Cultural Chernobyl

As we all know, the Disney company is the largest theme park in the United States and the largest theme park operator in the world. It wasn’t until 1992 that the Disney company was a huge success.But in the European market since then, they have hit a major roadblock. In this paper, Hofstede’s cultural dimension content and Trompenaars’ research on organizational culture are used to compare the cultural differences between the United States and France, and to find out the three major mistakes made by the Disney company in operating European Disney.

And three lessons to be learned. Nowadays, with the rapid development of transnational corporations, multicultural factors must become an important part of enterprise management. According to Trompenaars’ four diversity cultures. They have divided corporate culture into four categories: family, Eiffel Tower, missile and incubator. The corporate culture of the United States belongs to the third type which is guided-missile. This corporate culture is project-oriented and employees should abide by certain rules and be effective as well.

Employers pay more attention to the results of their employees’ work rather than the process. They require employees to be more loyal to their profession and projects than to the company, so the atmosphere is more serious. Compared with American corporate culture, French companies generally do not have uniform corporate culture regulations.

French companies pay more attention to the relationship between people and corporate culture, pay attention to the relationship between people, the company atmosphere is more relaxed and harmonious than American companies.

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To the French, the entrance of Disneyland in the United States was nothing short of a cultural invasion, and French communists and intellectuals even referred to the American entertainment industry as ‘cultural Chernobyl’. They even attacked in the newspaper that the original intention of establishing Disneyland in the United States was to treat children as consumers. Such exploitation stifles individualism. Disney made three mistakes in running euro Disney. First, before entering the European market, it did not take into account the cultural differences between Europe and the United States and chose France, a country with a large population in central Europe. French communists and intellectuals strongly resisted American theme parks. Secondly, in the provision of food services, not fully take into account the French dietary habits. First of all, Disney does not offer breakfast, which fails to take into account the French breakfast eating habits. Besides, they don’t serve alcoholic drinks. They are used to having a drink at lunch. Thirdly, Disney did not directly transfer American culture to France according to the standards of local people, which caused serious cultural conflicts. French workers dress more strictly, whether it is hair, clothing, beard and so have strict style requirements. But in the eyes of americans, it is ok to dress casually without being too strict. This offends the French line. Employees rose to the level of disgust required to break with their ancient culture, always smiling and politely welcoming park guests.

The French believe that the americans brought their way to France, not as a contribution to cultural diversity, but as an attack on French culture. Three lessons can be drawn from this case. First of all, before entering the market of other countries, multinational companies should make accurate positioning according to detailed market research, find out the weak links in the market and make breakthroughs, and adopt the mode of ‘point one area’ to expand. For example, when Pizza Hut entered the Chinese market, it made full preparation for the investigation of Chinese people’s taste. Adjusted the age group to attract customers. As a result, it was widely recognized by the market and became a hit in China. Secondly, transnational enterprises should fully understand the traditional culture of the other country and attach importance to the influence of cultural differences on marketing. Multinational enterprises should objectively recognize and respect the needs and behaviors of consumers with cultural differences. We should completely abandon cultural prejudice and discrimination and not force cultural indoctrination and unification.

Finally, multinational enterprises should make full use of the competitive advantages of cultural differences to promote international marketing. The goal of international cultural differences can also be the basic demand point of different competitive strategies. In the international market, cultural marketing activities, highlighting foreign cultures and cultural differences in the target market, can quickly open the market. Conclusion From the initial failure of euro Disney, we should deeply realize that cultural factors play a huge role in the overseas expansion of enterprises, and the lack of cross-cultural awareness will lead to the failure of enterprises. With the increase and deepening of economic ties, more and more attention has been paid to transnational marketing. If a multinational company fails to properly handle the cultural differences between the foreign market and the domestic market in the whole marketing management process, it will lead to a decline in profits, and it will be unable to control costs or even launch the market.