Disney ignored the cultural differences between the US and France. Euro-Disneyland is determinedly American in its theme. There was an alcohol ban in the park despite the attitude among the French that alcohol was a fundamental right. Restaurants were, in fact, to be a showcase of American foods. The only exception to this is Fantasyland which re-creates European fables. The recipes were also vaguely adapted for European tastes. As a result, spicy foods were toned down, different coffee blends were developed with universal appeal and different regional American food was introduced to “Americanize” the park. Disney’s strict appearance code provided much turmoil and discrepancy between cultural relations. A handbook of detailed rules on acceptable clothing, hairstyles, and jewelry embroiled the company in legal and cultural dispute. This type of censorship caused the American company to look brash and insensitive to the emotional and expressive culture, individualism and privacy values of the French. French law prohibits employers from restricting individual and collective liberties unless the restrictions can be justified by the nature of the task to be accomplished and are proportional to that end. Another big challenge was getting the mostly French employees to break their norms of cultural aversions to smiling and being consistently polite to Disney guests. The individualistic French had to be assimilated into a squeaky-clean Disney image that made some employees unsatisfied and uncomfortable which ultimately lead to high turnover and heavy training costs. Proxemics also provided a significant cultural challenge with the French. Different cultures have different definitions of personal space, and the Euro-Disneyland guests faced problems of getting too close or pressing around those who left too much space between themselves and the person in front.
The American management style of universalism did not naturally fit with French particularism. Disney’s management made erroneous assumptions, due the American self-reference criterion, affected the construction design, marketing and advertising campaigns, pricing policies, park management processes and initial financing. Euro-Disneyland’s advertising was not properly geared towards the French market. Its advertising strategy of emphasizing glitz and size made the French dislike Euro-Disneyland even further. The marketing strategy used was probably the same they would have used in the United States. Their thinking was that if the US reacted favorably, then the French would surely react the same way. Management of the park was also skewed. Although there were only 23 U.S. expatriates amongst the employees, they controlled the organization and held most of the top jobs. Additionally, each senior manager had the task of choosing their European successor.
Disney’s arrogant attitude, their inability to recognize the cultural and societal influences led them to bad publicity and detrimental financial losses. When planning to do business in another market, different from your own, it is imperative to be objective, obtain as much information on the target market’s culture and history and be familiar with the global economic status and political trends. Euro-Disneyland’s management ignored the consumers, visitors, and employees background and environment. This type of cultural insensitivity had produced a bad reputation and concept that will have to be overcome. A solution to this problem would be a composite restructuring of the Euro-Disneyland model. Since there was a lot of criticism that the French culture was under the siege from America culture, more things related to the French culture can be used. Merging the French culture into Euro-Disney’s culture might portray a sense of cultural nobility. By modifying the rules for such conduct as attire, could produce higher employee satisfaction. For example, at the leisure time of employees, they can be admitted to wear in their own styles to meet their instinct. By establishing good relations with local residents, Disney can improve its public relations and company profile by offering incentives or stock to the farmers whose land is sold to Disney. Promotional activity should also be more family-oriented, not only children-oriented to further the Disney fantasy and appeal to the European culture.
