Disneyland impact society? Walt Disney had a vision: a place where children and adults could experience what it would feel like to be in a real life fairy tale and let their imagination run wild. When Disneyland opened its gates in 1955, came the change America wanted super badly, to be able to experience a real life Utopia for only one dollar. It changed the way the world saw not only amusements parks, but also a child’s imagination.
When it first opened, there was moderate controversy over the lack of African American employees. Since 1963, civil rights activists have pressured Disneyland to hire people of different races to make the park more diverse. Back then Disneyland had a number of temporary rides and shows that passed through rather quickly. This was because the park only had about half the number of attractions it has now. When Disneyland first opened guests were charged separately for admission to the park and attraction tickets. According to the website mouseplanet accessed on November 16 2015, “Adults could get into the park for $1 and rides cost between 10-30 cents.” Since its opening, Disneyland has undergone a number of expansions and major renovations. This includes the addition of New Orleans Square in 1966, Bear Country in 1972, and Mickey's Toontown in 1993. As stated in the article Then and Now on the pbs website accessed on November 16 2015, “Tickets to enter the park now cost around $85.00.” Since the opening the park has restored many classic attractions such as Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, and the Haunted
But the Disney theme park located just outside Paris did not consider several managerial issues as well as consumer preferences. Walt Disney found Chinese population very lucrative and wanted to open a theme park somewhere around China. After two American parks and one Japanese park, they wanted to avail of the Chinese market which was previously unexplored. Disneyland, after initial talks with Hong Kong government, eliminated any other possibility of majority ownership so that they could invest on management and fees of franchise from their first-cut profits. Finally, Walt Disney had a management team of long experience of dealing with almost all the large and developed markets around the world. With the unparalleled resources and capital they already had, they could easily conduct proper market research before diving into the market in Hong
For decades Disney has been the source of happy endings, fairytales, and family friendly stories for children of all ages. These stories range from realistic and familiar, to the eye-catching magical fairytale. The key to each of these stories are the happy endings brought about by each of the characters unique personalities and dreams. Disney’s films are attempted to provide children with the basic understanding of wrong versus right, but instead influences our society’s beliefs and awareness. Although Disney’s efforts to provide the basic morals to our children are misleading and affect our society strongly, they also contain the use of racism in a form which shows the major differences between characters. The once admired and well-known characters are seemed to be recognized by their species, ethnicity and even their social class. Disney films have taken out of context and have persuaded their viewers understanding of racial stereotyping, which is thoroughly explained in Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock’s novel, The Mouse that Roared. They bring awareness to the underlying racial stereotyping in Disney films, which deeply affect our societies understanding today. Giroux and Pollock bring into perception these admired and regularly watched films through precise examples and racist rendering of the specific characters species and ethnicities which strongly influence our society and lead children to intake these negative influences.