International Business

Learning about different cultures opens your mind and widens your horizon
Astrid Kainsbauer

1. Knowledge of cultures has been responsible for Disneys success in Tokyo, and ignorance of
culture was responsible for the companys large losses in Paris. Discuss.

Culture, as Michael Czinkota (2005) said: is an integrate system of learned behavioral patterns
and that is what Disney didnt understand about French and European market. When a company
wants to operate and develop a business strategy in a different country must look for information
about the market and culture, because is very important to have clear how the behavior of the
consumer change in every country. You, as a company or organization cant develop a business core
without having those important points very clear.
Disney comes from an American culture in which employees and consumer know how to
behave, besides the parks were founded by an American respected character and built in that
country. If Disney wants to have more parks in another country should be aware that roots will
always be from the place of origin, in this case, from United States and cant take away the essence
of the place, but every aspect must adapt to local culture. As we can see in some articles, local
adaption worked as a strategy in Tokyo, on the other hand, what helps a lot is the fact that is not
owned by Disney, a Japanese company, the Oriental Land Company Limited, the ones that owns the
park and operates locally, so who better than a company that knows how the local market works.
The plus of being local knowers, helps the company to adapt each character, the food and also
the kind of gift that were selling inside the park, another important point that is necessary to bring
out, is the way they design the architectural style of park, the stores, the rides, for example Aviad
Raz (1997) mentioned that Jungle Cruise, for instance, resurfaces in Tokyo with a brand-new
wrapping: its script or "spiel" is replete with Japanese puns in place of the original American
wisecracks.

However, Euro Disney didnt run out with the same stroke of luck, maybe the owners and how
they focused the strategies could be a decisive factor. This theme park is owned jointly, the Walt
Disney Company and a consortium of 60 banks are the responsible. The arguments and conclusions
that were exposed, more of them were related to culture; also the location and money related issues
were part of the problem. European people at winter do not usually go out and spend time hanging
around, the prefer to stay at home, this is a difference between American, because the parks are
 located in states that are always in summer or the weather is not coldly. Europe is known for the
kingdom culture that exist hundreds of years ago, so that make any sense if at the marketplace in the
park they sell related thing to castles, queens an kings because the fantasy is not a fantasy is a reality
( Spencer, E. 1995).
Finally, as we can see along the discussion the principal problem to success and failure was to
understand and have clear how different culture and the marketplace work in each country. Is
necessary that the company analyze and make a previously study about the country they want to
emerge because based on that information the strategies will be made and apply. Also a great idea
could be to hire a professional related on the theme that comes from the country they selected.

2. Explain the importance of the ability to speak the local langue.

Communication is the way to express our feelings and ideas, all over the world we can do it by
writing, speaking or with body signals. Each language represents a different culture. Nowadays
globalization is a way of life, and that means that different cultures are going to be together in one
place or country at the same time in different ways. For example the language that must be spoken
around the world are English or Chinese, the most developed countries and the ones that are
exporting or importing lots of product to the world. As I mentioned at the beginning if a foreign
arrives to a country where natives speak a different language would be a problem because even
though body signals would work, sometimes cultures have different meanings in some words or
expressions. If people speak more than one language have the key to expand their horizon, because
in that way you can travel around the world and immerse in lots of cultures, traditions and meet
people that can teach valuable tools.

3. Reference:

Czinkota, M., Ronkainen, I., & Moffett, M. (2005). International Business (7 th ed.). Thomson-
Southwestern

Spencer, E. (1995). Euro Disney: What Happened? What next?. Journal of International Marketing. Vol
3, No. 3, pp 103-114. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25048611?
seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents
Raz, A. (1997). Tokyo Disney. Harvard Magazine. Retrieved from
http://www.harvardmagazine.com/1997/07/tokyo-disney