International Marketing
International Marketing
Marketing is simply a legit communication between sellers and buyers with an objective of transaction whereby, a seller sells goods or services to the buyers. There are so many things that sellers can sell to the buyers, but food seems to be the most common good that sellers sell worldwide, simply because food is a basic commodity in the lives of people. Different countries have different tastes and preferences to various foods, meaning that what one country produces and sells is not what another country produces and sells. Therefore, there is a need for international marketing that enables one country to benefit from food produced by another country with ease, and this discussion will focus on international marketing and a management plan for the Asia division of a U.S food company to be developed. In this case, a company established in the United States will produce the food product in the U.S, and then distribute them to Asia via recommendable channels.
The company in mind to be established will be named “fresh-up Food Company”. It will be dictated by the production of Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, which are some of the common foods in the U.S food markets, with an objective of making people in Asia feel as if they are actually in the U.S. the unit of this company will be a simple business unit dictated by production, accounting as well as marketing to represent an organizational chart under a defined manager.
The mission of the fresh-up food company will be to define and introduce of the most foods in U.S in some divisions of Asia, to make Asian people feel as if they are in United States just by eating Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. Again, it will make those Americans in Asia feel at home because they can find their most common food in a foreign country. The responsibility will be to produce safe food for the Asian people, distribute it equally and evenly at affordable prices, as well as safeguarding property and environment.
Implementing product development, how to label and price them, and how to distribute them to ensure that they reach their customers in time
The current status of the division within the company is awesome. This is because, the division has already been identified, which is believed to be the best niche to capture a tremendous group of customers. Besides, plans have been made and a successful collaboration between the U.S based managers and the global manager has been achieved. The immediate step now is to implement the ideas by introducing the kind of food that is heartfelt by American people to Asian markets. Basically, the plan will be expensive but as soon as introducing the food product, tremendous profits will be expected.
A business strategy is a plan on how the business intends to implement its ideas into action by meeting its goals of making profit, while at the same time meeting the demands of the customers and more so, sustain the marketplace competitive advantage (Teece, 2010). The business strategy for fresh-up company will be simple; it will receive already made products from the main company in the U.S and store them at the same condition it was in the U.S, and because it will have already been priced, it will be distributed evenly to the food outlets, supermarkets as well as canteens across Asia. To make the product known in Asia, fresh-up will advertise it on media and sell as low price first to attract the customers of which the price will then increase gradually according to the demand, until it reaches the standard price from the chief company.
In any business, negotiations and decision making are critical things that make the business running smoothly, meaning that they must be identified. The best model for decision making in fresh-up company will be the rational model. In this model, a strategic plan is followed, that starts from identifying what to be done, the solution, and then the solution intended (Andersen & Buvik, 2002). The model of rational decision making is as follows with a diagrammatic representation below;
When it comes to negotiation, the company would look to use the best channels for settling their differences, given that differences arise any time two or more people are working towards a common objective. The fresh-up company will recommend the pay attention to timing method for negotiation. This method dictates what to ask and when to ask it, meaning that some issues should wait while other cannot. Again, it is good to understand that the best time for expressing what you want is when one feels at their best.
The most crucial performance indicators will be Customer Satisfaction & Retention (CSR), profit and employee satisfaction. Under CSR, it is obvious that the measure the company satisfies their customers will be the same measure that the magnitude of retaining them, and because the company is to be established, the satisfaction rate needs to be very high so as to retain as many customers as possible (Williams & Naumann, 2011). The objective of any business is making profit and it will be the same goal for this company because it will help in future development and further inventions. Besides, employee satisfaction is very crucial because happy employees work with determination to ensure that the objectives of the company have been met (Chi & Gursoy, 2009).
The roles of global management team in the company will be crucial (Cannella, Park & Lee, 2008), and will include the following;
Managing the business development strategies
Managing customer relations
Enhancing processing approach to the market across Asia and United States
Enhancing the achievement of maximum benefit from the target markets
Determine technological management based on technological roadmaps throughout product line
There are some culture issues that might implement the plan. For instance, labor relations with local workforce are a culture issue to consider. In Asia, there are many culture issues such as killings that entails the killings of human resource, union leaders as well as other managers that greatly affect the workability of these personnel, as well as killing the communication between them and employees. Such killings could also kill the power of decision making, meaning that the company will fail to implement strategies that can help their growth, and the result will be lack of competitive power that may lead to business failure. Besides, there are other issues that affect the labor relationship such as worker suicides, mass actions on the streets as well as self-burnings. Workers suicide degrades employees turn up making it hard for employees to handle the work pressures, and this leads to stress and burn-outs. Mass actions make it hard for the distribution of food products or even damages of properties that is a loss to the company (Miah & Bird, 2007).
We are living in a digital world where almost everything may it be in homes and companies need to be digitalized. Therefore, the only way fresh-up company can be managed in a digital way is by digitalizing everything from production, pricing, labeling, storage, distribution as well as marketing (Varadarajan and Manjit, 2002). For instance, the company can be computerized to receive high quality information from the main company in time, and use computers and desktops to record and store sensitive data while at the same time using it to calculate the profits expected and the actual profit. High quality security systems can be invented to secure the most sensitive information to prevent internet hookups from hacking their system. The company can also implement internet to enhance communication, advertisement and invention.
References
Andersen, O., & Buvik, A. (2002). Firms’ Internationalization and Alternative Approaches to the International Customer/Market Selection. International Business Review, 11(3), 347-363.
Cannella, A. A., Park, J. H., & Lee, H. U. (2008). Top Management Team Functional Background Diversity and Firm Performance: Examining the Roles of Team Member Colocation and Environmental Uncertainty. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), 768-784.
Chi, C. G., & Gursoy, D. (2009). Employee Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction, and Financial Performance: An Empirical Examination. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(2), 245-253.
Dowling, P. (2008). International Human Resource Management: Managing people in a multinational context. Cengage Learning.
Miah, M. K., & Bird, A. (2007). The Impact of Culture on HRM Styles and Firm Performance: Evidence from Japanese Parents, Japanese Subsidiaries/Joint Ventures and South Asian Local Companies. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(5), 908-923.
Teece, D. J. (2010). Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation. Long Range Planning, 43(2), 172-194.
Varadarajan, P. R., & Yadav, M. S. (2002). Marketing Strategy and the Internet: an Organizing Framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30(4), 296-312.
Williams, P., & Naumann, E. (2011). Customer Satisfaction and Business Performance: a Firm-Level Analysis. Journal of services marketing, 25(1), 20-32.
