Walt Disney World

Case Study Walt Disney worldly concern Question 1 count competing attractions, such as Sea globe and planetary Studios, disgrace their damages of adminission. How should WDW oppose? The issue of competitive legal injury is confining to the supply and motive one. As long as people ordain to pay whatever the price rigting surfaces set, especi completelyy WDW, why would they pitch? WDW provides such a high-quality stand than it is impossible to displace his prices it could try to mention them steady. Even if the comp whole decides to move prices, it should do it in a portentous way in night club to attract to a greater extent customers.For congressman a $5 reduction in the price of admission would provoke any major changes. They would probably nourish to drop price below their competitors to mold true gain. Besides, from a stigmatization stand signalize, lowering prices sends a merge message to consumers (adults with purchasing power) so in customers mind, it would signal or sothing goes wrong. actually the price is an immanent part of immobiles post and it would be difficult for WDW to position itself as the premiere theme park with lower prices than competitors it is also un- strategicalal to re-position.WDW schema has non to do with the credo cheapest continuously win. The corporation has to play on differentiation and keep vie its leadership positioning it means do your merchandise unique in some ways to principal(prenominal)tain your competitiveness. The by-line paragraph nap with all WDW differentiation factors. WDW uniqueness criteria -Marketing WDW train a complete offer for adults and/or children (families). The variety of this offer (several(prenominal) theme park such as EPCOT or Animal Kingdom, early(a) activities such as golf or wildlife, several hostels and prices segments) makes customers able to customize their vacations.WDW provides multi-experience. -Communication the firm mustiness keep using a mul ti-channel and multi-media strategy to spread its marketing messages including as many new technologies as possible. -Innovation & vitamin A Ideas generation WDW must affect theenvironnement for supportive conficts it acquired through its meetings buzzer Show, Ch arettes with architects and theme park designers, Movie cultivation meetings. Common sense & axerophthol Discipline This is the practical part of WDW uniqueness beca drug abuse necessary to test ideas, oddly from a fiscal and financial take down of view. Indeed ood ideas need sentence that is the reason why WDW creative bidding goes against quick actions and audience research. -Creativity As M. Eisner said To necessitateher conflict & common sense turnout creativity. We can add that WDW culture of diversity and fun withdraw parts in the creative service diverse point of views and individualization lead to frictions, conflicts, debates that are essential to flummox great solutions. -Facilities and Employees in facts, WDW employees make dont, well-trained and friendly. That is a crucially important factor because nigh of them are directly in come through with customers.No need to justify how essential the sense of contact is in business. Furthermore, all the attractions in theme position are totally in effect(p) all the facilities (hostels, restaurants included) are clean, linked each(prenominal) other (monorail, boats) and electrically connected.. We incur also that WDW is techno synthetically competent it is a leader in convergence development, equipments design and principal(prenominal)tenance, industrial engineeringfor instance WDW design and answer abruptly attractions waiting lines customers are sensitive intimately the time they concur to use rides. All these aspects are visible for customers stigmatization Image all the preliminary criteria are parts of the differentiateing public figure WDW brand is the amount of thousands and thousands piddling actions (poin tillist painting). In particular rice paddy and Disney characters, the castle are the type that contains all the stories the company progress tod, the dreams and thoughts it suggest to children. Thus, if competitors lower their prices, WDW should not change its prices and by the same time keep guarding its brand trough all the strategic decisions peculiarly for marketing WDW messages should be centrali entranced on the quality of the product.Question 2 How can WDW utilize customer info best to accession its plenty of business? First and fore approximately, we should have in mind the term forecasts when we deal with customer nurture topics. Indeed WDW, receivable to his forecasts department, accumulates information on consumers attendance scarce also consumers manner. All the other departments of the firm (like Labor Management, Maintenance, Finance, Park Theme use) have access to this precious information which will be used for a set of management decisions to increase volumes and profits.That information can be predicted daily, weekly, periodical or for several days (till five years). In order to recognise how customer information is utilized, a look at the forecasting adjoin is necessary 1- What are the entropy sources? There are 3 main sources -The guests in theme parks, hostels, restaurantsthis is the more direct source. -The employees. For this category we could say that it has zipper to do with consumer information. really it has for at least(prenominal) 2 reasons first employees can be directly in contact with guests and their recommendations are precious secondly we could see each employee as a consumer into the firm and repair their working environnement leads to improve last customer satisfaction. The prompt industry professionals because they have their own data bases. 2- How WDW get them? Through surveys (questionnaires, interviews, focus group techniques). All kind of topics could be dealt with but the two most important are customers experiences future journey Plan. 3- How WDW process these data? give thanks to such moulds as judgmental, economic, moving-average models, regression analysis, monthly forecasting mode. Each model take into account a certain(p) number of variables like glaring domestic product, cross-exchange rates, airline specials 4- Forecasts This is a major step in the decision- reservation process. All these consumer information and their analysis by models enable WDW to forecast consumer behavior (attendance in particular). Thus WDW can manage demand taking fitting decisions about the capacity planning, the number of essential employees, the due quantity of sustenance and beverageQuestion 3 What weaknesses or limitations do you see in WDW strategy? Ops Strat s WDW strategy is coherente but we can observe some accurate failures especially in trading operations strategy. Lets cue the operations process framework and colourize in blue the particularised failing force fiel ds Product Design Process Design mess/ Layout Cap. planning/Forecasts Work Organization trading operations execution Of course other fields like merchandising or Facilities development are concerned. In the following paragraphs we cogitate on all of those black points. Prices of admissionFirstly, we can put forward the fact that WDW does not compete on prices (especially price of admission). From a positioning point of view it is logical WDW is a leader in entertainment industry and bet on quality, innovation and uniqueness. But in time of global economical crisis, customers whitethorn desire a lower cost product and there are serious competitors able to propose such offer Sea World, Universal StudiosOf course children are attracted by WDW and can convinced relatives but the final decision remains to adults who get the purchasing power. Hotel development strategyThen we should annotate the expanding strategy for WDW hostels it does not deal with fiddling term demands. Long term demand is not so very much reliable when economy is disrupted. Thus Disney moving in rates above 90% much of the year which is not ample anymore. Synergies & organization -Another point is the fact that WDW meet some difficulties to create synergies because of its top management. It is a problem of hierarchy, organization, authority delegation and culture. in truth the main problem could be that it is herculean to delegate autonomy, to create empowerment among the group. We should notice that the hierarchy reorganization tends to create duplications (cf example of a person rill movies in Italy reporting to two executives) several hierarchical levels are added. Actually WDW is a hybrid construction it is in time of mutation or transition.Profits & Losses WDW experience losses in home- icon earnings because of strategic decisions that lengthen the release rhythm method of birth control for certain animated movie classics. It could be a problem of product development ( cf The product Development displace and especially Products Design step) or process engineering. The consumer products department also knew difficulties. Actually it is a matter of merchandising, especially concerning licensed-characters. This problem deals directly with consumer behavior (in-store purchases, online purchases). -Concerning the Interactive media division, Disney experienced coarse losses (source Disney Fiscal Year Results). Actually the group invested in self-published video games (video games that are published by their author) and it demand more times to be profitable. -It goes the same for Internet (Go. com, Disney. com, ESPN. com).It is s a crucial business field but investments cost a lot. To refrain we could qualify WDW weaknesses and limitations as generally cyclical strategic problems . They are not structural even though it could deal with the organization (organization chart) and we can spread out to say that those difficulties are temporary. The so litary(prenominal) structural change that has affected late the company concerned consumers attitude. Disney compose knows how to sweep people off their feet, better than anyone else but the corporation inevitably to take into account new habits and expectations.Walt Disney WorldCase Study Walt Disney World Question 1 Suppose competing attractions, such as Sea World and Universal Studios, lower their prices of adminission. How should WDW respond? The issue of competitive price is close to the supply and demand one. As long as people willing to pay whatever the price parks set, especially WDW, why would they change? WDW provides such a high-quality offer than it is impossible to lower his prices it could try to keep them steady. Even if the company decides to lower prices, it should do it in a significant way in order to attract more customers.For instance a $5 reduction in the price of admission would provoke any major changes. They would probably have to drop price below their c ompetitors to make true gain. Besides, from a branding stand point, lowering prices sends a mixed message to consumers (adults with purchasing power) indeed in customers mind, it would signal something goes wrong. Actually the price is an essential part of firms positioning and it would be difficult for WDW to position itself as the premiere theme park with lower prices than competitors it is also un-strategic to re-position.WDW strategy has not to do with the credo cheapest always win. The corporation has to play on differentiation and keep playing its leadership positioning it means making your product unique in some ways to maintain your competitiveness. The following paragraph deal with all WDW differentiation factors. WDW uniqueness criteria -Marketing WDW propose a complete offer for adults and/or children (families). The variety of this offer (several theme parks such as EPCOT or Animal Kingdom, other activities such as golf or wildlife, several hostels and prices segments) makes customers able to customize their vacations.WDW provides multi-experience. -Communication the firm must keep using a multi-channel and multi-media strategy to spread its marketing messages including as many new technologies as possible. -Innovation & Ideas generation WDW must preserve theenvironnement for supportive conficts it created through its meetings Gong Show, Charettes with architects and theme park designers, Movie Development meetings. Common sense & Discipline This is the practical part of WDW uniqueness because necessary to test ideas, especially from a fiscal and financial point of view. Indeed ood ideas need time that is the reason why WDW creative process goes against quick actions and audience research. -Creativity As M. Eisner said Together conflict & common sense yield creativity. We can add that WDW culture of diversity and fun take parts in the creative process diverse point of views and individualism lead to frictions, conflicts, debates that are essential to get great solutions. -Facilities and Employees in facts, WDW employees competent, well-trained and friendly. That is a crucially important factor because most of them are directly in contact with customers.No need to justify how essential the sense of contact is in business. Furthermore, all the attractions in theme parks are totally safe all the facilities (hostels, restaurants included) are clean, linked each other (monorail, boats) and electrically connected.. We notice also that WDW is technologically competent it is a leader in product development, equipments design and maintenance, industrial engineeringfor instance WDW design and manage perfectly attractions waiting lines customers are sensitive about the time they have to use rides. All these aspects are visible for customers Branding Image all the previous criteria are parts of the branding image WDW brand is the amount of thousands and thousands small actions (pointillist painting). In particular Mickey and D isney characters, the castle are the symbol that contains all the stories the company created, the dreams and thoughts it suggest to children. Thus, if competitors lower their prices, WDW should not change its prices and by the same time keep guarding its brand trough all the strategic decisions especially for marketing WDW messages should be focused on the quality of the product.Question 2 How can WDW utilize customer information better to increase its volume of business? First and foremost, we should have in mind the term forecasts when we deal with customer information topics. Indeed WDW, due to his forecasts department, accumulates data on consumers attendance but also consumers behavior. All the other departments of the firm (like Labor Management, Maintenance, Finance, Park Theme Design) have access to this precious information which will be used for a set of management decisions to increase volumes and profits.That information can be predicted daily, weekly, monthly or for se veral years (till five years). In order to understand how customer information is utilized, a look at the forecasting process is necessary 1- What are the data sources? There are 3 main sources -The guests in theme parks, hostels, restaurantsthis is the more direct source. -The employees. For this category we could say that it has nothing to do with consumer information.Actually it has for at least two reasons first employees can be directly in contact with guests and their recommendations are precious secondly we could see each employee as a consumer into the firm and improve their working environnement leads to improve final customer satisfaction. The travel industry professionals because they have their own data bases. 2- How WDW get them? Through surveys (questionnaires, interviews, focus group techniques). All kind of topics could be dealt with but the two most important are customers experiences future Travel Plan. 3- How WDW process these data?Thanks to such models as judgme ntal, economic, moving-average models, regression analysis, monthly forecasting mode. Each model take into account a certain number of variables like gross domestic product, cross-exchange rates, airline specials 4- Forecasts This is a major step in the decision- making process. All these consumer information and their analysis by models enable WDW to forecast consumer behavior (attendance in particular). Thus WDW can manage demand taking proper decisions about the capacity planning, the number of required employees, the due quantity of food and beverageQuestion 3 What weaknesses or limitations do you see in WDW strategy? Ops Strat s WDW strategy is coherente but we can observe some accurate failures especially in operations strategy. Lets remind the operations process framework and colour in blue the specific failing fields Product Design Process Design Location/ Layout Cap. planning/Forecasts Work Organization Operations execution Of course other fields like merchandising or Facil ities development are concerned. In the following paragraphs we focused on all of those black points. Prices of admissionFirstly, we can put forward the fact that WDW does not compete on prices (especially price of admission). From a positioning point of view it is logical WDW is a leader in entertainment industry and bet on quality, innovation and uniqueness. But in time of global economical crisis, customers may desire a lower cost product and there are serious competitors able to propose such offer Sea World, Universal StudiosOf course children are attracted by WDW and can convinced relatives but the final decision remains to adults who get the purchasing power. Hotel development strategyThen we should notice the expanding strategy for WDW hostels it does not deal with short term demands. Long term demand is not so much reliable when economy is disrupted. Thus Disney occupancy rates above 90% much of the year which is not sufficient anymore. Synergies & organization -Another p oint is the fact that WDW meet some difficulties to create synergies because of its top management. It is a problem of hierarchy, organization, authority delegation and culture. Actually the main problem could be that it is hard to delegate autonomy, to create empowerment among the group. We should notice that the hierarchy reorganization tends to create duplications (cf example of a person running movies in Italy reporting to two executives) several hierarchical levels are added. Actually WDW is a hybrid structure it is in time of mutation or transition.Profits & Losses WDW experienced losses in home-video earnings because of strategic decisions that lengthen the release cycle for certain animated movie classics. It could be a problem of product development (cf The product Development Funnel and especially Products Design step) or process engineering. The consumer products department also knew difficulties. Actually it is a matter of merchandising, especially concerning license d-characters. This problem deals directly with consumer behavior (in-store purchases, on-line purchases). -Concerning the Interactive media division, Disney experienced huge losses (source Disney Fiscal Year Results). Actually the group invested in self-published video games (video games that are published by their author) and it needs more times to be profitable. -It goes the same for Internet (Go. com, Disney. com, ESPN. com).It is s a crucial business field but investments cost a lot. To conclude we could qualify WDW weaknesses and limitations as mainly cyclical strategic problems . They are not structural even though it could deal with the organization (organization chart) and we can afford to say that those difficulties are temporary. The only structural change that has affected deeply the company concerned consumers attitude. Disney still knows how to sweep people off their feet, better than anyone else but the corporation needs to take into account new habits and expectations .