A Spirited Perfect Ten

[GoofGoof]

SBUX offers quite a variety of teas and tea based drinks in their chinese stores wh the coffee beverages are more for the expats who NEED their coffee fix, A Chinese SBUX is not like a US or CA SBUX except for the logo on the store. Personally I wish SBUX would bring some of their Chinese drinks to the US.

I remember reading about Starbucks strategy in China a while ago. They basically ignored market share and kept the price per unit high and made the drinks a status symbol. The growing middle class in China looking to show they had the money to afford a personal luxury bought in. Carrying a Starbucks cup became a status symbol. Some other American brands that failed tried to just grow market share by offering low prices.

There are some parallels with Disney. If they market the park as a premium product (which I'm sure they will, it won't be a cheap vacation) then the goal would be to attract the growing middle class and make visiting the park the "thing to do".

Edit: Here's the article I was referring to:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/08/10/five-things-starbucks-did-to-get-china-right/2/

 

[dkp]

New York post article saying WDW is the only gauranteed vacation. They even bring in Lou...

http://nypost.com/2015/03/01/why-di...w&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

This article is being critical of the Disney vacation - picking up on Lou's statement about a guaranteed experince to suggest that what Disney offers is pedestrian. Predictable, as @jakeman says. Yosemite, D.C. and New York are offered as examples of adventures and preferable family vacations.

 

[GoofGoof]

This article is being critical of the Disney vacation - picking up on Lou's statement about a guaranteed experince to suggest that what Disney offers is pedestrian. Predictable, as @jakeman says. Yosemite, D.C. and New York are offered as examples of adventures and preferable family vacations.

Makes sense. I didn't quite get that from the article. Definitely poorly written.

 

[BrianLo]

SBUX offers quite a variety of teas and tea based drinks in their chinese stores wh the coffee beverages are more for the expats who NEED their coffee fix, A Chinese SBUX is not like a US or CA SBUX except for the logo on the store. Personally I wish SBUX would bring some of their Chinese drinks to the US.

Precisely, they made the model fit the market and were successful. This is no different than what Disney is currently attempting. Also the coffee isn't just for the Expats as @GoofGoof mentioned, it's pretty much the full Starbucks experience, no different than the modifications for any other foreign country they are in (Anglo-Saxon or otherwise).

Another one of my favourites brands is SPG, they've very successfully cracked the Chinese market as well.

If Disney were building SDL on the cheap, I agree, I think the whole project would fall flat, but this isn't HKDL redux. They have to start from somewhere.

 

[ford91exploder]

Precisely, they made the model fit the market and were successful. This is no different than what Disney is currently attempting. Also the coffee isn't just for the Expats as @GoofGoof mentioned, it's pretty much the full Starbucks experience, no different than the modifications for any other foreign country they are in (Anglo-Saxon or otherwise).

Another one of my favourites brands is SPG, they've very successfully cracked the Chinese market as well.

If Disney were building SDL on the cheap, I agree, I think the whole project would fall flat, but this isn't HKDL redux. They have to start from somewhere.

Show me where I said the PROJECT would fail, My comments have always been along the lines of DISNEY would fail, Shendi is USING Disney to get the park built, Now watch Disney get frozen out of the project in fact they in some ways already ARE frozen out of the project as in Iger or anyone else from TWDC not being allowed photo-ops at the park while MDE has a VIP all access pass.

Very interesting dynamic at work here and not one which bodes well for TWDC.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Bit of obscure theme park history I've wanted to see for years has popped up online: Monster Planet of Godzilla.
This was an attraction created for a Hello Kitty-based park in Japan in the 90s that used the Funtastic World of Hanna Barbara ride-system and smellitizers. In some vague future setting, Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra have been corralled onto another planet, but when taking a trip there on the new G-Force (The UN's anti-monster taskforce from the 90s movies) spaceship Earth, the wormhole tech malfunctions and ends up warping them into Japan and hijinks ensue.

Toho took a cue from Universal's BTTF set and decided to feature the queue films, pre-show and ride film as an extra feature with the Japanese home release of the recent American movie. It has a few edits though as in order to tie it into the rest of the park, Hello Kitty showed up in the pre-show as another G-Force officer and they probably weren't willing to pay Sanrio extra for this home release.



Give it a look before Toho's lawyers find out. 10:30 mark is when the main stuff starts

 

[Mike S]

Bit of obscure theme park history I've wanted to see for years has popped up online: Monster Planet of Godzilla.
This was an attraction created for a Hello Kitty-based park in Japan in the 90s that used the Funtastic World of Hanna Barbara ride-system and smellitizers. In some vague future setting, Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra have been corralled onto another planet, but when taking a trip there on the new G-Force (The UN's anti-monster taskforce from the 90s movies) spaceship Earth, the wormhole tech malfunctions and ends up warping them into Japan and hijinks ensue.

Toho took a cue from Universal's BTTF set and decided to feature the queue films, pre-show and ride film as an extra feature with the Japanese home release of the recent American movie. It has a few edits though as in order to tie it into the rest of the park, Hello Kitty showed up in the pre-show as another G-Force officer and they probably weren't willing to pay Sanrio extra for this home release.



Give it a look before Toho's lawyers find out. 10:30 mark is when the main stuff starts

That was very, um, interesting. I do want to see a Godzilla ride one day though (not that one, lol). Universal does have a deal with Legendary so maybe, just maybe.........

 

[Phil12]

That was very, um, interesting. I do want to see a Godzilla ride one day though (not that one, lol). Universal does have a deal with Legendary so maybe, just maybe.........

My Japanese is not at all good. However, I did notice how they neutralized the monsters. They dropped a large amount of green stuff on them. It looked a lot like US dollars to me. With all that money the monsters seemed very docile and happy to go most anywhere.

 

[WDW1974]

If the Weather Channel had names for Bizarre Weekends, then this one would have been Bizarre Weekend Mickey.

 

[WDW1974]

If he really wanted to change the conversation he could drop some Star Wars concept art. People would forget there is even a park currently being built in China

Didn't Disney just drop a 40 second nothing video on the DPB last week? You know, when folks were discussing Shanghai, possible graft, Disney getting a HuffPo column axed by the wife of Disney CEO Bob Iger?

They aren't totally dumb, they realize fans have the attention span of knats, largely.

I'm hoping to hear from a source tomorrow with interesting news ... so look for Disney to announce the new film from LucasFilm slated for a Christmas 2018 debut ... yep, you wanted it ... Jar Jar Binks: the Early Years. Coming to a galaxy near you!!!

 

[WDW1974]

Before the passage and ratification of the FCPA, American multi-national corporations had little oversight from the federal government over payments made to officials of foreign governments and no recourse for prosecution as bribes to foreign officials were not illegal. As American corporations had unrivaled control over key global industries in the wake of WW II, unscrupulous methods for obtaining business from foreign governments became a common practice. According to a congressional report from 1977, American corporations had given "$300 million to foreign government officials, politicians and political parties.”[1] Two of the biggest scandals associated with graft involved the produce and aerospace industries.

In the early seventies, the largest Central and South American banana exporting nations created a trade bloc called the Union of Banana Exporting Countries (UBEP) in an attempt to gain leverage against the North American banana exporters who grew the bananas, controlled their export to market and had lobbied hard against increasing export taxes on each box of bananas. After the government of Honduras increased export taxes on boxes of bananas from 25 cents to 50 cents, the American based exporter United Brands paid the then president of Honduras, Oswaldo López Arellano, $3 million to return the tax to 25 cents. The trade group fell into disarray and United Brands and its fellow exporters saved millions on their tax bills. At this point, the federal government could not investigate or take the company to trial for bribing a foreign official. However, it was illegal under American securities law for corporations to hide bribes from their stockholders as hiding bribes would give them an inaccurate understanding of the company’s expenses.

Great and thorough post. A very academic approach. And I always thought you were more the film student type than the business guy!

I hate to only take a smidge of the post and use it. But I think what you were getting at above hits at the issues facing American corporations operating in China today.

It's impossible to operate in the PRC today and not pay the 'admission fee' ... it's a lot easier, thanks to MM+ , to walk into the MK sans payment, believe me. I've watched people do it. I bet so has George Kalogridis.

Unlike Disney, the central government isn't removing the gate, or waving the fee. The only question is how much was paid and where did it go/how was it funneled.

Many people far closer to this situation than I am have written about the internal conflict this has caused and the heightened paranoia spreading throughout the country. The reason for this is quite simple as I've already stated, the graft will continue but what is changing ... is Beijing is making a show through the current (and massive) anti-graft campaign to help maintain stability as the growing inequality and the boorish display of extreme excess (think OC elite on 'roids) by some party members is forcing the government's hand.

They need examples. The higher the profile, the better to show the people that 'we're all one' ... The government has gone so far as to raid its own state-run media and drag off well known personalities to jail or worse. The biggest name in business news in China has been arrested and is currently, I believe, still being held awaiting a trial. He was literally pulled from his anchor desk at the famous CCTV building in Beijing as he was about to hit the air. All of this makes foreign corps and their state formed 'partners' particularly attractive targets. Now, remember the graft has not stopped and can't stop because it's ingrained in the business culture over there. Folks, doesn't Disney make one heckuva target?

The cultural imperialists, the purveyors of Americana, the essence of what we've marketed to the world (or simply the Disney BRAND!) Tell me, how much do you think Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney would pay to guarantee they are not targeted by this publicly?

 

[WDW1974]

There's always Willow's account:

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/35440/20150225/exclusive-oscars-yoda-dress-explained.htm

Says Willow, ''What I find so fascinating is how the image appears in photographs. Yoda is crystal clear, wise and strong ...''

Says Zenia, ''What I find so fascinating is how this image is so much better than the one that HuffPo writer took at HKDL. I mean, c'mon, was I the only fashion maven who noticed all the wrinkles in that shirt?!?!''

Um, yes, I am saying those quotes by Willow were made up ... just so we're clear. Thanks, Zenia Mucha. You are one classy lady (although I'd never refer you as a lady when another word fits you so much better!)

 

[WDW1974]

Disney doesn't operate the parks in Japan (they may operate Paris now, not sure how that breaks down anymore since he structure has changed). The parks in Japan just pay a royalty to Disney for using the brand. Not sure how Honk Kong is structured, but I think they at least have a partner.

Paris is now for all purposes largely owned by TWDC. It has largely been controlled by them for years.

At HKDL, Disney is partnered with the local SAR government, which (naturally) owns a majority share, although Disney's went up a few years ago (I'm too lazy to check, but I think it's something like 47% to 53%). Maybe @ParentsOf4 knows exactly.

 

[WDW1974]

The Met Gala every year is the event you can show up a little more quicker I guess you could call it or more of a risk taking dressed event. Every year is a different theme. No where near the level of respect as the Oscars.

Exactly. I've been to just about any major awards show in the industry with the exception of the OSCARS ... people don't show up for any of these events wearing outfits that advertise overtly IP (TV, Film, Music projects etc.)

I can tell you, I've been on enough red carpets. Something like that stands out because it is so not the norm.

And all from a woman who demands the kiddies and staff at USC don't refer to her as Bob's wife.

 

[WDW1974]

The Met Gala is a highly respected event where people show off the highest of fashion. Just because they may be more "showy" in nature doesn't mean respect isn't shown.

What respect are we talking about re: The Oscars? We're talking about the event where men have shown up in drag.

And I guarantee you they haven't been back since. Hell, I don't know if they were even allowed in the auditorium.

But still, they are choosing to look like fools as part of their social commentary, they aren't walking billboards for much more than stupidity!

 

[WDW1974]

I agree with the part about Star Wars concept art. My heart goes pitter patter a little faster just thinking about it. On Disney in China, I think the majority of posters on wdwmagic probably know how about it, but don't care. Why would they? What % of folks here are ever going to China? 5% maybe?

Well, that's just the problem with Disney fans.

They never look at the big picture and how it effects the whole of the company.

But I care. And I'll be at the opening even if Bob doesn't want me there ... he really should check and find out who my friends in China are (HINT: I have more than he does!)

 

[cheezbat]

hu.. what the hell are they thinking?
first their horrible "dorito tacos", now that? :|

sorta reminds me of those shock japanese restaurants.. that offer scorpions and other dangerous animals.. or the toilet/condoms restaurants :|

Hey now...Taco Bell has some not so great stuff on their menu, but the Doritos Locos Tacos was one of their best ideas ever! I can't get enough of those dang things! (And I like REAL Mexican food!)

 

[Cesar R M]

I remember reading about Starbucks strategy in China a while ago. They basically ignored market share and kept the price per unit high and made the drinks a status symbol. The growing middle class in China looking to show they had the money to afford a personal luxury bought in. Carrying a Starbucks cup became a status symbol. Some other American brands that failed tried to just grow market share by offering low prices.

There are some parallels with Disney. If they market the park as a premium product (which I'm sure they will, it won't be a cheap vacation) then the goal would be to attract the growing middle class and make visiting the park the "thing to do".

Edit: Here's the article I was referring to:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/08/10/five-things-starbucks-did-to-get-china-right/2/

so.. just like apple.

 

[Cesar R M]

Didn't Disney just drop a 40 second nothing video on the DPB last week? You know, when folks were discussing Shanghai, possible graft, Disney getting a HuffPo column axed by the wife of Disney CEO Bob Iger?

They aren't totally dumb, they realize fans have the attention span of knats, largely.

I'm hoping to hear from a source tomorrow with interesting news ... so look for Disney to announce the new film from LucasFilm slated for a Christmas 2018 debut ... yep, you wanted it ... Jar Jar Binks: the Early Years. Coming to a galaxy near you!!!

seriously? a movie about jar jar binks?

 

[TalkingHead]

Says Willow, ''What I find so fascinating is how the image appears in photographs. Yoda is crystal clear, wise and strong ...''

I couldn't believe this was an actual quote attributed to her until I read the article.

Amazing. The quote reads so "naturally." Right.