A Case Study of

Service Design &

Processes
Piotr Robert Kanonowicz
Sikha Bagaria
Goh Hao Xuan Bernard
Joash Yeo Zhongjie
Prepared by:
Malay Girish Gala
Introduction 3
Framework Analyses 3
SERVQUAL Analysis 5
Evaluation of Service Gaps 7
Recommendations 9
Limitations 13
Case Takeaways 14
Table of Contents
Introduction
In the early 1980s, the Walt Disney Company conceptualized the idea of a European theme
park and resort, inferring the international appeal of the Disney concept from Tokyo Disneyland.
In 1987, an agreement was signed between the Walt Disney Company and the Government of
France to locate the complex, just outside Paris. The company hoped to benet from the central
location of France, the vacationing practices of Europeans, and the greater population of
Europeans.
EuroDisney opened in Marne-la-Valle on 12 April 1992, with a capacity of 50,000 visitors
and 29 different attractions. Financial forecasts for the rst year of operation predicted an income
of $373 million.
The company also planned a Phase II project for EuroDisney, adding the Disney-MGM
Studios Park and additional 13,000 hotel rooms with a projected budget of about $3 billion. The
Phase II complex opened in 1996.
Despite being centrally located in a market with great potential, EuroDisney faced a lot of
difculties with respect to the design and delivery of its service. On 22 July 1992 the EuroDisney
shares on the French Bourse dropped about 2.75% bringing the total drop since the opening of the
park to 31%. The park was also widely criticized in the French press.
Notable competitors for EuroDisney at the time include Parc Asterix and Mirabilandia. Parc
Asterix was opened in 1989 in Plailly, France, based on the popular French cartoon Asterix and
Obelix. The park was signicantly smaller than EuroDisney but also more affordable. It also
introduced rides based upon the historic Greek and Roman civilizations. Mirabilandia was opened
in Ravenna, Northern Italy in July 1992 after EuroDisney. It is considered as one of the most
memorable European theme parks, despite being smaller than EuroDisney.
In this report, we will detail the factors, both external and internal, that inuenced
EuroDisneys service design, identify the service gaps that resulted in such a design and make
suitable recommendations to close these gaps.
Framework Analyses
PEST Analysis:
Political Factors
The Government of France extended their whole-hearted support to EuroDisney by
extending highways and metropolitan railways to the site, building a high-speed TGV train
extension, reducing the value-added tax on goods from 18.6% to 7% and providing over $960
million in loans at a subsidized interest rate with no repayment for the rst ve years. Also, the
government agreed to articially value the land at $5000 per acre and guaranteed it for tax
purposes for the next 20 years. All of these factors helped the Walt Disney Company circumvent
numerous bureaucratic hurdles which they might have faced otherwise and lower costs through
tax breaks and subsidies.
On the other hand, intellectuals from the Left criticized EuroDisney for having too
Americanized an experience. They considered EuroDisney a culturally imperialist entity that
would promote an unhealthy American culture of consumerism in the French society.

Economic Factors
During 1991-92, Europe was experiencing signs of an economic recession. This made cost
advantages in the European market even more important. The economic situation also meant that
EuroDisney found it relatively easier to recruit employees, as many people were out of their jobs.
At the same time, since disposable incomes were shrinking, it was difcult to attract visitors at $41
per adult and $27 per child for one day at EuroDisney.

Social Factors
The standardized and commercialized nature of EuroDisney was in contrast with the
normally intellectual, individualistic and private nature of the French populace. The company
promoted the theme park as an English-speaking destination in France, which could have
offended the French, as they hold their language in very high esteem. Also, the alcohol ban meant
that wine would not be served at eateries, which might be construed as a snub to the French
tradition of wine making and appreciation.
At the same time, nding and recruiting bilingual employees was a problem. Even after
recruiting employees, there were numerous restrictions on facial hair, clothing, grooming and even
undergarments, which may not have pleased the individualistic employees.
The image of the park reected to the clientele was unclear, as it was simultaneously
attempting to appeal to three different customers the French, the Americans and the Europeans.
Popular Disney characters were placed conspicuously in traditionally European settings like
French Inns.
For all these and other reasons, EuroDisney was not successful in achieving the right t of
both employees and customers to its own image. This was in stark contrast to the t found with
Tokyo Disneyland. Contributing to this was also the fact that EuroDisney did not possess a
singular corporate identity as a result of attempts to appeal to a mixed clientele.

4 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT

Figure 1: A Summary of driving and restraining forces surrounding EuroDisneys path to service excellence
Luroulsney
Servlce
Lxcellence
CovL. LncouragemenL
urlvlng lorces
asL Successes
MarkeL oLenual
CulLure-sensluve lrench
Mlxed cllenLele
WelghL of LxpecLauons
SLamng roblems
8esLralnlng lorces

Companys Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

SERVQUAL Analysis
We evaluated the service quality of EuroDisney based on the ve dimensions suggested by
the rened RATER model by Zeithaml and Berry (1990).
Reliability
Being an established brand known to many across the world, Walt Disneys reputation in
the theme park industry has been highly regarded and is seen as the premium standard of theme
park enjoyment. As a brand extension of Disney, Euro Disney therefore had existing expectations
placed by the public as the upcoming and newest theme park in Europe. In terms of Disneys (and
thereby Euro Disney) promise to exceed its customers expectations every day, our group
strongly felt that Euro Disney has succeeded in achieving that stated goal thus far. Ranging from
handling operational issues and marketing efforts to cross-training managers and employees on
service standards, Euro Disney has indeed well performed their promise in a competent manner
on a daily basis.

Strengths:
-Strong reputation
-Good brand name
-Financially Strong
-Continuous Improvement
Weakness:
-Cultural imperialism
-High price
- Employee dissatisfaction
Opportunities:
-New markets
-Learning local culture &
implementing them
Threats:
-Franc value appreciating
-Gulf War
-Recession
5 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
Table 1: Summary of Companys SWOT
However, it must be highlighted that there other existing issues that plagued Euro Disney,
one of which would be the infringement of the French culture and identity. Due to differences in
identities that the park adopted, both employees and customers felt aloof in the Disney culture.
This mist therefore shook sturdy perceptions of Euro Disney as a reliable source of European
theme park enjoyment, as well as a quality service provider.

Responsiveness
Taking into consideration the limited context of the case material, Euro Disney was seen to
be mostly willing to help and to provide prompt service to its customers. As a quality theme park
operator, many would deem Euro Disney to be procient in their service standards, expressing
willingness and responsiveness as part of their role.

However, it was noted that some cast members did not bother with being courteous and
nice even on Euro Disneys opening weekend. This clearly brings to light that there were certain
urgent issues on the employee level that the company had to quickly resolve in order to be
perceived as a responsive service provider and reinstated as a company that customers trust in
handling their needs. Without focusing on restoring the damages done on this particular
dimension, Euro Disney will possibly face a multitude of problems in managing the different
needs of their customers, notwithstanding the fact that most of them come from all over Europe
with different cultures and languages.

Assurance
As a service provider of family-focused theme park enjoyment, many perceive and trust that
Disney is indeed a brand that caters and satises customers needs like no other. Euro Disney was
able to ride on such a rich lineage of culture and branding, that many in France (85% of the
population) welcomed Euro Disney as a theme park in 1988. In this particular dimension of
service quality, it is crucial to note that in such a high-risk environment with towering rides and
attractions, Euro Disney needs to inspire trust and condence in its customers to communicate
safety and reliability as the foundations in all that the company does.

One salient point that the case touched on, was the fact that employees of Euro Disney could
not fully comprehend the values of the company, let alone tting in the culture. Hence, this
snowballed and was translated through their actions to the customers, where they lacked to
appropriately and sufciently inspire trust and condence in customers. An example of a negative
vibe would be the presence of unsmiling security men supervising customers who consumed
alcoholic beverages outside the theme park.

Empathy
Euro Disney had a moderate level of understanding of the different needs and expectations
of their customers. Indeed, the company did adequate market research on setting the tone of the
resort a move attempted to assimilate in to the European culture. However, Euro Disney failed to
6 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
fully understand what individual customers truly want, as depicted by examples of mismatched
pricing, culture of the theme park and language differences.

Our group strongly feels that as a service provider, Euro Disney should emphasize on
building relationships with their customers, not only to increase positive associations but to enter
in to a relationship that reect deep understanding of each customers preferences. Through this
way, special attention is given to the customers, to make them feel included in Euro Disneys
culture. This would generally give rise to a better customer experience, surpassing mere
satisfaction of needs and wants, and hence delivering on their stated promise as mentioned earlier.

Tangibles
For this service dimension, it is clearly seen from the case that Euro Disney customers were
generally satised with the theme park, with observations that made positive reviews of the
service. On the ip side, the same observations reected poor service tangibles such as long
waiting lines, operational glitches and poor servicescape part of the cumulative effect that
formed the overall customer experience at Euro Disney.

To build a better, stronger and more favorable customer experience, Euro Disney should
model after similar Disney theme parks (World Disney theme park, and Tokyo Disneyland) to
tackle such problems with service tangibles. It is part of managing their operations, and taking
such feedback to further improve the service quality for the ultimate end user the customer. We
uphold the belief that in such an environment, physical tangibles are a clear indication of how well
Euro Disney delivers its promise, exceeds expectations and how effective their servicescape is as a
theme park. Without a procient level of tangibles, Euro Disney would be judged poorly in the
perceptions of customers, resulting in a downward spiral of negative associations and eventually a
lower reputation.

Evaluation of Service Gaps
Service Provider Gap 1: Listening
The listening gap arises due to the difference in the customer gap and perception. In the case
of EuroDisney , there was a huge gap between the customer perception and expectation.
EuroDisney had not conducted adequate market research to understand the economic situation in
France/Paris. Hence, they opened up the park in 1992 during economic recession. Had they
conducted research on the economic status, and known that the Frac has been appreciating and
France was going through a recession, they could have re-scheduled the opening of the park
which would have attracted more Europeans.
Disneyland is based on American culture. And it is known that the French are very
traditional and are proud of their culture and language and they werent able to accept the
American culture based theme park. Thus, we can safely say that there was inadequate market
research orientation.
7 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
The case study also reveals that there were problems with the communication between
front-line employees and the upper management. This is a serious problem as the lack of upward
communication results in the upper management not knowing what complaints the staff receive
from the guests and thus are not able to work on it.
One of the other problems we have noted was that EuroDisney failed to have a focused
relationship with the customers. They did not target a specic group of Europeans and just tried to
attract all the Europeans. They focused more on the transactions than the relationship with the
customers.

Service Provider Gap 2: Service Design
Despite being one of the largest theme parks in Europe,with a capacity of 50,000 people in
the park at any instance, EuroDisney showed evidence of poor service design. The park was
designed in a way which entailed having long waiting lines. EuroDisney followed the same
design as they had for Tokyo Disneyland. But the problems arises because the Japanese were
patient and did not mind waiting in long queues for the ride, but, the French on the other hand
were not patient at all. They were not willing to wait in long lines.
There was an absence of customer driven standards. EuroDisney failed to take into account
the culture of the Europeans which was very pro alcohol and wine consumption. The park did not
allow people to consume wine inside the park. This was a shock to the French as they see
consuming alcohol as a common practice in all leisure venues. Since EuroDisney did not allow the
consumption of alcohol, they French were not too happy.
Physical evidence is very important in a theme park. EuroDisney tried to mix the French
traditional culture with the Disney characters. For example, Cinderella was seen living in a French
Inn. We believe that the physical evidence was inappropriate as mixing the American and French
tradition backred. The French were not too happy to see a different version of their traditional
stories.

Service Provider Gap 3: Service Delivery
Employees are one of the most important individuals in the park. They are the ones who are
in direct contact with the customers. In the case of EuroDisney, the employees were not recruited
properly. There was a deciency in the Human Resource policy. There was a mismatch of the
employee t. The employees were out of their depth and did not know which language they were
going to be addressed in, French or English, and thus they were not able to meet the customer
requirements which caused problems with the service delivery.
One of the problems that caused a difculty in the service delivery was the failure to match
supply and demand. Although the park was large enough to cater 50,000 guests, there were times
when there were only 20,000 guests and most of the times there were about 60,000 guests. Due to
the failure to match the supply and demand, several guests were not allowed to enter the park.
This is a failure to deliver the service.
Also, the Europeans were not suited to be theme park customers in the context of waiting
lines, the customers of the park were not fullling their roles. Some felt that the French were too
8 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
individualistic and private to appreciate the standardized and crowded Disney theme park
experience.
If the Europeans would have adjusted and waited in the lines without making a fuss and
being self-centered, the park experience could have been enjoyed by all the customers. For
example, Scandinavians appear quite content to wait for rides; the southern Europeans seem to
have made an Olympic event out of this.

Service Provider Gap 4: Communication
The communication gap arises due to the difference between the service delivered to the
customers and the promise of the rm to the customers about its service quality.
From the case we can see that there was a lack of integrated marketing communications. The
park was not marketed well for the winter seasons. The park had heated lanes which would make
waiting for the rides much more comfortable. However, this was downplayed and was not
communicated to the customers well. This led to a fall in number of customers in the winter
season. Also, more importantly, Disneyland theme parks are more of a family based theme park.
This was not effectively communicated to the Europeans. The data suggests that most of the
customers were adults and not children.

EuroDisney also advertised themselves as an affordable theme park, however, this was not
true. The French thought that the entry fee was quite expensive. Thus, it was not communicated to
the customers and potential customers well that Disneyland Paris is an exclusive theme park and
thus has a higher price as compared to the other theme parks in Europe. Overpromising led to
dissatisfaction which was not in favor of EuroDisney.

Disneyland being a very big tourist attraction, attracted people from various countries and
thus were of different nationalities. The employees had communicating with these customers.
Also, there were several employees from different nationalities and spoke different languages.
Thus, there was inadequate horizontal communication within the employees which led to many
communication problems and bad service recovery.

All service companies believe that it is very important to manage Customer expectations. If
the expectations of the customers are met, the customer will be satised. However, EuroDisney
did not effectively manage their customers expectations. It failed to incorporate the French
concept of leisure which included relaxing and sipping wine while enjoying the rides at the theme
park. Other theme parks such as Mirabilandia, which opened up during the same time in Europe
did better in managing the customer expectation in terms of allowing consumption of alcohol in
the park premises.
Recommendations
In view of all the problems and issues that EuroDisney has faced since its opening, our
group has formulated recommendations that are targeted towards the root problems that
9 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
EuroDisney is facing. The following recommendations suggested are categorized according to the
different service gaps.



Listening Gap
Internal & External Feedback
Our group proposes to establish a formal communication channel of feedback internally
within the company as well as externally with the public. As previously mentioned, EuroDisney
faced a lack of upward communication where employees nd it difcult to provide feedback to
their managers simply because of the lack of any communication channels in the company. We
understand that communication plays a pivotal role in any organization, and would be crucial in
integrating the company across the departments to serve its overall purpose of satisfying
customers. Hence, we would want to introduce Buzz Sessions at the start and end of each day
within each of EuroDisneys sub-departments to garner feedback from employees that are on the
ground. Managers would then be able to lay out clear expectations before the start of each day and
would be able to re-align structures and act on any feedback given by the employees at the end of
each day.

Externally, customer relationship ofcers should be deployed on the ground for two
purposes. They would rst be catalysts in assimilating the public into EuroDisneys fantasy
culture, as well as soliciting feedback from them on their customer service experience. Both of
these recommendations bridge the listening gap of EuroDisney as a service provider and
positively build good culture.

Service Design Gap
Increased flexibility
To tackle the problems of poor service design, our group strongly adheres to the fact that
there should be a high degree of exibility incorporated into the blueprint of the service design.
EuroDisney should adapt to customer-driven standards in designing their theme parks. One
example would be an issue of long waiting lines, whereby incorporating a system that displays the
waiting time for each attraction would serve to adequately inform customers of the estimated
queue time, and would efciently direct crowd trafc to the other attractions a system that self-
balances and corrects any potential problems of congested waiting lines.

Fixed Disney identity
EuroDisney struggled to nd an identity that accurately portrayed its existence in France.
Our group strongly believes that EuroDisney must implement a xed Disney identity that is
physically reected in its attractions to convey the true authentic Disney tradition and culture.
10 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
Hence, by removing the French identity from its theme park, EuroDisney will be clear on its
Disney identity, without being confused over infusing the French culture in its attractions. This
must be evaluated carefully as our group understands that the French are deeply ingrained in
their culture and expect EuroDisney to accurately reect the French identity. However, it must be
rmly highlighted that the sole purpose of why EuroDisney was located in France was because it
was seen as an appropriate central location in Europe. EuroDisneys main purpose as a theme
park to provide enjoyment still stands, catering to the whole of Europe and not just France. Hence,
we strongly feel that EuroDisney should not compromise on its traditional identity simply because
of mere objections by the French.

Service Delivery Gap
Stringent selection of employees
Our group feels that EuroDisney should implement a higher and more stringent approach
in selecting its employees or cast members. Some of the standards that EuroDisney can consider
would be to select employees that are expressively willing to be aligned to Disneys culture, are
effective in portraying EuroDisneys culture and condent of speaking and switching between
English and French. This would specically target previous problems of not knowing what
language employees would be addressed in by the public. In addition, employees that are aligned
to EuroDisneys culture can be more effective drivers in aligning the perception of customers
with the fantasy world that EuroDisney provides. This will improve the service delivery
experience as a whole and would improve the perceptions of the public.


Treating employees as customers
As a service provider, it is always important to treat employees well so that they in turn
would be able to treat the customers well. In any organization, employees are constantly
interacting with the customers on the ground. In essence, they are the face of the company, the rst
contact point and the ones that customers form the rst impression. Hence, in highly interactive
contexts such as EuroDisneys theme parks, employees and cast members are crucial in portraying
a positive image and reputation to theme park goers. By rst providing welfare and taking care of
their employees, EuroDisney would be able to satisfy their needs and the benets reaped will
eventually roll out on to its customers in terms of excellent service delivery.

Communication Gap
Cross fertilization of ideas
Cross-fertilization of ideas essentially integrates the different departments in EuroDisney
and concurrently bridges gaps between marketing channels. By implementing a culture of idea
sharing as well as integration, such a strategy would enable EuroDisney to further penetrate in to
the European market, gaining not only a larger market awareness but also market loyalty. This has
11 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
to be managed efciently and properly in order to position EuroDisney effectively among the
Europeans, where many of them are seemingly more private and more individualized, retracting
from crowds and standardization that are seen in the theme park.

Reframing advertisements
Our group feels that a service provider such as EuroDisney should never over-promise and
under deliver or under-promise and over deliver in an attempt to portray a good service. There
should always be a balance in what a provider promises and does. Therefore, we felt that
advertisements from EuroDisney should be repositioned in the manner of promoting positive
tangibles such as exhilarating rides or unique fantasy themes and downplay or minimize
exposure of negative tangibles such as the expensive prices of admission tickets. Through this
way, EuroDisney would be able to tackle the perception of its customers as part of their peripheral
decision making to be attracted to EuroDisney at any cost.

Reframing communication to customers
In terms of communicating its standards to its customers, EuroDisney should re-examine at
their current tactics being employed at their theme park. Taking into consideration of how wine is
part of the European culture, EuroDisney should constantly focus on creating an environment that
is appropriate and pleases its customers. One of the recommendations that we propose include the
complete stand down of the riot police and security guards to remove any bad experiences that
customers face while consuming alcoholic beverages outside the theme park. Through this,
EuroDisney would be able to reposition their ways of communicating their standards more
effectively to its customers to create a wholesome and pleasant experience for its customers.

Other recommendations
Aggressive marketing efforts
With unpreparedness in promoting the theme park for the winter season, one way that
EuroDisney could solve this would be to employ aggressive marketing tactics to boost the
attractiveness of EuroDisney during winter. Closely modeling after how Tokyo Disney marketed
and managed their theme park during winter, EuroDisney could co-ride and co-brand on Tokyo
Disneys success and market its attractions to the European market. One of the suggested ways
would be to offer unique winter rides, themes and special price bundles and packages that are
only made available during the winter season. This would effectively engage the Europeans by
leveraging on reasons of exclusivity and would thereby boost the attractiveness of the theme park.

Sponsoring events
To build its image, reputation as well as goodwill among the French or in general the
Europeans, we suggest sponsoring events that are on a national scale. This will help to improve
public relations, and would position EuroDisney in a good standing in the eyes of the Europeans.

12 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
Evaluation of recommendations
By further examining our recommendations, we would want to factor the degree of
feasibility as well as appropriateness of our suggestions. In essence, every recommendation given
above effectively points towards and solves each targeted problem. However, we would
downplay the ease of implementing the efforts of revamping EuroDisneys identity in to a
traditional Disney identity, not diluted by the French identity. Macro political and social
perspectives must be carefully considered, in particular the position where EuroDisney currently
stands with respect to the French and its government. Implementing a strict one-identity
throughout its theme park might further aggravate the already increasing dissentient opinions of
the French and might pose as complete failure should it be implemented. Instead, EuroDisney
should tackle the French perceptions rst before gradually transiting in to an all Disney identity.

Limitations
While the case detailed the challenges of the company from multiple perspectives of the
service, our group has identied limiting factors that mitigate the circumstances of EuroDisneys
problems. EuroDisney suffered from:
1. A reasonable lack of frame of reference with competitors,
2. A lack of representative quantitative research that substantiated the case ndings.

Lack of competitive frame of reference
11 million visitors in the rst year. Ideal attendance rates during the Fall and Winter season.
Such expectations of EuroDisney were preceded by the successes of both the original Disneyland
and Tokyo Disneyland. While the case emphasized on cultural differences as a signicant
contributor to the performance problems of EuroDisney, our group feels that success of
EuroDisney is better dened as its performance relative to its competitors within Europe. At the
opening of Disneyland Paris in 1992, there was nothing in the region that could compare. While
there were noteworthy competitors like Parc Asterix (18 ha) and MiraBilandia (30 ha), none of
them were operating at the scale of
EuroDisney (1942 ha).
There are some possible
benets of a reasonable competitive
frame of reference. For one,
EuroDisney could compare with
hotels and resorts in the Ile-De-
France region to accurate estimate
visit rates in the cold seasons,
instead of just downplaying
concerns of winter resort
attendance and extrapolating the
feasibility of a weatherproof
13 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
Figure 2: Club Meds Valmorel and Serre-Chevalier Resorts, two hotels in
the region comparable to EuroDisneys hotels
complex from Tokyo Disneyland.

EuroDisney may benet from observing consumer purchase behavior in local theme parks.
Consider this: if research showed that traditional European park-goers visiting Parc Asterix, a
name beloved by European children long before the magic of Disney reached Europe, are
generally unwilling to pay a premium for themed souvenirs. How would this nding impact
Disney's premium pricing strategy for its park souvenirs? By observing such behavior in local
competitors, EuroDisney would have had a better frame of reference on pricing its memorabilia
and charged customers a reasonable price.

Lack of representative quantitative research
There was a lack of quantitative methods to substantiate the ndings in the case, which
resulted in poor internal validity. We can cite two examples to illustrate how quantitative methods
can go a long way in making a stronger case for criticism.

For the employee exodus problem, anecdotal evidence from a couple of employees were
mentioned along with the citation of French employment laws to describe the problems in its
employee management. A better way to substantiate the exodus would be a employee listening
study to determine the primary reasons for leaving.

Visitor reactions were hardly representative and was inaccurate at best to reect reception
towards EuroDisney. For example, to nd out the tolerance of queue waiting times among
different Europeans, instead of relying on mere observations, a targeted survey study could easily
determine the actual tolerance levels of different types of Europeans.

Case Takeaways
In this report, we have made direct recommendations to address the gaps in service. In
summary. our group has drawn three major lessons from the case:
1. The importance of a incorporating a corporate identity into service design,
2. The signicance of people in a service marketing mix, highlighted by the labor landscape
of France,
3. An successful service with an enduring legacy such as Disneys must strike a critical
balance between tradition and reform.

A solid corporate identity is essential to EuroDisneys service design.
The root of EuroDisneys problems is its confusion in identity. The company was venturing
into multicultural territory for the rst time and relied heavily on references from Orlando and
Tokyo, two monocultural landscapes which the case had proved to be largely irrelevant to its
European counterpart.
14 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT
One of the critical lessons from Disney University was that customer perceptions were
extremely fragile, which is apt in the case here. If EuroDisney staff are not even sure of what
language they are addressed in, or if theyre an American, French or European park, it is then
unlikely that the company can create a solid identity for the patrons of EuroDisney to relate to.

EuroDisneys problems emphasized the signicance of people in a successful service
marketing mix, especially in France.
The failure of EuroDisney was catalyzed by its inability to adapt its employee management
policies from its past successes. We have the original Disneyland, where cast members are given
autonomy to make decisions of their own in an effort to provide the most satisfying experience.
On the other, we see the culture of obedience and perfection among the Japanese that set
remarkable standards for cleanliness in Tokyo Disneyland. Yet, EuroDisneys legacy was lined
with notable failures in retaining employees and unresolved differences between levels of
management, which contributed to a subpar delivery of EuroDisneys service.
With a better understanding of the labor laws and culture of the French, the company would
have gotten a better reception from its employees. Walt Disneys vision of employee
empowerment is one that is emulated in many service designs we see today, such as Starbucks
and Google. In a country with strong labour unions and strikes over labor disputes are a dime a
dozen, striking a balance between having control and giving autonomy to employees is
undoubtedly the biggest challenge in delivering a successful service in Europe.

Make revisions, but dont forsake traditions
This point is resounqding in most recommendations we have made in this case. At
hindsight, conforming EuroDisney to alcohol prohibition seemed illogical, yet it was a policy that
was implemented without much deliberation. We gather that the company experienced so much
inertia from success that it became comfortable with too many aspects of EuroDisney maintaining
a status quo. We believe that for a successful service to exist from a legacy as compelling as
Disneys, upper management must be ready to review every aspect of its marketing mix and
service design.
The most salient example of this would be the resolving EuroDisneys language differences.
To serve a region with a diverse range of languages, the company should have adopted a blanket
standard of English-bilingual employees. A feasible protocol to follow would be for service staff to
always communicate in English, but respond in French only when spoken to in the same language
out of consideration of Euro Disneys host country.
15 EURODISNEY - SERVICES MARKETING REPORT