Euro Disney- Reading your customers wrong? Or ignoring them?!

Disneyland has always vividly brought good memories for me. My only visit to Disneyland was the one in Hong Kong. I remember how the then 25yr old, felt like a 10yr old running through the park wanting to not miss a single thing. Saying hi to all the princesses and taking all the fun rides. The magical experience that Disneyland created for me that day lives on in me even 8years later now! Well talk about knowing the consumer- Disney surely must be the best!

That’s sadly not the case. Euro Disney opened in Paris in 1992. In 1994, just 2 years after their opening the company ran out of cash and were speculating closure. Many things went wrong.

• Bad Timing- France in those years was amidst heated debates on cultural imperialism. The French were wary of American culture slowly choking the local one. And thus a Disneyland park just a 2 hr drive from their Center of culture(Paris) was termed as ‘cultural chernobyl’ by French critics.
• Ignorance of French meal preferences- Euro Disney had a no alcohol rule during meals just like it had in all the other theme parks. This was a big shocker to the French who always had wine or beer with lunch. The park also ignorantly assumed that meal times for the French consumer(like the American consumer) is spread through the day. All the visitors to the park lined up for lunch dot at 12:30Pm as is their custom. This lead to long queues, lack of staff and hence irritated consumers.
• Disrespect for French staff. The park wanted certain dressing etiquette’s which required the staff to have ‘ Disney’ look. This meant that the staff couldn’t have no beard/ moustache and needed them to have hair cuts of a certain length. This is illegal according to the French labour laws. They also expected the staff to work for long hours and then accumulate their holidays together. This goes against the way French people work – they usually work for set given hours each day. Disrespect for the way French staff works led to huge strikes and staff turnover.

Euro Disney seems to be a classic example of when companies don’t even talk to the consumers before bringing the product out. To top it all, the name Euro Disney also didn’t sit well for the consumers- for them Euro is related to money. Imagine Disney opening a Rupee Disney in India or a Yuan Disney in China! They misjudged the pulse of the market and ignored the consumer leading to a possible shutdown of a million dollar project.

Was it possible to do this in a better way? Of course!

• I am a firm believer of bottom up approach. Considering Disney is a cartoon character company, they should have used cartoon characters close to the French – this would have lead to a better connection with the theme park. It is the parents who are responsible in booking tickets, French cartoon characters would have surely brought back happy memories and thus created a positive mindset towards the theme park.
• The most basic step that Disney could have done was to hire French employees in the Euro Disney management. This would have saved them from the goof ups with the French staff and then consequent strikes.
• In my experience I have seen products that are piloted for 2 years before a final launch. This saves too much investment and helps learn from the initial mistakes. I know it’s tough to do this in a theme park setup, but a pilot run of a portion of the park would have saved them from both monetary loss and a bad first experience for all the consumers.