Case Study: Hong Kong Disneyland

1. What led to the eventual woes experienced by Hong Kong Disneyland in its first year of operation? How should Hong Kong Disneyland rectify its market situation?

There are many factors that could have been a cause of the woes experienced by Hong Kong Disneyland in the first year of its operations. The first factor is the fact that Chinese people were not culturally adopted to what the Hon Kong Disneyland had to offer. I mean they didn’t even know the characters that were present there. The Chinese people would come there eat and drink. They would make purchase for the available merchandizes and leave. They didn’t enjoy the character as they were expected to.

The Chinese have a specific tourism behavior. They are more interested in something in return for their money than mere cite seeing. Hong Kong Disneyland did not offer the temptation that Chinese seek. Also Chinese people are interested in the educational utilities of the tourism spots. This is not something they saw Disneyland offering.

The Hong Kong Disneyland did not put enough effort in building a meaningful relationship with the travel and tourism agents who might have brought in people to their park.

The rectification of the market situation for Disneyland in to look deep into the above points and do what it takes to use them in their interest. They would want to understand the Chinese culture and put some characters in the park related to Chinese culture. Hong Kog Disneyland should build meaningful relationship with the travel industry and offer them incentives. There should also be a good shopping experience for the Chinese people in the Hong Kong Disneyland.

2. To what extent could Hong Kong Disneyland adapt its product to Chinese consumers without diluting its image?

Chinese consumers are interested in purchasing western products as they do admire the western lifestyle (“What Chinese consumers (really) want! – Marketing China”, 2016). Having said that, I think that the presentation of western products and themes do need an understanding of the Chinese culture. In my opinion what Hong Kong Disneyland needs to do is put more educational content related to the image of the Disneyland. They need to offer people taking pictures with the different characters that are present there. The Chinese consumers should be given a choice to connect these images to different product they take home. I think the introduction of Chinese comic characters would also not be a bad idea.

3. How should Hong Kong Disneyland address competition?

It is definitely important to understand the competition in a given market and respond to it with a positive attitude. The first step that Hong Kong Disneyland need to take is reduce their prices according to the Chinese consumer affordability. The second step they should take is understand the Chinese spending behavior by researching. For example Chinese people may be more interested in the educational utility for the things they pay for to make their children happy.

References

Jack P. (2012). Forbes.com. Retrieved 13 December 2016, from             http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackperkowski/2012/04/18/protecting-intellectual-property-    rights-in-china/#6b1608524c01