Group 8 Services Marketing- Quiz 1

EURO DISNEY- GAP MODEL ANALYSISGROUP 8

Gap 1: The listening gapWhat they got right What they got wrong

Market research conducted to test for acceptance of Euro Disney. Results indicated 85% welcomed Euro Disney.

Relationship focus: In order to capture a bigger European market, they kept a multi linguistic park. This led to employees being rated as “mostly” good enough due to high anxiety levels of multi linguistic nature of customers

Service Recovery: Weather proof waiting lines(adapted from Tokyo) and additional skating ring for waiting customers were introduced.

Market research: French/European food habits weren’t studied in comparison to American fast food culture. They did not anticipate the peak demand during meal times of the dining halls.

Relationship Focus: ADL identified individual target markets by distance from site and population, penetration rates, annual visit estimates and thus planned for the capacity and quality of Euro Disney’s hotelsMarket Research was used to plan for the “tone”

Group 8 Services Marketing- Quiz 1

of the park’s design. This was used to accommodate local preferences. Thus the park was given a “western American” taste in line with what customers wanted to see the most.Service recovery: Multi cuisine restaurants and snack bars around the theme park to accommodate food concerns after the initial flaw was discovered

Gap 2: The service design and standards gapWhat they got right What they got wrong

Customer driven standards: Pricing was kept higher than other theme parks, which were considered inferior. But lower than Parisian adult-oriented entertainment to attract the right set of people

Service Design: Wine wasn’t served in the park and was only available adjacent to Hotel New York and under supervision of unsmiling security and riot police with guns. This hurt the sensibilities of the predominantly French local visitors

Service scape: The park’s design was mostly traditional Disney but accommodated European requirements and preferences, especially French.

Service Design: French/European eating habits weren’t based on fast food during off hours and the dining facility had problems serving families during peak demand times. They did not anticipate a structured meal schedule and hence could not deliver in the initial period.

Customer driven standards: French was declared the first language at the park in response to concerns raised by the government. Boards remained bilingual.

Customer Driven Standards: Some opined it did not meet US standards of Disney service. They did not appreciate the long waiting lines, poor service delivery and multiple operational glitches that they encountered. They were not matching upto the high standards of the American mainland Disney worlds.

Characters on display were mentioned to be rooted in European Mythology to appeal to the European sensitivities.

Customer Driven Standards: Customers expected an escape from the real world. For them Disney gave such an opportunity. But the European employees, due to difference in cultural upbringing and servility, ended up acting like real people not ‘Disney’ people. This created a discord between expectation and delivery.Physical Evidence and Service scape: Shift from traditional Disney to a European adaptation was viewed as ‘confused’ and ‘strange’. The people who had seen both sides of the Atlantic did not find this deviation positive.Customer Driven Standards: The variation in ethnic background of customers varied their levels of patience in waiting outside. The differences in expectations while keeping service delivery constant, brought a variation in satisfaction levels that couldn’t be addressed.Service design: The French population felt a discord

Group 8 Services Marketing- Quiz 1

in the service experience from their traditionally high expectation levels. Their preferences weren’t being met and being the local population, they felt left out. Pleasing a multiracial population was turning out very complex for Euro Disney because they couldn’t alienate the French, but also couldn’t rely on them alone for revenues.Service design: High entry cost was turning out to be a deterrent for many family visitors. The pricing was done at par with Parisian levels but that wasn’t the standard for many family outings. This was keeping away many visitors.

Gap 3: Gap between service standards and service deliveryWhat they got right What they got wrong

Match of supply and demand: Euro Disney due its brand image and popularity was able to attract customers of the required mix very easily. It was mainly adults in their late 20s with children who visited the park.

Lack of empowerment: One of the policies of Disney was appropriate control over it employees to make the service provided consistent throughout all its locations. It laid too many restrictions on attitudes, dressing, appearance, behaviour than a French employee could take. They sensed a lack of empowerment and freedom, this was obvious from the attrition rates that Disney was having and the frequent change in managers.Evaluation and compensation systems: Disney couldn’t handle it employees through it compensation systems either. The employees were generally paid on the lower side but were compensated through provision of staff housing. At the time of opening though it faced a great shortage of housing. This general dissatisfaction (hectic work life along with low compensation) led to a low attrition rate which hampered the service that Disney gave to its customers with newer personal joining each time.Customers lack knowledge of roles: The customers of Disney theme park were expected not only to be spectators but also participants in the “play”. They had to participate in the rides, games, enjoy the mythical surreal atmosphere and be one with the surroundings. It contributed most to level of service quality delivery and satisfaction of the customer.However a similar experience wasn’t seen in Euro Disney, the French (locals closer to the location) were more worried about buying the tickets in a hurry and not standing in a queue. This made them just ride-goers, participation is also important for creating the required atmosphere.Customers negatively impact each other: An average day at Disney would show queues of people waiting to get into a ride. However the French didn’t have the patience to stand in lines and would lead to dissatisfaction as well as non-participation from their side.Difficulty in controlling quality and consistency: There was a lot of variability in the customers that visited the park.

Group 8 Services Marketing- Quiz 1

People from all over Europe visited the place. The employees were hence expected to know many languages; it created a pressure on them about which language to speak to which customer.

Gap 4: Gap between Service delivery and External communication to customersWhat they got right What they got wrong

Overpromising: Euro Disney tried to keep consistency in its offerings, hence they never communicated more than they could offer

Absence of internal marketing program: There was little loyalty Disney had among its employees, this was mainly because dissatisfaction, low control and hectic work schedule.Inappropriate pricing: Some visitors thought that Euro Disney was too overpriced; they considered the offerings too minimal for such a high ticket price.

Customer GapWhat they got right What they got wrong

French way of living: The French were more used to the comfortable way of living unlike the Americans who dint mind eating on the run. Hence when they were made to wait in queues or were not served wine in the park it did not gel with their personality.Past experience: Many Customers were left dissatisfied because they had initially been to other Disney theme parks but did not have a similar experience this time at Euro Disney. There were many reasons for this including the atmosphere (to which the participant customers contribute most), the attitude of employeesSituational factors: Since temperatures in France were cooler than those America (or even Spain for that matter) there were few customers who would visit in the winter. Most of the bookings with agents failed to materialise in this season, however in summers and spring the park would be full.

Why it makes sense to be in Europe? Why France? Was it a mistake?

5% (2 million) from Europe annually visited American Disney Park, considering the ticket price of $34.75 in 1991, it gave a revenue of $69.5 Million (from Europeans alone). This makes a shift to the European mainland a smart move to capture a growing market.

Recommendations:

Internal marketing: Autonomy vs efficiency

There is a trade-off between employee autonomy and efficiency. Given the dropping levels of satisfaction and its inherent variation, Euro Disney should allow employees to be only bilingual. This

Group 8 Services Marketing- Quiz 1

would reduce their anxiety levels and improve performance through uniformity. The employees should continue to be ‘Disney’ people and not real people even though their European upbringing doesn’t make them so. Disney is in the business of fantasy worlds and its employees should continue to be an extension of this idea.

Introduction of interactive kiosks will give better information to customers in their language of choice.

External marketing: Satisfaction vs efficiency

The more number of customers that Disney tries to capture, the lower is the service quality and uniformity. They should instead focus of delivery of great service to a particular target segment, ie young parents with kids and young adults with high disposable incomes. This segment provides a longer CLTV and greater retention rates.