DN Case Study Client Management

8/9/2019 DN Case Study Client Management

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COMM2

Assignment 1:

Stud

Royal Melbourne Institute oVietnam

84 Client Manage

DN Hong Kongs Ca

Date: 12 th April 2010

nt: Nguyen Truong Thien Son

ID: s3192760

f Technology,

ent

e Study


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INTRODUCTION:

Coming into being since 2005, Hong Kong DN was the third theme park built under the name of Disney

franchise with an expectation to boost the citys industry and recapturing the its energy (ed. ORourke

2007). However, after the first year operating, the park failed to meet both its target profits and visitors.

Apart from that, some ongoing issues concerning about government transparency, environmental damages

and the service quality have been affecting strongly to Hong Kong DNs performance (Lau 2007). This

paper would, first of all, point out problems about communication strategies this amusement park is facing

with and then providing some tentative solutions for each issue.

I. COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS:

1. Hong Kong government and DN joint venture:

According to O Rourke (ed. 2007), in order to land the deal with DN to build up the theme park on

Tung Chung island, Hong Kong government agreed to invest a significant amount of HK$ 22.45

billion to the park development and received 57% ownership of the whole project. However, this

decision was perceived by Hong Kong people as not wise and transparent. South China Morning

Post (2005) commented that the investment caused a conflict of interest with the board of the Hong

Kong International Theme Park joint venture company. It also raised a lot of questions such as why

officials alone are appointed as a member of board and why the government, while using the money

from tax payers, did not release any board meeting minutes to the public.

2. Target publics:

So far the communication strategies of Hong Kong DN have defined its target public very generally.

It seems to aim at three major groups - Hong Kong people, Chinas mainlanders and visitors from

other countries. However, what it lacked here is a detailed analysis of customers behavior as well

as their demographic, geographic and psychographic features. According to steps for setting up a

communication strategic plan (Harrison 2006), Hong Kong DN also did neither figure out their key


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publics nor prioritizing them. As a consequence of that, their communication channels used so far

are fairly ineffective. For example, their promotion campaign broadcasted on TVB hardly hit

Mainlander as well as foreign consumers since it was made in Cantonese. This shortcoming also

leads to the following problem in the communication strategies of the corporate.

3. Customer service:

According to Rein (2008), Hong Kong DN has been so far struggling to maintain a good relationship

with their customers, especially people from outside China and Hong Kong. He pointed out that the

staff was reluctant when communicating with foreigners since their first language is not English.

Along the way, the company also showed that their staff was not well-trained enough to quickly

react in complicated situations. For instance, during the week of Lunar New Year 2006, DN required

visitors for special tickets which led to the chaos of people with valid tickets being turned away at

the front gates. Some travelers screamed at park employees, while TV cameras filmed one family

trying to pass a child over the fence (Schuman 2006).

4. Environmental concerns:

Since being constructed, DN Hong Kong was received a lot of complaints about its adverse effects on

the environment. According to Colorada (2009), the project on Tung Chung island was accused of

extending the suspension particle in sea water to 30%. In line with that, South China Morning Post

(2005) also pointed out that the erection of the theme park has severely damaged the sea life in

surrounding areas, killing rare marine animals and coral reefs. Moreover, the daily firework

performance of DN Hong Kong was also be protested by neighbor residents due to the air pollution

it has caused (Chi-fai 2005).

II. TENTATIVE SOLUTIONS:

1. Promoting government transparency:

First of all, as Dinnie (2008) suggested today, nation functions in the same way with multi-national

organizations. Therefore, communicating with public has become a key task of every government,


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especially in this case in which Hong Kong residents are also one of the target customers of DN

Hong Kong. In order to reduce the critics towards the investment in DN of Hong Kong authority, the

Hallahans method to analyze publics cited in Tench & Yeomans (2006) could be applied here. For

the time being, it is really hard to convince the active group of people who were already engaging in

the protests against the governments decision. However, in this case, the amount of people who are

against the construction and operation of DN Hong Kong is still limited; thus, we should approach

the other groups of the public, including the inactive, aroused and aware ones. The communication

channels could be used here including live broadcasted public conferences among leaders of

districts and residential areas together with a governmental mass media release. The key message

is to clarify the budget allocations of the projects and tapping strongly on the benefits that

Disneyland Hong Kong is and will be bringing to the city, which are decreasing unemployment rate,

pushing up tourism and attracting foreign investment.

2. Defining, prioritizing key publics and suggested communication channels:

First of all, Hong Kong DN has to clearly define which group of Hong Kong people, Chinese

Mainlanders and foreign visitors are their target customers. According to Strokes (2006), there is a

potential for them to aim at family with young children. More particularly, Greenlees (2005) also

noticed that in 2020, the estimated number of outbound tourists in China would reach 115 million

people. Thus, Chinese Mainlanders families with children should be the primary customer of Hong

Kong DN. On the other hand, catering this segment can create a unique image for the theme park in

comparison with regional competitors such as Singapore Sentosa advertised as a destination for

young adults, Tokyo Disneyland as affordable wonderland and even the coming Shanghai

Disneyland. Secondly, Chinese people are very family-oriented; thus, they usually travel together

with their children.

After determining the primary consumers, according to Harrison (2006), target publics which have

strong influences over them should be scrutinized. Suggested key publics that the communication


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strategies should be aim at are family television watchers, tourist agencies and recreation

departments within schools and workplaces. The joint venture should not only limit their

communication messages on television but also in the Internet and public transportation centers

such as subways, ferries, buses and trams which have been used popularly in Hong Kong. Moreover,

their communication message should also be written in both English and Chinese.

3. Setting up a more effective internal communication system and improving issue management:

Issues concerning about misunderstanding between customers and the parks employees should be

solved, first of all, by improving the communication within the company. According to Newson,

Turk & Kruckeberg (2007), the most important factor when dealing with employees is creating an

open communication space where the staff have a feeling that their voices are heard. Apart from

that, the internal communication should also focus on explaining in detailed the importance of each

employees job. The communication strategy, then, need to point out benefits they can bring to the

organization and more importantly, to themselves by simply doing well their job. Some suggested

methods to carry out internal communication include newsletter from the CEO, monthly staff

meeting and internal online bulletins where everyone can feel free to express their ideas.

Secondly, according to Grunig & Hunt (1984), Hong Kong DN also needs to write up their

positioning papers on certain possible issues. Initially, it will help the organization build up

proactive detailed analyses about what can happen and come up with solutions. Moreover, those

scenario help predict involving publics and the standpoint of the organization. After putting

together those positioning papers, internal training courses and workshops would also be taken

place in order to provide employees with necessary knowledge about what they should do or who

they should turn to when something goes wrong. Thus, they can improve their performances while

the corporate can avoid crises.


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4. Defining indirect publics and managing their opinions:

In the case of Hong Kong DN, they will have to re-examine more carefully their media and

community relations. The toughest issue they are facing with now is environmental concerns from

people living nearby and active specialists groups within the city. Although those publics might not

directly influence the buying decision of their primary customers, they have seriously adverse

effects over the parks image on the long-run. Thus, the joint venture needs to approach local

people with two-way symmetrical communication platforms such as local residents meetings in

order to listen to their opinions while pointing out positive changes the park can bring to the area

such as employment and income. As for the press, scientific conferences with the involvement of

third-party organizations are really necessary. They will prove to the media that Hong Kong

Disneyland is responsible to what they have done and more than willing to cooperate with the

public searching for solutions.

CONCLUSION:

Hong Kong, as commented by Sriramesh (2004), is a fast changing market with new trends appearing

overnight. Thus, apart from keeping a close eye on political, social and economic issues relating to the

business, Hong Kong DN needs to build up a good internal communication system to simultaneously deal

with changes. Moreover, clearly defining target publics and positions of the corporate are also vital

following steps. Finally, maintaining a good relationship with media and specialists groups will also help

the company consolidate its footage as a social responsible business in their consumers mind.

(1,579 words)


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REFERENCE LIST:

1. Newson, D, Turk, J V & Kruckeberg, D 2007, This is PR , 9th edn, Thomson Wadsworth, USA.

2. Greenlees, D 2005, The subtle power of Chinese tourists Mainlanders' cash fuels Hong Kong jobs,

study finds, International Herald Tribune , 7 October, viewed 27 March 2010, Proquest databased.

3. Stokes, D 2006, Countries working hard to attract tourists, Leader Post , 6 Jan, viewed 27 March

2010, Proquest database.

4. Dinnie, C 2008, Nation branding: concepts, issues, practice, 1st edn , Elsevier, UK.

5. Tench, R & Yeomans, L 2006, Exploring Public Relations , Prentice Hall, UK

6. Colorado, A 2009, Expected benefits from the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland and the existing

problems, Thinking made easy , viewed 30 March 2010.

7. Chi-fai, C 2005, Test results fail to silence Disney firework critics, South China Morning Post , 13

August, viewed 25 April 2010, Proquest database.

8. Schuman, M 2006, Disneys Hong Kong headache, Time , 8 May, viewed 30 March 2010, .

9. Rein, C 2008, Why is Disney failing in Hong Kong, Seeking Alpha, 13 February, viewed 3 April 2010,

< http://seekingalpha.com/article/64373-why-is-disney-failing-in-hong-kong >.


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10. South China Morning Post 2005 , When the dream becomes a nightmare, 12 September, viewed 6

April 2010, Proquest database.

11. Lau, B Y J 2007, Hong Kong Disneyland: where is the magic?, The case collection of Asia Case

Research Centre , University of Hong Kong.

12. ORourke, J S (ed.) 2007, The business communication casebook: A Notre Dame collection , 2nd edn,

South-Western Cengage, Mason OH, USA.

13. Harrison, K 2006, Strategic Public Relations: a practical guide to success, 4th edn, Century Ventures,

Perth.

14. Grunig, J E & Hunt, T 1984, Managing public relations , 1st edn, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New

York

15. Sriramesh, K (ed.) 2004, Public relation in Asia: an anthology , 1st edn, Thomson, Singapore.

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DN Case Study Client Management