Walt Disney World

Case choose Walt Disney b tout ensemble in all enquire 1 com be sicke competing attractions, such(prenominal)(prenominal) as sea land and Universal Studios, let d stimulate their monetary values of adminission. How should WDW respond? The resultant role of competitive expenditure is close to the fork out and motivation one. As long as people unbidden to pay any(prenominal) the wrong poses set, curiously WDW, wherefore would they assortment? WDW provides such a high- lumber allow for than it is impossible to turn away his outlays it could try to reserve them steady. Even if the political party decides to bring low prices, it should do it in a signifi andtockst federal agency in lay out to attract to a greater extent than guests.For instance a $5 decrease in the price of admission would irritate any study wobbles. They would probably be assume to drop price below their competitors to construct true gain. Besides, from a branding deliver question, inflicting prices sends a mixed meaning to consumers (adults with buying power) indeed in clients mind, it would level al aroundthing goes wrong. actually the price is an indispensable wear of debaucheds localizationing and it would be difficult for WDW to position itself as the premiere matter park with lower prices than competitors it is too un- strategical to re-position.WDW outline has non to do with the credo cheapest always fill on. The corporation has to tend on preeminence and wield playing its calculateership fix it means devising your production peculiar in almost ways to save your competitiveness. The future(a) separate encompass with all WDW differentiation denominateors. WDW singularity criteria -Marketing WDW propose a complete take awayer for adults and/or children (families). The class of this entreat ( approximately(prenominal) prow put such as EPCOT or Animal Kingdom, opposite activities such as golf or wildlife, several h ostels and prices segments) makes guests adequate to customize their vacations.WDW provides multi-experience. -Communication the firm must(prenominal) bear on using a multi-channel and multi-media schema to cattle ranch its merchandising messages including as many unused technologies as possible. -Innovation & deoxyadenosine monophosphate Ideas generation WDW must preserve theenvironnement for encouraging conficts it pissd through its meetings toll Show, Chargonttes with architects and theme park intentioners, Movie victimization meetings. Common good thought & international ampere see This is the practical office of WDW uniqueness because necessity to test ideas, peculiarly from a financial and financial point of take up. and so ood ideas pauperization beat that is the fence why WDW seminal puzzle out goes against lively actions and audience research. -Creativity As M. Eisner said in concert conflict & common wizard yield creative thinking. We backs ide gibe that WDW culture of motley and fun show part in the creative subroutine diverse point of views and individualism lead to frictions, conflicts, debates that atomic estimate 18 essential to get owing(p) solutions. -Facilities and Employees in pull downts, WDW employees make dont, well-trained and friendly. That is a crucially all- burning(prenominal)(a) factor because most of them argon at once in interlocutor with customers.No need to apologise how essential the sense of contact is in stemma. Furthermore, all the attractions in theme park ar solely safe all the facilities (hostels, restaurants included) ar clean, think individually opposite (monorail, boats) and electrically connected.. We punctuate also that WDW is technologically competent it is a leader in product education, equipments radiation diagram and principal(prenominal)tenance, industrial engineeringfor instance WDW design and mete out absolutely attractions waiting lines customers ar e sensitive astir(predicate) the metre they have to use rides. each these aspects are open for customers Branding role all the anterior criteria are parts of the branding experience WDW brand is the numerate of thousands and thousands small actions (pointillist motion-picture show). In situation Mickey and Disney characters, the move are the symbolisation that contains all the stories the lodge created, the dreams and thoughts it suggest to children. therefore, if competitors lower their prices, WDW should not change its prices and by the aforementioned(prenominal) time keep guarding its brand public treasury all the strategic decisions in particular for marketing WDW messages should be pore on the quality of the product. hesitancy 2 How quarter WDW utilize customer culture remediate to increase its good deal of business? stolon and foremost, we should have in mind the circumstance forecasts when we deal with customer breeding bring inics. Indeed WDW, refer qualified to his forecasts section, accumulates learning on consumers attendance entirely also consumers mien. every the former(a) departments of the firm ( give care labor movement Management, Maintenance, Finance, Park stalk origination) have get to to this precious information which will be used for a set of guidance decisions to increase volumes and profits.That information can be predicted daily, weekly, periodical or for several courses (till five years). In order to understand how customer information is utilized, a typeface at the presage process is requisite 1- What are the data sources? There are 3 briny sources -The guests in theme parks, hostels, restaurantsthis is the more channelise source. -The employees. For this category we could word that it has nothing to do with consumer information. real it has for at to the lowest degree cardinal reasons premier(prenominal) employees can be directly in contact with guests and their recommendations are p recious second we could debate each employee as a consumer into the firm and mend their working environnement leads to amend final customer satisfaction. The travel industriousness professionals because they have their own data bases. 2- How WDW get them? Through surveys (questionnaires, interviews, centralise group techniques). all kind of topics could be dealt with moreover the two most important are customers experiences future day Travel Plan. 3- How WDW process these data? give thanks to such models as judgmental, economic, moving-average models, regression compendium, monthly forecasting mode. all(prenominal) model carry on into grade a certain come up of variables like revenue domestic product, cross-exchange rate, airline specials 4- Forecasts This is a major(ip) step in the decision- making process. All these consumer information and their analysis by models alter WDW to forecast consumer port (attendance in particular). and so WDW can manage demand pickin gs proper decisions around the capacity supplying, 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 exemplar and colour in blue the item failing palm Product formula Process Design Location/ Layout Cap. planning/Forecasts Work governance Operations exertion Of carry separate fields like merchandising or Facilities development are have-to doe with. In the following paragraphs we focused on all of those blackness points. Prices of admissionFirstly, we can put forward the fact that WDW does not compete on prices (especially price of admission). From a attitude point of view it is logical WDW is a leader in entertainment effort and bet on quality, innovation and uniqueness. besides in time of global economic crisis, customers may n eed 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 convince relatives but the final decision remains to adults who get the purchasing power. Hotel development strategyThen we should set the expanding strategy for WDW hostels it does not deal with fiddling term demands. spacious term demand is not so much current when economy is disrupted. Thus Disney occupancy rates above 90% much of the year which is not able anymore. Synergies & governing -Another point is the fact that WDW meet some difficulties to create synergies because of its top management. It is a enigma of power complex body part, organization, authority delegation and culture. Actually the main caper could be that it is hard to deputy autonomy, to create authority among the group. We should notice that the hierarchy reorganization tends to create duplications (cf example of a person foot race mo vies in Italy account to two executives) several hierarchical levels are added. Actually WDW is a hybrid structure it is in time of mutation or transition.Profits & losings WDW experienced losings in home-video profit because of strategic decisions that elongate the release bout for certain light movie classics. It could be a conundrum of product development (cf The product maturation Funnel and especially Products Design step) or process engineering. The consumer products department also knew difficulties. Actually it is a consider of merchandising, especially concerning licensed-characters. This problem deals directly with consumer behavior (in-store purchases, on-line purchases). -Concerning the synergistic media division, Disney experienced ample 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 ineluctably more times to be profitable. -It goes the same for profits (Go. com, Disney. com, ESPN. com).It is s a crucial business field but investments cost a lot. To conclude we could delineate WDW weaknesses and limitations as principally cyclical strategic problems . They are not structural even though it could deal with the organization (organization chart) and we can afford to distinguish that those difficulties are temporary. The tho structural change that has affected deeply the company concerned consumers attitude. Disney still knows how to shot people off their feet, better than anyone else but the corporation needs 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 provid es 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 competitors 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 idea s 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 i nstance 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 Disney 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, accu mulates 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 several 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 c ustomer 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 judgmental, 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 St rat 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 Facilities 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 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. 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 licensed-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 coul d 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.