Disney World

In 12 September, 2005, a grand opening for Hong Kong Disneyland marked a new beginning for

Disney’s theme park chain around the world. As operating in this location would challenge

Disney to adapt with the local culture, politic and relationship, it was vital to examine thecommunication strategies that used to see how Disney progressed and cope with thechallenges in this market.

This paper will be divided into three main parts. Firstly, the communication goal will beaddressed. Secondly, the communication strategies used will be critically examined. Lastly,several recommendations will also be drawn in order to improve the strategy.

1.Hong Kong Disneyland’s communication goal:

According to Baldwin, Liu, Suzuki & O’Rourke (2007), Hong Kong Disneyland was initiallyinvested by government because they want to make this theme park become an attraction fortourism after the SARS panic in 2003. On the other hands, the reason Disney choose Hong Kongto place another theme park due to the fact that Hong Kong government is willing to help andthere is a vast profit may come from people in Mainland China. Therefore, the main goal boththe key players want to achieve is to successfully position the brand Disneyland in Hong Kongtheme park market.

However, accompanied with the goal of successfully position the brand in Hong Kong market,Disney also encountered several challenges that come before and after the construction of thepark such as environmental, cultural and employee-related issues. Therefore, it is fundamentalfor them to take those concerns into account when planning the communication strategies.

In short, below is the summary of four main goals that Hong Kong Disneyland wants to address:

• Successfully position Disneyland brand in Hong Kong
• Incorporate elements of local culture into the theme park.
• Address the environmental issues.
• Solve the lack of employee communication.

2.Communication strategies - What have Disney done?

A.The grand opening –Establishing the brand position

Despite the need to establish the brand presence at first, the development of Hong KongDisneyland is quiet and lack of appropriate communication channel. There were only few pressreleases available around that period (Baldwin, Liu, Suzuki & O’Rourke 2007). Thecommunication only intensively utilized shortly before the grand opening and after that.

In order to gain publicity for the grand opening, Disneyland Hong Kong cooperated with TVB,the largest broadcasting network in Hong Kong, to broadcast series of Disney productions. HongKong Disneyland also chose Jackie Cheung, a local singer, as their spokesperson to participate inmany marketing events organized by Hong Kong Disneyland in the near future and help thepark connect with many audiences (Xinhuanet, 2004 & Disneyland Hong Kong, 2004). In August,2005 before the grand opening one month, Disney released Information booklet, and TV &radio announcements in public interest (Tourism Commission, 2005).

After the grand opening of the park, according to Tourism Commission (2005), severalcommunication channels had been established in order to help customer obtain information:

• A designated website of the Tourism Commission (www.hkdisneyland.gov.hk);
• Website of the Transport Department (www.info.gov.hk/td/);
• Website of Hong Kong Disneyland (www.hongkongdisneyland.com);
• Enquiry telephone lines provided by the Transport Department and the Hong KongDisneyland.

B.The mixture of Chinese and Disneyland’s culture

According to Baldwin, Liu, Suzuki & O’Rourke (2007), some Hong Kong citizens are skepticaltowards the park as they considered it as the production of Western media imperialism thatwill damage the Chinese culture in Hong Kong. Moreover, Disney also wants to avoid the clashbetween its culture and local counterpart after encountering the resistance of Paris people(Hills & Welford, 2006). Therefore, they try to assure the public that the Hong Kong Disneylandwill be localized with many Chinese cultural factors to show the respect and appreciation of thelocal culture. Firstly, the park consults Feng shui experts about the park’s layout and ground

 (The day for grand opening is also chosen by feng shui consultants as well) (Sina, 2005).Secondly, the restaurant inside the park serves mainly the Chinese menu as well (Baldwin, Liu,Suzuki & O

’Rourke, 2007). Lastly, some Chinese traditional events (such as Lunar new year) willbe featured into the annual activity that is exclusive only in Hong Kong Disneyland (Fung & Lee,2009).

Although the park communicates quite well with the public to gain their interest to the park;the way they executive what they communicate is quite contradict. According to Fung & Lee(2009), the audiences seldom see Mulan, a well-known character among Chinese audiences,inside the hotels; instead they are around by many Western Disney princesses. Moreover, when

entering Disney’s live shows(show mostly the Western productions), Chinese audience cannotunderstand the whole story because there is no full translation (from the beginning to the endof the show) to help they understand what is going on in the stage (Fung & Lee, 2009). This issurprising because Disney tried to communicate that they want to show an appreciation of localculture and creating an un

derstanding between Disney’s culture and the local audiences.

C.Environmental sensitivity –the shark’s fin soup controversy.

After the announcement of constructing Disneyland in Hong Kong, the park has faced withmany resistances from environmentalists in Hong Kong. They argue that the park’s

development will pollute the air (due to the firework shows) and contaminate the sea nearby(Baldwin, Liu, Suzuki & O’Rourke,2007). After the park opened, the environmentalists alsoprotest against the shark’s fin soup and they want Disney to take this dish out of the

restaurant’s menu (Yung & Ng, 2005). Disney then claimed that the “shark’s source

was reliable” because the fishing company guaranteed that the shark was “caught under internati

onally accepted fishing methods” (Hills and Welford, 2009).  Thus, this caused angeramong environmentalists because “the idea of sustainable shark’s fins is illusory” as we cannot

determine how fins are harvested according to World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

’s

explanation (Hills and Welford, 2009, p.50).

This controversy caused bad image for Hong Kong Disneyland when it had just opened. There iseven an NGO that is established